Grading Operation Epic Fury, with Christian Brose

Grading Operation Epic Fury, with Christian Brose

From School of War by The Free Press

May 19, 2026 · 52 min

About this episode

Christian Brose evaluates American military performance against Iran and discusses defense innovation in the U.S.

Christian Brose, president and chief strategy officer of Anduril Industries and author of The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare, joins the show to help us evaluate American performance against Iran so far and discuss the state of defense innovation in America. What is on the cutting edge? Where are we falling behind? And what happens if the war comes home? Times: 01:58 - Audit of Operation Epic Fury 05:04 - Munitions and weapons shortages 08:30 - New lower-cost weapons 10:56 - The Barracuda cruise missile system 15:04 - Lessons from the battlefield 15:41 - Missile defense systems 21:47 - Software, data, and AI 24:39 - Homeland defense 27:02 - Containerization 28:05 - Industrial capacity 31:36 - Bringing Americans back into defense manufacturing 34:43 - The defense budget 39:02 - Anduril fundraising Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast Find more at The Free Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Guest: Christian Brose

Topics covered

  • defense innovation
  • military performance
  • weapons technology
  • homeland defense
  • industrial capacity

Keywords

  • Operation Epic Fury
  • defense budget
  • missile defense
  • AI in defense
  • weapons shortages

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Anduril Industries

Books & works: The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Places: America, Iran

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