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Jun 9, 2026 8:00 AM

Anduril CEO Says Economic Warfare Is The 'New Normal'—And China Has Made It 'Essentially Impossible' For The US To Be Fully Prepared

Brian Schimpf, CEO of defense tech giant Anduril, has raised concerns about the evolving dynamics of modern warfare and the potential unpreparedness of the U.S. military’s supply chain.

At Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference on Monday, Schimpf noted that the U.S. and Israel executed ten times more strikes in the first month of a recent war than in the entire Gulf War. He suggested that this could be the “new normal.”

Schimpf emphasized that modern conflicts are less about destroying military assets and more about crippling economies. "The economic warfare that is effectively the Strait of Hormuz, this is the new normal of what these conflicts are going to look like," the CEO said.

However, Schimpf warned that the U.S. faces a “particularly tricky problem” here as “it’s essentially impossible” to impose high economic costs on a country like China without also inflicting substantial damage on its own economy.

He also discussed the fragility of the supply chain, pointing out that the U.S. used approximately 850 Tomahawk missiles in a four-week conflict with Iran, depleting a stockpile that was being replenished at a rate ...