000			02640nam a22002297a 4500
003			OSt
005			20260719110040.0
008			260719b |||||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9781668031384
040			_cAACR-II
082			_a355.07 SHA
100			_aShah, Raj M. _921119
245			_aUnit X: how the Pentagon and Silicon Valley are transforming the future of war
260			_aNew York _bScribner _c2024
300			_a319p.
520			_aShortlisted for the 2024 Financial Times Business Book of the Year A riveting inside look at an elite unit within the Pentagon—the Defense Innovation Unit, also known as Unit X—whose mission is to bring Silicon Valley’s cutting-edge technology to America’s military: from the two men who launched the unit. A vast and largely unseen transformation of how war is fought as profound as the invention of gunpowder or advent of the nuclear age is occurring. Flying cars that can land like helicopters, artificial intelligence-powered drones that can fly into buildings and map their interiors, microsatellites that can see through clouds and monitor rogue missile sites—all these and more are becoming part of America’s DIU-fast-tracked arsenal. Until recently, the Pentagon was known for its uncomfortable relationship with Silicon Valley and for slow-moving processes that acted as a brake on innovation. Unit X was specifically designed as a bridge to Valley technologists that would accelerate bringing state of the art software and hardware to the battle space. Given authority to cut through red tape and function almost as a venture capital firm, Shah, Kirchhoff, and others in the Unit who came after were tasked particularly with meeting immediate military needs with technology from Valley startups rather than from so-called “primes”—behemoth companies like Lockheed, Raytheon, and Boeing. Taking us inside AI labs, drone workshops, and battle command centers—and, also, overseas to Ukraine’s frontlines—Shah and Kirchhoff paint a fascinating picture of what it takes to stay dominant in a fast-changing and often precarious geopolitical landscape. In an era when America’s chief rival, China, has ordered that all commercial firms within its borders make their research and technology available for military exploitation, strengthening the relationship between Washington and Silicon Valley was always advisable. Today, it is an urgent necessity.
600			_aSecurity & Foreign Affairs Sector _921120
650			_aMilitary Science _921121
650			_aWarfare Strategy _921122
700			_aKirchhoff, Christopher _921123
942			_2ddc _cB
999			_c361751 _d361751