Will Military Tech Firms Spark a Revolution in American Defense?

BusinessAerospace & DefenseWill Military Tech Firms Spark a Revolution in American Defense?ByWilliam Hartung,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I am a defense analyst, and cover the economics of Pentagon spending.Follow AuthorMay 24, 2026, 05:19am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This photograph shows the Anduril logo on display during the 55th edition of the International Paris Air Show (Salon international de l'aeronautique et de l'espace - SIAE) at the ParisLe Bourget Airport, in Le Bourget, north of Paris on June 19, 2025. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP) (Photo by THIBAUD MORITZ/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty ImagesFor the first time since the merger boom of the 1990s, there is a possibility of injecting genuine competition into the arms industry. Military tech firms like Palantir, Space-X, and Anduril are giving old guard corporate behemoths like Lockheed Martin and RTX ( formerly known as Raytheon) a run for their money, applying new technology and new business models to weapons development.The rise of the tech sector has been fast and furious over the past decade, with contracts for communications, targeting, surveillance, information processing and pilotless vehicles going to emerging tech firms rather than the usual suspects.Anduril has characterized this shift in weapons development and procurement in an essay entitled “rebooting the arsenal of democracy.” The piece offers a fairly accurate portrayal of the problems with the traditional defense firms, which are portrayed as pillars of Cold War defense that are ill-suited to current challenges and current defense needs because they lack the business models, the expertise, and the speed and affordability offered by the new generation of military tech firms. Palmer Luckey of Anduril told an interviewer that if the Pentagon stopped buying the wrong things, a...