Cogs of War Missiles and the Math of Modern Warfare
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Oct 23, 2025 Ethan Thornton, founder of Mach Industries, focuses on cost-effective unmanned munitions. Sean Pitt, co-founder of Castellan, applies SpaceX insights to hypersonic weaponry. Steve Milano, director at Anduril, leverages a strong missile background to develop affordable cruise munitions. They discuss the urgent need for the U.S. to enhance missile production capabilities against competitors like China. Key insights include lessons from Ukraine regarding effective munitions, strategies for modular designs, and the innovative approaches driving down costs in modern warfare.
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U.S. Missile Magazine Shortage
- The U.S. lacks magazine depth in missiles for a long fight, especially versus China.
- Producing many cheaper munitions is now a central national-security problem.
Founder Left MIT To Build Missiles
- Ethan Thornton dropped out of college two weeks into MIT to build unmanned systems and serve sooner.
- He prototyped in high school and saved money working as an auto tech before founding Mach Industries.
SpaceX Roots For Castellan
- Sean Pitt left a Senate internship to join SpaceX in 2016 and later co-founded Castellan.
- His team brought SpaceX Starshield experience into missile development.