Sunni LaBeouf

crunchy zillenial | reasonable guy | defense consulting | NDSM haver | ex forklift certified (2016)

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@Jbn3ex Fully convinced that 75% of the population lives in a Groundhog Day-eque state where every morning they wake up and it's their absolute first day on earth.

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@cynomel Imagine knowing that the most ardent and beautiful peater has wrapped his mitts around a disgusting, foul, fallen, filthy planet fitness barbell…

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@ChuckGrassley She isn’t gonna let you hit, man

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@Alex_94706 @PalmyrPar That’s cool to know- I’d wondered what they were.

Yeah they looked like tough dudes.

[Matt Grimm @mttgrmm]

Ok, I'll spell it out

The US DOW will not ever buy foreign made planes, tanks, drones, ships, missiles, guns, anything. There are *many* laws and regulations specifying how a product is considered "Made in USA." Anduril, and every other company that sells to the DOW and USG more broadly complies with these rules.

Now think about WHY we have those laws, what's the intent?

Well, there are two principal goals here. First, the obvious one, if the US Government is spending taxpayer dollars to buy products, the USG wants those dollars spent creating US jobs in US factories... keep our taxpayer dollars fueling our own economy (those employees have homes, buy food, go to the movies, have families, etc). That goal makes good sense.

The second goal is less obvious... in a time of conflict, the US DOW does not want to rely on another nation's factories and industry to provide for US security and mission readiness. Hypothetically, if there's a major war of COURSE those governments would say "we need those tanks/weapons/planes/drones for ourselves, you can't have them." In fact, the US does the exact same thing: https://t.co/dhV3UM26PP

Now invert the scenario. The Japanese government (or Taiwanese, or Australian, or anywhere else in the world) views the situation *exactly the same way.* Of COURSE they want their own taxpayer dollars spent on their own economy, and of COURSE they don't want to rely on US companies (and the USG's permission) to provide for their own security and mission readiness.

In some situations for Anduril, supporting our Allies (including potentially Japan!) looks like "we'll manufacture products in the US and export them to you." But for the above reasons, the governments usually don't like this way of doing business (and, as noted in the article above, the US defense industry has a long history of delaying the delivery of ordered systems as either priorities shift or production rates struggle to keep up, to wit: https://t.co/5gEL9dxDmc). Anduril already operates this way now in many Allied countries around the world, as a couple examples: https://t.co/DORblDIRgz or https://t.co/mQc1LmWpJ7 ... products made in the US, exported to Allies.

In other cases, supporting our Allies looks like "Anduril exports the *design* of one of our mature products that we've already developed in the US, and we'll manufacture these products locally." This is more interesting for our Allies, as then they're creating activity for their local economy and have more comfort that they'll actually get the systems/weapons/drones/etc. This is very difficult and complex to execute, and anyone who's worked in hardware will know that you can't just simply send a stack of work instructions to a new factory (on the other side of the world, in a different language, with different culture and talent base) and expect it to magically work... it's really hard, but solvable.

And in yet other cases, supporting our Allies looks like a *development* deal where Anduril creates a local engineering team to design and then manufacture a new product in that country. This is the most interesting and exciting structure for our Allies, as they generate both engineering jobs (which, in turn, builds skills and competencies in their industrial base) AND the manufacturing jobs... and also gives them more control and comfort that they'll get the systems/weapons/drones/etc they want. This is even HARDER to execute, as Anduril essentially has to standup an entirely new team, find strong leaders, build a culture from scratch, etc. This is exactly the structure of our Ghost Shark program with the Royal Australian Navy, and also why my family and I moved to Australia to standup our team there.

So when you see the (factual!) story that Anduril is exploring standing up a production line in Japan and you jump to the conclusion that we're "outsourcing" production, you are operating from a fundamentally inaccurate assumption. The US DOW won't buy made-in-Japan products, even if they're made by Anduril. That's why we're building massive factories in Ohio, Rhode Island, Mississippi, California, and many more to come: to support the USA (we are all Patriots and want the US to be strong and secure). The question is really "does Anduril want to support the Japanese military" (or Australia or UK or other Allied nations for that matter) and in general, yes - we do! To support those nations at large scale will, in many cases, mean that Anduril will have, at minimum, localized production of these products and systems. Implying that supporting Japan in this manner costs US jobs is just fundamentally wrong. That's not how it works.

The final note I'd add is that this entire structure of exporting ANY defense technology to ANY nation is governed by the ITAR and EAR process, which depending on the specific product, explicitly means the US Government has to review and approve most of these arrangements. It's a very nuanced process, and explicitly not just Anduril's leadership team YOLO'ing products wherever we feel like... that's just not how the industry works.

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@poopswag34 Just unlocked a core memory of using buddy bucks to get stuff from the claw machine when I was like 6 years old. Damn.

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@RaunchyDragon @shortmagsmle I have never in my life seen a fat black female supply sergeant type score the 465 required for an exemption

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@Enzorpheus You can actually tell, just by looking at her, that she's a genuinely terrible person.

Few such cases...

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@coldhealing celtic house in arlington VA does this too, pretty elite

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@Orgoglioitalia3 This might be the funniest video I've seen in my entire life

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@DaddyWarpig They were actually "cocaine and infidelity pits" but who's keeping track

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@Truthful_ast In china building so strong aeroplane just bounce off

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@DaudReaboi Yeah, he comes from a low-class background-- it's called New Jersey

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@boilerroom481 @PaulFiore Demolition man is not the only good Stallone movie, but it IS the only good Wesley Snipes movie

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@horses_horses_1 @poopswag34 Full ensoulment is possessed by about 10% of the global population. Of that 10%, maybe 25% are conscious.

So really only 2-3% of us have got the good stuff.

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@poopswag34 Ensoulment exists on a spectrum:
https://t.co/Rjq9oN53ma

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@cremieuxrecueil Yet another thing to add to my spectrum of ensoulment. From most to least ensouled:

- babies from missionary (non-interracial) sex
-babies conceived in an AirBnb
-hinge babies
-regular IVF babies
-babies from whatever the fuck this is

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@HapistRitler @LTJeromeDavis will do stuff like this too, and looks mexican, but isn't.

Odd how these things work!

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@bumbadum14 I'm almost certain that at some point in our history, an American man has killed a bear with no (or very limited) weapons.

[Lee (Greater) @shortmagsmle]

The DoD spent 20 years awkwardly crafting a PT test that obese black women could pass while losing a war in Afghanistan. Very very few of the high command at the time should be taken seriously.

[Sunni LaBeouf @seemingtoad]

@RaunchyDragon @shortmagsmle I've taken the ACFT. I've seen fat women pass the ACFT.

A military fitness test should not be structured so as to be passable by fat women.