Dr. Neil Thurgood joined Anduril Industries in 2023 as senior vice president in charge of the air and ground deterrence unit after a nearly four-decade career in the U.S. Army. The retired lieutenant general is an expert in hypersonics — he was director of hypersonics, space, directed energy and rapid acquisition for the Army.
Indeed, ‘rapid acquisition’ is a concept that deeply compels Dr. Thurgood, and which he says is critical in the current era of warfare. GovCon Wire had the opportunity to sit down with the executive at Baird’s 2024 Defense & Government Conference late last year for an exclusive video interview.
“The processes of our legacy acquisition can actually, without changing law … be sped up through energy and through personal engagements and professional engagements and then applying resources against that belief,” Dr. Thurgood told us.
Software’s Reign
During the conversation, he talked us through how Anduril is contributing to the Department of Defense’s Replicator program, spoke on the company’s Lattice offering — an “AI-enabled software integration and network layer,” per a press release — and the criticality of software in the future fight, among other topics.
“We have to move beyond the idea that a future war is going to be won by hardware only. That’s kind of a legacy thought. You have to have hardware to win the war, but I’d articulate that the future war is going to be won by software,” he said.
Watch the full interview below or on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to Executive Mosaic’s YouTube channel for more dynamic dialogues with industry experts, government officials and powerful decision-makers.
