CTRL + ALT + DEFENSE

What’s it like covering the Pentagon at a moment when artificial intelligence, emerging technologies and even unexplained phenomena are shaping the national security conversation? In this episode of CTRL + ALT + DEFENSE, DefenseScoop Senior Reporter Brandi Vincent joins the podcast to talk about her path into defense journalism and what it takes to cover technology and transformation across the Defense Department in 2026. She shares the storylines defining her reporting, what she’s watching as the Pentagon accelerates its adoption of AI, and why the work of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — better known as AARO — continues to command attention. Brandi also offers a look ahead at the defense technology developments she’ll be tracking through the rest of 2026, plus a few personal highlights along the way.

Also in this episode: Damon Harvey, Senior Manager of Data Services at Workday, discusses how shifting to an agile, data-driven, and skills-based workforce model can help defense organizations strengthen readiness, improve decision-making and better align talent with mission needs. This segment was sponsored by Workday.

In early June, a pair of U.S. pilots flying an Apache helicopter were downed in the Strait of Hormuz. Faced with sending more service members into the perilous body of water near Iran, the U.S. Navy decided to deploy an unmanned Saronic Corsair drone to rescue the pilots, and did so successfully. The first-of-its-kind rescue mission is emblematic of the shifting nature of conflict where unmanned autonomous systems — in the sea, on land and in the sky — are playing vital roles in defense operations. Rob Lehman, chief commercial officer and co-founder of Saronic, joins CTRL + ALT + DEFENSE to give a firsthand look into the unclassified side of the operation, his thoughts on the changing nature of warfare driven by drones and how the defense industrial base is evolving to meet the needs of the modern battlefield.

Also in this episode: SAP NS2 CIO Nick Totten explains why defense agencies and contractors should leverage pre-accredited cloud platforms to move faster on modernization and AI adoption. Totten says that inheriting established security controls can help organizations avoid months of compliance work, reduce the burden of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification readiness and free up resources for mission-focused innovation. He also discusses why cloud migration must go beyond “lift and shift,” how modern ERP and SaaS environments can create new operational capabilities and why AI tools must work inside tightly controlled, secure environments. This segment was sponsored by SAP NS2.

Many U.S. Army leaders have taken unconventional journeys to where they are today, but Lt. Gen. Jeth Rey's may be one of the most unique. After spending his formative years in the U.S. Virgin Islands where he developed skills as a gymnast and platform diver, he moved to Virginia, where he'd eventually enlist in the Army in 1983, launching a now 40-plus year career. After becoming a warrant officer and then a commissioned officer, he's held 18 ranks across the service. And now as the Army's G6, responsible for planning, strategy, and implementing global command, control, communications, cyber operations, and network architectures, he's ushering in data-centric transformation for an AI-enabled battlefield of the future.

The U.S. government is no stranger to a good crisis, and neither is Mikey Dickerson, the inaugural administrator of the U.S. Digital Service under the Obama administration who served as one of the White House's top advisers at the time to fix the broken Healthcare.gov systems. Dickerson joins CTRL + ALT + DEFENSE to take listeners inside the major takeaways of "Crisis Engineering," a book he co-authored on how large organizations often fail to respond properly to a crisis and how those moments can be used as an opportunity for lasting transformation.

From operations in Venezuela to Iran, defensive and offensive cyber capabilities have publicly been credited by senior defense leaders as critical elements to success in those kinetic missions. As principal cyber advisor of the U.S. Army, Brandon Pugh has embraced that evolution, making it an integral part of his work coordinating cyber elements across the service, budgeting for increased cyber needs in the age of AI and guiding Secretary Dan Driscoll on how cyber can no longer be an afterthought in modern military operations. Pugh joins CTRL + ALT DEFENSE to discuss this new military cyber paradigm, how the Army is preparing for AI and attacks on critical infrastructure with tabletop exercises, his journey to the PCA role, and much more.

When it comes to the adoption and deployment of modern software, the U.S. military has a speed problem. That’s where innovative companies like Second Front Sytems come in. A public benefit corporation, Second Front has made its mission to provide a pathway for new commercial entrants to navigate stringent government technology compliance and provide their emerging technologies to the Pentagon and other federal agencies in an accelerated manner. Tyler Sweatt, CEO of Second Front, joins this episode of CTRL + ALT + DEFENSE to spotlight the unique mission of his company, how his time as a soldier informs his leadership style and how the defense tech ecosystem is tranforming.

Scott Kupor built a storied career as employee No. 1 at preeminent Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz. So why uproot that to take a job as the director of the federal government's HR agency, the Office of Personnel Management? On this episode of CTRL + ALT + DEFENSE, Kupor answers that question and delves into the Trump administration’s plans to reinvent and modernize tech talent management in a way that could have major impacts on the government's national security readiness.

Defense modernization often gets talked about in terms of platforms, programs, and technology. But there's a harder, less glamorous question underneath all of it: Can the money follow the mission fast enough? On this episode of CTRL+ALT+DEFENSE, we're joined by Hon. Marc Andersen, the Army's Assistant Secretary for Financial Management & Comptroller, for a conversation about fiscal agility — what it means, what gets in the way, and why the ability to redirect resources quickly has become a genuine strategic variable in an era of rapid technological change. Andersen draws on an unusual background: founder, EY Senior Partner, venture advisor, and now the Army's top financial officer. He's one of the few people who can talk honestly about where private-sector financial thinking applies to defense — and where the analogy breaks down entirely.

Back in 2015, then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter launched the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, or DIUx, as small team of innovators and bureaucracy hackers to bridge the Valley of Death between Silicon Valley and the Beltway. Since then, the unit has expanded its team and portfolio, undergoing several evolutions and shedding its "experimental" designator along the way. Mike Madsen served as deputy and acting director of DIU during five of its more formative years. Madsen, now vice president of Obviant, joins CTRL + ALT + DEFENSE to recount the journey of DIU over the past decade and how it has transformed the business of innovation for the U.S. military.

To truly understand the Pentagon’s approach to adopting AI and how it navigates the moral and ethical dilemmas present with the use of autonomy for lethal decisions, you really have to go back to the start. And in many ways, that was Project Maven. In this new episode of CTRL + ALT + DEFENSE, journalist and author Katrina Manson joins to discuss her new book on Maven, the secretive decade-long Pentagon program that put artificial intelligence at the heart of American warfare. Manson traces the story from a windowless government room in 2017 to AI-enabled systems now operating across every branch of the U.S. military — unpacking the bureaucratic battles, the Google employee revolt, the rise of Palantir, and the deeper question no one can fully answer yet: will AI make war more precise, or will it make catastrophic mistakes at scale?