Unit X (book)

Unit X is a non‑fiction account of the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit, an organization established in 2015 to break through Pentagon bureaucracy and connect the U.S. military with modern technologies from Silicon Valley. The authors, Raj M. Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff, led a reboot of the unit. The book's timeline spans from middle 2010s till the 2023-2024. It describes how the unit sourced innovations, AI‑powered drones, autonomous flying vehicles and microsatellites, from startups and small private companies in contrast to big military tech firms working with Pentagon for decades. The authors also describe battles with congressional assistants in Washington D.C. and Pentagon officials who wanted to protect established inefficient procurement processes.^[1][2][3]

The book was shortlisted in 2024 Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award.

In a review for Foreign Affairs, historian Lawrence D. Freedman writes that Unit X recounts how Shah and Kirchhoff used DIU’s authority to bypass the Pentagon’s cumbersome procurement system. Among the first successes was an app for coordinating air strikes against the Islamic State and the deployment of small satellites to monitor North Korea.^[4]

Five Books named Unit X as one of the best business books of 2024. Andrew Hill remarks that the book is “by people who were doing the things that they describe” and calls it a fascinating account of how to navigate the Pentagon’s corridors to connect with startups.^[5]

The Wall Street Journal recognized the book, praising its clear message that the Pentagon has successfully used America's technological power in the military global technology battle.^[6]

Fred Kaplan opens his review by mentioning Raj Shah’s experience as an F‑16 pilot in 2006. The cockpit’s multimillion‑dollar navigation system lacked a moving‑dot display, so Shah strapped a $300 iPAQ loaded with digital maps to his knee. That experience helped him later to bridge the growing gap between commercial technology and U.S. military. Ten years later, Shah and co‑author Christopher Kirchhoff were invited to run the Defence Innovation Unit Experimental (DIU x), an experimental office to add the Silicon Valley’s innovation culture into the US military industry. Kaplan notes that the book describes how DIU achieved first successes, including a project that cost only $1.5 million, while the same project being developed by Northrop Grumman for years and had already consumed $745 million and was not yet ready. The reviewer credits the book for illustrating how bureaucracy resists changes and outsiders.^[7]

Foreign Policy describes Unit X as “readable and insightful” but “at times hyperbolic”. But the review insists that commercial technology has not yet revolutionized warfare.^[8]