Wayne Sanders
Senior defense research analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence · Retired US Army colonel
“So PAC 3 interceptors going from 620 a year to 2000 per year. Right? That is what they're pushing for. That's a 3.3x increase on what they're doing. The THAAD system, the terminal High altitude Air Defense system, these are like 12 to 15 million dollars per interceptor. They're trying to increase that 4x.”
“one of the reasons that you look for high powered microwaves, high energy laser solutions, this directed energy platform is because the cost per shot is very low. As long as you have the stream of energy necessary to be able to use it, it's great.”
“the deal with MP materials to actually, you know, gain a piece of ground specifically inside the US for domestic onshoring of these capabilities. But you're absolutely right. There are quite a few of these critical minerals that China has a predominance in the world. They have, you know, sometimes 85, even 90% of the supply chain.”
Wayne Sanders
One-line summary: Bloomberg Intelligence senior defense research analyst; former Army colonel. Tracked for directed-energy / IAMD supply-chain claims (Helios, PAC-3 scale-up, HREE dopants).
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Speaker-attributed claims extracted from diarized sources. Each bullet mirrors one entry in quotes: frontmatter — keep them in sync.
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On defense-industrial-base-magazine-depth, hel-layered-iamd-to-lockheed-helios-mp-dopants:
"So PAC 3 interceptors going from 620 a year to 2000 per year. Right? That is what they're pushing for. That's a 3.3x increase on what they're doing. The THAAD system, the terminal High altitude Air Defense system, these are like 12 to 15 million dollars per interceptor. They're trying to increase that 4x." — 2026-09-04-podcast-odd-lots-why-laser-beams-are-the-hottest-new-tech-in (2026-09-04)
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On hel-layered-iamd-to-lockheed-helios-mp-dopants, defense-industrial-base-magazine-depth:
"one of the reasons that you look for high powered microwaves, high energy laser solutions, this directed energy platform is because the cost per shot is very low. As long as you have the stream of energy necessary to be able to use it, it's great." — 2026-09-04-podcast-odd-lots-why-laser-beams-are-the-hottest-new-tech-in (2026-09-04)
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On drone-warfare-demand-to-mp-hree-rerate, us-critical-mineral-independence:
"the deal with MP materials to actually, you know, gain a piece of ground specifically inside the US for domestic onshoring of these capabilities. But you're absolutely right. There are quite a few of these critical minerals that China has a predominance in the world. They have, you know, sometimes 85, even 90% of the supply chain." — 2026-09-04-podcast-odd-lots-why-laser-beams-are-the-hottest-new-tech-in (2026-09-04)
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