This episode of the Mission Matters podcast features a conversation between Shield Capital Managing Partner Philip Bilden and Vice Admiral Kevin “Kid” Donegan.
The biggest takeaway here isn’t that cyber, drones, and AI mattered, it’s how seamlessly they now operate together. The Israel-Iran conflict showed what war looks like when commercial tech is fully weaponized and tightly integrated. It also exposed the limits of deterrence-by-blackmail: Iran’s nuclear leverage is gone, but the regime’s still standing. That’s not victory or defeat, just a reset.
The biggest takeaway here isn’t that cyber, drones, and AI mattered, it’s how seamlessly they now operate together. The Israel-Iran conflict showed what war looks like when commercial tech is fully weaponized and tightly integrated. It also exposed the limits of deterrence-by-blackmail: Iran’s nuclear leverage is gone, but the regime’s still standing. That’s not victory or defeat, just a reset.