ALFA Notes

“Golden Age” for America Takes Shape in Senate Hearings

As Senate confirmation hearings kicked off this week for several cabinet positions, nominees from Doug Burgum (Interior) to Scott Bessent (Treasury) to Chris Wright (Energy) revealed a clear vision for American technological and economic dominance that is rooted in energy abundance and regulatory reform.

Burgum, whose journey from small-town North Dakota to software pioneer offers a quintessentially American story, declared that "INNOVATION over regulation" drove his state's transformation into an energy and technology powerhouse, all while maintaining some of America's cleanest air and water. This demonstrates that environmental stewardship and economic growth are complementary, not competing, priorities.

Bessent, appearing before Senate Finance, outlined an aggressive strategy to maintain American leadership through what he termed a "new economic golden age” with robust regulatory and tax reform, and energy production. Underscoring that new energy production is the key to our economic and security ambitions, he stated: “There is not a clean energy race [with China], there is an energy race.”

Furthermore, Chris Wright articulated nuclear energy’s potential to reindustrialize America’s manufacturing base.

These hearings illuminated the emerging architecture of American competitiveness: abundant energy enabling technological supremacy, with innovation – not regulation – as the driving force. As these nominees (and others) made clear, winning the strategic competition with China requires mastering this relationship between energy and technology. Confirmation of these nominees would advance an ambitious agenda: unleashing American energy to power technological dominance while pursuing regulatory reforms to accelerate innovation. Their hearings suggest that, as with NASA's ALFA platform in an earlier era, American ingenuity remains our greatest strategic advantage – if we create the conditions for it to flourish.

Anduril's Arsenal-1: America's Industrial Might Meets Silicon Valley Speed

In a move that signals the dawn of a new era in American defense manufacturing, Anduril Industries announced yesterday that it will build Arsenal-1, a hyperscale autonomous systems facility near Columbus, Ohio. This is not just another factory – it's a $1 billion bet on American industrial dominance that will create 4,000 direct jobs and transform how we produce the weapons and systems needed to maintain our technological edge.

The announcement comes at a critical moment in the race for technological supremacy with China. While Beijing builds coal plants and chips away at our industrial advantages, Arsenal-1 represents a bold American response: marrying Silicon Valley's software-driven agility with the heartland's manufacturing might.

This is exactly the kind of transformative investment America needs. By building in Ohio – home to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the Air Force Research Lab, and the third largest manufacturing workforce in the nation – Anduril is tapping into a deep vein of aerospace and defense expertise. The 5-million-square-foot facility will produce tens of thousands of autonomous systems annually, with room to scale on its 500-acre campus.

But Arsenal-1's true innovation lies in its approach. Using a software-defined manufacturing platform, the facility can rapidly reconfigure to meet surging demand or adapt to new requirements. This is how America wins: not by copying China's brute force manufacturing, but by building smarter, faster, and more flexibly.

The broader implications are clear. Just as President Trump takes office again with the understanding that industrial might undergirds military power, the Anduril team shows the nation how next-generation manufacturing facilities can revitalize America's defense industrial base. This is what ALFA stands for: leveraging American innovation, infrastructure, and industrial capacity to maintain our technological edge.

As this facility powers up in 2026, it will stand as a testament to what happens when American ingenuity meets industrial scale.

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