L3Harris, Palantir deepen their partnership to push a 'disruptive' strategy

L3Harris Technologies and Palantir both like to wear – and also promote – how they are disruptors across the government and commercial landscapes.

The companies already work together on building prototypes for the Army’s Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node ground system to connect soldiers and sensors. Palantir is the prime contractor for TITAN and L3Harris is one of several subcontractors for that effort.

It makes sense that L3Harris and Palantir have decided to publicize their partnership with a Thursday announcement, which says they will collaborate on AI technology development efforts and others aimed at pushing computing further out to the edge.

After watching their joint appearance on CNBC Thursday to talk about the pact, it sounds like neither of the companies’ chief executives want the arrangement to be viewed strictly through the lens of defense.

“We want to bring innovation to America commercially,” Palantir CEO Alex Karp told host Morgan Brennan. “One of the things about (L3Harris)... one of the things that unifies us, is we're not really defense integrators, we're commercial companies that are patriotic.”

The way Palantir sees the world, its software and business model should be seen as one-and-the-same. Palantir positions itself as an alternative to the normal ways of how U.S. government agencies buy and implement software.

Reaching into the commercial tech ecosystem that includes Palantir is a significant feature of how L3Harris seeks to be the defense sector’s “Trusted Disruptor,” in its words.

Software advancements are certainly disrupting just about every industry, not just defense, so moving quickly on the digital front is no longer nice-to-do but necessary now.

For his part, L3Harris CEO Chris Kubasik leaned on the phrase “Arsenal of Democracy” to describe where the industrial base once was and where he sees it going. Victory in World War II required government and industry to build tens of thousands of planes, tanks and ships.

“The future of warfare and the future arsenal democracy is not more platforms, not more planes, ships and tanks. It's the convergence of our leading-edge hardware software and AI,” Kubasik said.

Also consider how Kubasik described the TITAN program. Palantir is taking a blended approach to system development and deployment.

“They're leading this, we're providing all the resilient comms, all the communication architecture, the communication hardware,” Kubasik said.

Internally at L3Harris, Palantir’s artificial intelligence tools are in use for digital transformation and other efficiency initiatives. Palantir leaders have previously described large defense industrial base companies like L3Harris as a customer base.

The companies also have integrated L3Harris’ WESCAM MX-20 EO/IR system with Palantir’s Sensor Inference Platform for a live fly test to look at how edge AI could aid in target detection.

Now it’s all about showing U.S. government customers more of what can be done for them.

Below is the full CNBC segment.