A new book by technology entrepreneur Raj M. Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff offers an inside look at the Defense Innovation Unit, also known as Unit X, an elite unit within the Pentagon, which they co-founded in 2016. “Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War,” takes the reader “inside AI labs, drone workshops, and battle command centers, and, also, overseas to Ukraine’s frontlines,” according to the book’s synopsis by its publisher Simon & Schuster.
Unit X was established to bring Silicon Valley’s cutting-edge technology to America’s military. It was specifically designed as a bridge to Valley technologists that would accelerate bringing state-of-the-art software and hardware to the battle space.
Before Unit X was established, the Pentagon was known for its uncomfortable relationship with Silicon Valley and for slow-moving processes that acted as a brake on innovation. Shah, Kirchhoff, and others in the Unit who came after were tasked particularly with meeting immediate military needs with technology from Valley startups.
“Unit X” opens with an anecdote when Shah first experienced the way Silicon Valley impacts the workings of U.S. defense companies, the Financial Times noted. At the time Shah was a 27-year-old U.S. Air Force captain, who was on a pre-dawn patrol in 2006. He was “flying an F-16 fighter jet near Iraq’s border with Iran when he realized that he did not know which side of the border he was on,” the Financial Times said. That was “a serious problem,” the publication stated, adding that “entering Iranian airspace could cause an international incident.” Shah could also have been shot down, the report added.
So, Shah “figured out a simple hack,” the report added. “He loaded a handheld device that he used for emails with civilian navigation software,” the report said. “The next time he flew a mission, Shah strapped the device to his leg. Remarkably, the $300 gadget did a better job of telling him where he was than the navigation systems of the $30 million jet.”
The book underscores the importance of strengthening the relationship between Washington and Silicon Valley “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 is an urgent necessity.” The Financial Time notes that the book also “stresses the need for the U.S — and by extension, the west — to maintain technological parity with its adversaries, and so deter war.”
Shah, a serial technology entrepreneur, and venture capitalist, was former director of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIUx), created by former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. DIUx began in 2015 to get high-end commercial technologies to the military more rapidly. He left that post in February 2018, after serving for two years. During his time at DIUx, he “helped oversee its expansion to Boston, Massachusetts, as well as Austin, Texas,” according to Defense News. He also “strengthened ties between the tech hub and the military services, and in October the group transitioned its first program into a true Pentagon contract,” the publication added.
Shah started his career as an F-16 pilot in the Air National Guard and continues to serve part-time, and has completed multiple combat deployments. He is currently the managing partner of Shield Capital, an investment firm focused on technologies at the nexus of commercial and national security applications. He is co-founder and chairman of Resilience, a cyber-security start-up. He is also a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Previously, Raj was senior director of strategy at Palo Alto Networks, which acquired Morta Security, where he was chief executive officer and co-founder. He began his business career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company. He holds an AB from Princeton University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
