Behind Anduril's Effort to Create an Operating System for War

Early last month, a member of the US Air Force donned a virtual reality headset and scanned a 3D map of a desert landscape. He saw a speeding object that algorithms warned was likely a cruise missile. The airman considered the data, then used a hand controller to send out an order. This was no video game: The command led to a real projectile taking down a mock cruise missile over White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The episode was a demonstration of the future of war as seen by Anduril, the defense company cofounded by Palmer Luckey, the politically contentious cofounder of Oculus, the VR company acquired by Facebook in 2014.