Building Weapons that Adapt and Scale

The war in Ukraine and the United States’ operation to defend shipping against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea highlight how weapons inventories can make the difference between deterring aggression and losing a war. But the US military’s munitions portfolio is weighted toward sophisticated missiles whose tightly integrated designs and bespoke supply chains cannot be produced—or modified—at the pace modern conflict demands. As a result, current operations are depleting the magazines US forces will need in a potential confrontation against China.

But today’s conflicts also demonstrate that a new generation of less-sophisticated missiles and drone/missile hybrids is increasingly effective on the modern battlefield. The proliferation of advanced software and commercial microelectronics has helped enable Houthi rebels and Ukraine’s defenders to stress or overcome more capable adversaries. The US military could exploit these same innovations to field a new family of munitions that can provide scale and adaptability and complement the lethality and reach of its most capable weapons.

Join Hudson Senior Fellows Bryan Clark and Nadia Schadlow for a discussion of the opportunities and challenges in establishing a new weapons design and development approach with leaders from the US Air Force, Defense Innovation Unit, and US defense industry.