UNIT X by Raj M. Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff explores "How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War." In the past, it was the Pentagon which often funded private experimentation with technologies like nuclear power, lasers, and even early versions of the internet. But in the early twenty-first century, military technology was far behind available options (think GPS, drone application, facial recognition, etc.). Acknowledgement of this situation led to the establishment of Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, DIUx, formed in 2015 and headquartered in Mountain View, California. Shah and Kirchhoff were two of the founders and hence provide an inside look at Unit X's evolution. They chronicle the initial resistance from DoD as officials sought to protect relationships with traditional suppliers and appropriations from Congress. And then there was resistance within Silicon Valley, as when three thousand Google employees signed a letter arguing that the company "should not be in the business of war." Readers will be fascinated by stories involving companies like Palantir, Anduril, Shield AI, Joby Aviation and venture capitalists as well as the authors' insightful analysis of the culture clash between the military, clearly risk-adverse and bureaucratic, and tech innovators. The authors poignantly conclude: "the ultimate goal is not to win wars but to deter them. ... Advocates of innovation must keep pressing despite the seemingly Sisyphean task of reform. Leadership must back them to the hilt." An extensive Bibliography (about 15% of the book) and a helpful Index are included. Recent analyses of military tech "disruptors" and future trends are available online from sources such as RAND, McKinsey and Brookings. UNIT X was longlisted for the Financial Times Best Book of the Year and reviewed further in publications like The Wall Street Journal and briefly in Foreign Affairs.

The characters in "Unit X" are well-developed, each with their unique strengths, flaws, and motivations. The protagonist, a brilliant but conflicted scientist, is particularly compelling, grappling with the ethical implications of their work while trying to avert a global crisis. The dynamic between the characters adds depth to the narrative, highlighting themes of trust, loyalty, and sacrifice. Beyond its thrilling storyline, "Unit X" also raises important questions about the future of humanity in an age of rapid technological advancement.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the state of the modern military. The book achieves its purpose convincingly and relatively economically. First, it establishes the problem of bloat, waste, and outdated technology within the DoD. The reader may already be familiar with some of this (a $43 million gas station in Afghanistan made headlines a few years ago), but the authors shared some insightful and, frankly, troubling anecdotes from their own experiences. The most memorable example, and the one that best illustrates the problem, detailed how all of the aerial refueling operations in the CENTCOM AOR were coordinated using hand calculations, excel spreadsheets, and whiteboards.

After establishing the problem, the book details the history of Defense Innovation Unit X (or DIU X, the organization that gave the book its title), including its early challenges and how the authors of the book came to the organization. The crux of the book lies in how Silicon Valley technology and the culture of speed and efficiency that surrounds it can be applied to many of the problems facing the DoD. The book holds that this approach can be used to deliver solutions faster, cheaper, and better, and backs up this hypothesis with real-world examples where DIU X did just that. On this score, the book was quite successful.

There were some things about the book that felt a little bit off, most of which stemmed from the fact that the authors were deeply enmeshed in the story while also trying to sketch a larger picture. As a result, the book is a not-quite memoir, not-quite history, which resulted in some awkwardness, including some jarring transitions between the first and third persons. The degree of involvement of the authors means that the reader gets to hear some fascinating firsthand accounts, but this comes at the cost of an obvious bias. DIU’s failures, when they’re mentioned at all, are attributed to external forces, like the entrenched bureaucracy of the pentagon, the meddling of congress, or the shadowy actions of large defense contractors. I’m not questioning the power or menace of these forces, but it is clear that the reader is only getting one side of the story.

Even so, DIU’s victories in the face of these challenges are commendable, and what they are able to accomplish with such a small budget and staff should give hope to all American readers that there can be a better way.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Thank you to the authors, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC to this book in exchange for an honest review.

As news unfolds in the various armed conflicts around our current world, it is obvious that technology and especially drone and AI technology have become increasingly important parts of modern warfare. This book explores how the US has been playing catch up in melding together our private sector with the defense industry. Bottomline, as in many other industries, China has a major headstart as their whole system is based on a public-private partnership in the development of all technologies. The US defense industry started out this way as well but has completely lost its way. This book does a great job of introducing the players and companies involved in turning that tide. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. 4-stars!!!

The fascinating study called "Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicone Valley are Transforming the Future of War," written by the two founders of the principal organization at the center of the text, the Defense Innovation Unit, is a fascinating systemic study of the way in which technology is changing the way in which modern weapons are solicited and procured. The Co-Authors, Raj M. Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff, are well positioned to explain the often astoundingly Byzantine way in which weapons have up to now been procured and the consequences for all of us should it not change. I am working from an ARC kindly provided me by the publisher, Scribner. This book belongs on the shelf of anyone who has ever been confused by the procurement process utilized by the Pentagon and wondered why it is often, quite justly, criticized as slow and unresponsive. The text offers no shortage of examples of what happens when an archaic and cumbersome system driven by outdated assumptions confronts the need for a much more nimble and needs driven approach. The architects of this new approach look principally toward venture capitalism informed by developments in Silicone Valley and the transformative vision which it offers in terms of weapons and the ways in which they are bought and paid for as well as the speed with which this procurement and deployment can be accomplished. The authors look at ongoing developments in Asia, largely surrounding Taiwan, and the often surprising turns of events in the Ukraine for useful guideposts to a new way of looking at the development and deployment of high tech, but affordable, weapons predicated upon a more rationalized approach to problem solving. The overarching thematic concern here is with overhauling the ways in which private capital can be leveraged to reach our goals while at the same time, massive changes in timelines for deployment can be shown to be a logical consequence of efficiencies that are already making themselves felt on battlefields in the Ukraine and Middle East. While it is often frustrating to think about how inept our existing systems are, it is important to note that they are grounded in hard fought lessons learned in the past; unfortunately the speed with which technology has advanced is a major challenge to the older assumptions rooted in World War II. New ideas are necessary if we are to compete effectively on future battlefields and perhaps even deter the necessity of things coming to armed conflict. There is a lot here to think about, and it can be slow going, but this book should be mandatory reading for our nations leaders and their advisors. It is not too late to leverage the advantages of our existing system of finance, through venture capitalism (think here of what happens when one or more entrepreneurs like Elon Musk intervenes in a stodgy system with an openness to new technologies and the systems that support them as in SpaceX). This book belongs in every academic library.

This was an eye-opening book. I wasn't expecting much when I asked to read it, but I got an eyeful of the underside of high tech and my government.