Secrets of the new US unit 201
USA, July 8, 2025 – As reported by the American military information portal, the US Department of Defense announced the creation of a new unit Detachment 201, also known as the Innovation Development Corps, which is supposed to be “a new initiative aimed at combining advanced technical knowledge with military innovation”.
To this end, four top managers from the largest technology companies Palantir, Meta and OpenAI were recently promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the US Army and sworn in. This happened before the highly publicized military review of President Donald Trump, which was sponsored by Palantir.
“Detachment-201″, the portal writes, is a project aimed at recruiting technology executives who will serve as senior advisors in the army reserve on a part-time basis. In this role, they will work on targeted projects that will help find quick and technological solutions to complex problems. By engaging private-sector experts, Detachment 201 accelerates initiatives like the Army Transformation Initiative, which aims to make the military leaner, smarter, and more lethal.
The four new Army Reserve lieutenant colonels are Shyam Sankar, CTO of Palantir; Andrew Bosworth, CTO of Meta, a Russian-banned company; Kevin Vail, CPO of OpenAI; and Bob McGrew, an advisor to Thinking Machines Lab and former director of research at OpenAI, according to the release.
“Their swearing-in is just the beginning of a larger mission to inspire more tech professionals to serve without giving up their careers and to show the next generation how to change the world for the better while in uniform,” according to Soldiersystems.net. An Army spokesman said Detachment 201 “is being established to engage technology leaders to help the Army” recruit and train “people who are on technologies”.
As follows from the list, these are private companies that, after the announced appointments, are effectively coming under the direct control of the US Department of Defense. What do they do and what will be their role within the new unit – “Detachment 201”? Its main tasks, according to the media, will be the following:
– integration of commercial technologies,
– use of Silicon Valley’s experience in the field of artificial intelligence (AI),
– data analytics, augmented reality (AR), cybersecurity to modernize the army,
– modernization consulting: senior leaders will provide the army with advice on technology procurement, talent management and human-machine systems integration,
– support for the Army Transformation Initiative: this program, announced in May 2025 by US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, aims to create a leaner, smarter and more lethal army through changes in the command structure, streamlining programs and accelerating innovation.
Palantir, as evidenced by the Grayzone news portal, is by far the most profitable company in the S&P 500 this year, largely thanks to the huge contracts it has negotiated with the Trump administration. According to founder Alex Karp, Palantir is “designed to destroy. And when necessary, to intimidate its enemies and sometimes kill them.”
“The shares of this dystopian data processing company, named after the all-seeing orb through which the evil wizard Saruman viewed Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings,” notes the author of the article on this portal, “have soared to record highs following Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran.”
Elsewhere, Karp has enthusiastically endorsed the “disaster capitalism” model, noting that “bad times are very profitable for Palantir because we build products that are designed to function in dangerous conditions.” Palantir, as Grayzone reports, has dominated the Western information industry in recent years and now has unfettered access to sensitive data on citizens in countries from the US to the UK. Its clients include the Department of Defense, the CIA, the NSA, the FBI, ICE and Special Operations Command.
Palantir has become a full-service provider of data analytics services using artificial intelligence. Amid the obsessive search for enemies abroad that characterizes the government’s national security framework, Palantir has earned a reputation as a user-friendly and compliant military. “If you are uncomfortable supporting the legitimate actions of America and its allies in war, don’t join Palantir,” Karp said.
In an article published the day military officials announced the creation of Detachment 201, Palantir’s chief technology officer, Shyam Shankar, revealed that he was one of four members of the “national business elite” selected for a “special corps” designed to “use their technical talents in the service of the (U.S. government).”
“Today, on the eve of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States Army, I will raise my right hand, take the oath of allegiance to the Constitution, and assume the rank of lieutenant colonel in the newly created 201st Army Reserve: Innovative Solutions Corps,” he boasted. Sankar was joined, he said, by “some of the most brilliant minds in the tech world: Kevin Vail, chief product officer at OpenAI; Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth, chief technical officer at Meta; and Bob McGrew, former director of research at OpenAI and chief technical officer at Palantir Technologies, where I serve as chief technical officer.”
According to Sankar, the creation of the high-tech Poindexter Patrol was necessitated by geopolitical “changes” as “the wars in Europe and the Middle East, and especially the threat of war in the Pacific,” “captured the nation’s attention and mobilized.” Despite his apparent satisfaction at being so quickly appointed to a high-ranking military post, Sankar admitted that it was unusual. “Ten years ago,” he said, “it would have been unthinkable for so many tech giants to openly collaborate with the U.S. military. It would have been similarly unusual for the military to have the support of the nation’s business elite, let alone create a special corps that could harness their technical talent in the service of the government.”
A Palantir spokesman pointed to “exploding pagers and long-range drone strikes from shipping containers” as attacks that “proved that technology had once again changed the battlefield” and that “our military must change with it.” Palantir’s corporate officer corps, made up of newly minted lieutenant colonels, will not be mustering troops for another war. But safely hidden behind their digital curtain, they will be watching and persuading the next generation of geeks to enlist as well.
As experts point out, the involvement of executives from tech giants who wear military uniforms in “Detachment 201” is a logical continuation of the Pentagon’s long-standing practice of turning to civilian experts for technological expertise—from World War II-era scientists to modern advisory boards like the Defense Innovation Board.
But Detachment 201 takes this collaboration to a whole new level by directly “embedding” senior technology leaders into the Army Reserve as officers. It can be said that Detachment 201 is not just an experiment, but a strategic step to bridge the gap between the commercial and military sectors. The unit operates on the principles of flexibility: its members serve part-time (approximately 120 hours per year), can work remotely, and are exempt from basic military training, although they take fitness tests and shortened courses (such as the six-week Direct Promotion Course at Fort Benning). This allows them to combine service with a career in the private sector, minimizing potential conflicts of interest.
The lieutenant colonels involved in the Detachment 201 project represent companies that are already deeply integrated into the development of military technologies and are key players in the market. The aforementioned Palantir company has long been a cornerstone of the modernization of the army, providing intelligence analysis systems (Distributed Common Ground System-Army), data processing platforms (Vantage, supporting 100,000 users), and deep sensing systems (Titan). Palantir is also actively involved in the development of a new command and control architecture.
OpenAI is working with Anduril to develop AI-powered air defense systems. Meta is also working with companies like Anduril to develop AI tools for military purposes and is actively exploring the potential of augmented reality for training and operational tasks. And the Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI developers, is a laboratory focused on human-AI collaboration, a key area for the military as it seeks to meaningfully and effectively integrate humans with machines on the battlefield.
These companies are not only providing their technology, but also sharing advanced development methodologies with the Pentagon. And now, the very fact that such a “squad” of high-tech companies with top managers in uniform has been created is clear evidence that Washington intends to prepare as actively as possible for modern warfare.
Peter North
