Will Strauss

Founder & CEO @aetherdef
ML/Sensing & Perception Engineer

[Will Strauss @willtstrauss]

@MinuteofZombie @0xWren @DeltaClimbs I work mostly on software but always imagine CAD did for physical engineering what LLMs are doing for software. It’s way more efficient now but man is it easy to miss critical mistakes compared to when you had to do everything by hand.

[Will Strauss @willtstrauss]

Extremely skeptical.

BMD is the hardest problem in air defense. Patriot took 14 years to develop & PAC-3 is built on 40+ years of operational data.

BMD is the most technically complex problem in defense. You can’t just apply the same logic used with low with a low-end drone interception.

Cheap C-UAS interceptors work because the target is cheap and simple. You can strip sophistication and lose little Pk. That logic doesn't transfer to maneuvering TBMs. Strip sophistication and you need to fire more interceptors to hold the same Pk, breaking the “cheaper mass” concept.

Anduril has no BMD intercept record, they’d have to develop the entire system & build / integrate sub systems from scratch with no previous institutional knowledge in this space.

[Breaking Defense @BreakingDefense]

Anduril unveils Steelfin interceptor as cheaper option to PAC-3 missiles https://t.co/EPW4Ba5M5g

[Will Strauss @willtstrauss]

@0xWren @DeltaClimbs @MinuteofZombie No the clock is an example of a problem that needed real world experience to be un-covered and fixed. Just because that mistake wouldn’t happen today doesn’t mean others won’t. That is not how engineering works. Anduril also has notoriously lax T&E compared to others.

[Will Strauss @willtstrauss]

They didn’t figure it out in the 80s, the patriot famously performed poorly against Iraqi scuds during desert storm.

The major short fallings of the patriot were a result of issues that were uncovered in combat (like the clock bug & warhead).

The PAC-3 took another 12 years of development.

[Gattsu 🇬🇪 @GattsuYT]

Thank you Sam Altman and Anthropic 🙏

[Nate Sibley @NateSibley]

President Zelensky has agreed to a genuine ceasefire at any time. It been his position for years.

Russia has never agreed to a ceasefire and continues to escalate—even though it has become clear that it cannot achieve any of its objectives.

Russia is the ONLY obstacle to peace.

[Will Strauss @willtstrauss]

@turbofakesmile @DeltaClimbs From a controls perspective, hard to think of a more difficult problem than guiding a small missile at those terminal speeds.

[Will Strauss @willtstrauss]

@JerusalemKing_ I like how, most of the world imagines Israel running a mass sophisticated psyop campaign to influence public opinion, when all social media communications are actually just managed by 18-19 year old conscripts making the most cringe content you could ever imagine.

[Will Strauss @willtstrauss]

@prestonstew_ Deeply shameful

[Will Strauss @willtstrauss]

@MinuteofZombie @Aviation_Intel Don’t forget…Developing mega defense programs from the ground up famously cuts costs and saves everyone money.

[Will Strauss @willtstrauss]

@Flankerchan @lfx160219 S-400 is a less capable system with the same unit cost and same magazine (with the 9M96) as the PAC-3 ACE

[Will Strauss @willtstrauss]

The concept is alien to wherever made that statement you clipped. They’re treating it like another cheap drone interceptor where the effector is all that matters.

Like, the SM series are capable missiles but its Aegis and the SPY-6 that actually make the system so powerful. You can’t just build a cheap SM-2 clone and call it a day.

The 40N6 family is literally a more capable missile than the PAC-2&3 on paper in many ways but there’s a reason why the S-400 has been completely outclassed in every conceivable way by the Patriot in combat.

[Jennifer Parker @JAParker29]

The US Navy has issued a new industry notice for SSN(X), its next-gen nuclear-powered attack sub.

An early planning step, but worth watching. The US Navy clearly is convinced by the “transparent oceans theory” doing the rounds in 🇦🇺

🔗 https://t.co/wo0eO79yhI

[笑脸男人 @lfx160219]

Lockheed Martin has announced PAC-3 Adapted Capability Effector, a lower-cost, less capable variant of PAC-3 MSE intended for international customers.

Based on the presentation slides, ACE replaces MSE’s dual-pulse solid rocket motor with a single-pulse motor and its attitude control motors (ACMs) with a blast-fragmentation warhead. Unlike MSE, ACE abandons hit-to-kill interception in favor of fragment-based lethality, reducing reliance on extremely precise terminal guidance.

Against ballistic targets, its demonstrated or projected interception altitude and range appear slightly inferior to those of the PAC-2 GEM-T, which uses semi-active radar homing. Lockheed Martin says ACE will cost less than half as much as PAC-3 MSE.

[OSINTtechnical @Osinttechnical]

Moments ago, Russian forces bombed a residential neighborhood in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, hitting a grocery store.

Three people lost their lives, and nine others, including two children, sustained injuries.

[Will Strauss @willtstrauss]

@yadinsoffer @jessemargolishq Scooters are a much bigger threat