False like Pharrell at Vatican,
Miserable like weekends alone,
Profound like SP30,
Despairing like junkies
Arrogant like sharks
Simple like sashimi
Stuck like quests,
Warm like schoolyard laughter,
Magic like…
Turning to the classified program in aeronautics, our mission at Skunk Works pushes the boundaries of science and technology to deliver highly advanced solutions that provide our customers a step-function advantage over potential adversity. […] This is a highly classified program that can only be described as game-changing capability for our joint US and international customers. […] “That’s the nature of something of this magical status, I would call it. We probably won’t be able to talk about what that is for many years to come, but I can assure you that it’s gonna be in high demand for a very long time, well beyond the fixed price commitments I would expect.
~Jim Taiclet, Lockheed Martin CEO
From which we might assume the following Operational Deltas:
ISR immunity & strategic mobility: Such platforms ignore choke points, defang launch‑on‑warning A2/AD by arriving off‑axis, and threaten space/surface assets unpredictably (including co‑orbital maneuvers if power allows).
Logistics revolution: If energy is on‑board (compact fusion / vacuum‑energy‑like), fuel logistics decouple from contested seas; sortie rate becomes a materials/maintenance problem, not a tanker problem.
Supply‑chain inversion: The chokepoints migrate from oil/jet‑fuel to vacuum‑electronics, superconductors, metamaterials, isotopes, cryogens, ultra‑pure ceramics & dielectrics, high‑Q cavities. China’s refinery/magnet advantages still matter—arguably more—because precision materials and industrial automation become the bottleneck to scale.
Strategic stability: Deterrence by opacity (revealing capability without physics details) buys time but raises first‑mover temptation on both sides. Expect rapid Chinese crash programs, industrial espionage intensification, and materials coercion against U.S. supply lines as a near‑term asymmetric response.
Leading to the following Strategic Deltas:
If exotic capabilities are real enough to field (even in small numbers), the center of gravity moves from silicon‑bounded platforms to field‑bounded systems: propulsion, power conversion, and materials dominate. That reweights the critical‑materials race (gallium, germanium, graphite, rare‑earth magnets, REBCO‑class superconductors, high‑k dielectrics, isotopes) exactly where China already exerts leverage via mining/refining and magnet production.
Deterrence flips from platform counts to “physics overmatch + logistics immunity.” A craft that ignores aerodynamic limits (no hot plumes, high‑g turns, low thermal signature) compresses adversary OODA loops, shreds A2/AD geometries, and undercuts the PLA’s magazine‑depth strategy. But the United States must first outflank Chinese control of the inputs that make such systems manufacturable at scale.
Director of National IntelligenceNear term (0–5 years): China’s chokepoints remain decisive for both legacy and “pre‑breakthrough” systems (GaN/SiC power, RF; NdFeB magnets; graphite; germanium; gallium). Beijing has already used export controls as geopolitical instruments; expect targeted throttling if Washington signals a physics leap. The U.S. response—CHIPS manufacturing + advanced packaging + critical‑minerals stockpiles + allied mining/processing—has begun but isn’t yet sufficient in volume or tempo.
Which is all another way of saying there’s no such thing as a “sovereign individual” anymore than there’s such thing as a “sovereign chip fab”… in the same way and for the same reasons.
