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Anduril's product engineering machine

(joincolossus.com)
86 points bookofjoe | 5 comments | 30 Aug 25 19:14 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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nikolay ◴[31 Aug 25 09:41 UTC] No.45081849[source]▶
With all due respect, those who monitor the war in Ukraine will tell you that Anduril is overengineered and expensive. New Russian drones, produced in the thousands every day, are kits, assembled in minutes on the battlefield. Nothing fancy, crappy looks, nothing exciting, but it works and it's cheap and it manufacturing can be ramped up in no time. Not to mention that Russian innovate on the battlefield, everybody tries different modifications, and what works is communicated back. Also, commercially, there are tens and tens of private and government companies working on drones in Russia - one company can't do better than many in a competitive environment. So, unless there are 10-20 Andurils competing on speed of innovation, costs, materials, simplicity, and manufacturing speed, this is no match.
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1. deburo ◴[31 Aug 25 16:59 UTC] No.45084756[source]▶
Why are you comparing Anduril against Russia's drones? Shouldn't you use Ukraine, surely it has access to higher tech than Russia and is just as battletested?

Or does Russia use Chinese tech?

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2. daemoens ◴[31 Aug 25 17:09 UTC] No.45084852[source]▶
Russia has the strategic depth to mass manufacture specialty drones in a way that Ukraine cannot. Even though Ukraine used fiber optic drones first, the Russians were the first to produce them in large numbers and it took Ukraine months to catch up. Lancet/Shahed drones are even bigger examples of this.
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3. amunicio ◴[31 Aug 25 18:20 UTC] No.45085539[source]▶
Shahed where originally designed and manufactured by Iran. Russians initially bought and licensed them. And I assume are now improving upon the original design.

Russian is top down innovation with a thick layer of corruption. No matter how much you want to claim strategic depth, they are always several steps behind Ukrainians. No matter how many advantages due to size they have.

Sorry you picked the wrong team.

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4. daemoens ◴[31 Aug 25 18:32 UTC] No.45085665{3}[source]▶
> Shahed where originally designed and manufactured by Iran.

I'm talking about mass manufacturing, not design. Russia has had capability to hit any Ukrainian factory since Day 1 of the war, that's why they've successfully dispersed and hidden their production so much. Also, I've always been pro-Ukraine.

>they are always several steps behind Ukrainians.

That's not true anymore, both sides have plateaued because all innovations are quickly copied. Anti-recon quadcopters were another Ukrainian innovation that took the Russians roughly 6 months to catch up to. The only advantage they have is size and strategic depth. There isn't much else.

5. nikolay ◴[01 Sep 25 18:23 UTC] No.45095242{3}[source]▶
Shahed evolved into Geran, then Geran 2, and now Geran 3 with jet engine, recently confirmed in use in Ukraine by Kyiv. So, Russia is innovating at a high pace. I'm concerned that America cannot innovate so quickly and cost-efficiently. Everything needs to go through tons of red tape, hourly rates are crazy, and the end product is extremely expensive and hard to maintain and evolve. Anduril to me is not America's answer. America needs on the battlefield innovation and means to share feedback in real-time. We're behind! That's my concern.