The Merge – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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Mike and Jake host Andrew Hunter, the US Air Force’s chief weapons buyer.

As the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (ATL), he oversees Air Force research, development and acquisition activities totaling an annual budget in excess of $60 billion for more than 550 acquisition programs.

He is the principal adviser to the Secretary of the Air Force and the Air Force Chief of Staff for research and development, test, production and modernization efforts within the Air Force.

We talked about how he’s driving acquisition innovation and shaping the Air Force for great power competition. The discussion ranged from the good and bad on specific weapons programs—the B-21 bomber and Sentinel ICBM—negotiating the E-7 Wedgetail deal, workforce development, industry incentive alignment on price vs value, and a ton more.

He even shared some new Collaborative Combat Aircraft insights that have not been made public before.

This is an episode you don’t want to miss!

For those interested in #military #nationaldefense #warfare #nationalsecurity #defense #nationaldefense #tech #technology #defensetech #army #navy #airforce #innovation

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• Jake Chapman X (@vc)

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Show Notes

00:34 intro

01:07 why a civilian weapons buyer?

02:07 how to keep track of 500+ programs

02:42 PEOs

03:48 the aquisitions perfect storm

06:02 cost plus vs fixed price contracts

08:01 E-7 Wedgetail negotiations

09:46 phone-a-friend negotiator

12:23 B-21 bomber

14:13 B-21 active management

15:47 B-21's unique hybrid contract

19:41 commercial vs defense markets

20:18 maintaining competition in industry

21:15 competition and investing signals

22:32 structuring the market for industry

25:00 government architectures to lower switching costs

27:13 workforce development

29:58 Sentinel ICBM cost over-run

30:07 Nunn-Mccurdy Breach

31:01 too big for 1 company?

33:44 New 'Quickstart' authority

35:58 watching the CCA engineering

36:16 non-traditionals forced to traditional prime?

37:46 Elon Musk for Pentagon processes?

39:10 CCA landing gear development

40:19 what keeps you up at night?

40:36 the pacing challenge

41:17 outro

Don’t miss our newsletter! That's where we drop weekly knowledge bombs to help you make sense of defense!

Mike hosts an exclusive episode to discuss the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program with the 2 companies selected to build the first platforms: Anduril and General Atomics.

We discuss what the companies have in common and how they both view that as one of their superpowers. We also explore the origins of the CCA program, the origins of the winning vehicle design, how the program structure is a model for innovation and more.

Though they won the hardware contracts, both companies have unique software and autonomy insights, so we also discussed software as the enabler and the integration challenges of bringing these ‘loyal wingmen’ into the force.

While there was a ton to agree on, they also shared unique and varying perspectives—something that you can only get when you have them in a discussion together. This is an episode you don’t want to miss!

For those interested in #military #nationaldefense #warfare #nationalsecurity #defense #nationaldefense #tech #technology #defensetech #army #navy #airforce #sofware #startup #innovation #drones #ai #autonomy #anduril #ga-asi #airplanes #airpower #airsuperority

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• Mike Benitez (LinkedIn)

• Anduril

• General Atomics

• Diem Salmon - Vice President, Air Dominance and Strike at Anduril

• Mike Atwood - Vice President, Advanced Programs at General Atomics

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Show Notes

00:48 CCA intro

02:00 company intros

06:01 why the push for CCAs?

07:26 exploring the CCA space

09:09 origins of the winning designs

10:16 2 for 1 - win win

11:55 software

12:43 the software part is the hardest

14:33 the shift in trust in kill chains

15:01 Skyborg

15:40 trust and blending

16:25 delegation via trust or necessity

17:53 the need to get it into operators hands

18:47 DOTMLPF-P

19:11 teaming

19:44 starting simple

20:29 starting with complexity

22:09 iteration is the pathway

22:55 CCA program structure

26:56 capability efficiency vs resiliency

28:35 groundbreaking challenges

29:04 solving system-level optimization

31:13 culture change

31:36 F-16 Auto GCAS

32:50 MAGIC CARPET

34:14 composites for scale?

38:31 the future

41:27 closing thoughts

42:43 outro

Our lowdown of the week's military tech happenings.

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mandatoryfunday IG post we refer to at the end

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Mike and Jake host John Ferry to discuss the ins & outs and the highs & lows of trying to sell tech to the Pentagon, and the US government—how it really works.

Warning: We had a ton of fun—maybe a bit too much. This episode is full of spicy takes and unvarnished thoughts and opinions based on 15+ years of experience and scar tissue. Hang on for a ride deep down the rabbit hole of govcon and fedtech nerdiness, but we make it out ok at the end—discussing the next AI vs. AI front.

For those interested in #defense #military #business #technology #nationalsecurity

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• John Ferry (LinkedIn)

• Rogue.com

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Show Notes

(01:10) John Ferry

(08:30) coming out of the shell

(10:52) selected not funded (wtf!)

(11:22) confessions of a SBIR scorer

(14:06) GovCon Merit Badges

(17:57) SBIR “consultants”

(19:50) SBIR mills

(21:56) founder horror story

(26:05) John’s creative process

(29:48) PowerPoint Ranger

(32:43) change the industry vs change yourself

(34:17) the same, but also never easier

(43:38) play the game, roll the dice

(44:50) pump those numbers up! (cost plus)

(46:06) recent fixed-price pushback

(50:42) using AI to write government proposals

(54:57) AI vs AI proposal writing/scoring

(1:00:10) outro

Our lowdown of the week's military tech happenings.

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Our lowdown of the week's military tech happenings.

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Support us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠!

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Our lowdown of the week's military tech happenings.

Don’t miss our ⁠⁠newsletter!⁠⁠

Support us on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠!

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In the latest episode of The Merge Podcast, Mike sat down with Joe DeAntona, Raytheon vice president, Requirements & Capabilities, Land & Air Defense Systems, to discuss the NASAMS (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) a product that re-purposes AIM-120 and AIM-9X missiles for air defense. They cover various topics, including the system's capabilities, its deployment in different countries, its success in combat situations (including Ukraine), and its potential applications. They also talk about system flexibility, collaboration with partners like Kongsberg, recent developments, and a demo conducted to enhance the system's capabilities, especially in countering cruise missiles.

Show notes:

●     Introducing Mike [01:05]

●     Joe’s background [03:30]

●     Overview of NASAMS and its capabilities [04:29]

●     The key part of NASAMS [06:39]

●     Different generations of NASAMS, and where it is in the U.S. military [11:13]

●     The key elements of NASAMS [19:45]

●     Discussion on ground-based air missiles [23:20]

●     Raytheon’s history, and the IRAD project [33:13]

●     NASAMS’ successful demonstration supported by the U.S. Air Force [38:00]

●     Discussion on radars [41:57]

●     NASAMS involvement in the IFPC [48:00]

●     NASAMS' combat success and its deployment in Ukraine [54:53]

●     On developing a counter cruise missile solution [01:05:18]

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●     Mike Benitez (LinkedIn)

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Our lowdown of the week's military tech happenings.

Don’t miss our ⁠newsletter!⁠

Support us on ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠!

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Our lowdown of the week's military tech happenings.

Don’t miss our newsletter!

Support us on ⁠Patreon⁠!

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