The Merge

Buying a fighter jet is the cheap part.

Mike sits down with Jim Becker, President and CEO of Perfect Point EDM, to talk about the biggest line in any defense program: keeping the fleet flying.

Perfect Point builds the E-Drill, which uses electro discharge machining (EDM) to pull aircraft fasteners. Founded in 2005, it turned a lab curiosity into a fielded tool that removes a rivet in about 30 seconds instead of 10 minutes, with no debris and almost no rework.

Jim's take is blunt. The aircraft modernized, the maintenance tooling did not, and the industry keeps papering over it by leaning on a shrinking pool of skilled mechanics.

Topics include:

• Operations and maintenance as the biggest cost in a program

• Electro discharge machining applied to fastener removal

• Cutting a 10 minute rivet job down to 30 seconds

• Eliminating foreign object debris and rework on titanium airframes

• Why maintenance tooling never modernized

• Winning over risk-averse engineers with the material science case

• The shrinking pool of skilled aircraft mechanics

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Chapters

00:00

00:28 intro

02:06 the MRO space

02:53 the founding story

04:38 from the Marine Corps to Boeing

06:10 framing the rivet problem

07:01 tooling stuck in the 60s

07:43 titanium and steel fasteners

08:54 no FOD, no mess

09:46 the three step process

10:27 four to five times faster

10:49 killing the rework

11:52 problems everybody just accepts

13:49 the miracle-worker culture

14:55 the aging workforce

16:49 winning over the engineers

17:32 the launch that fell flat

20:21 SBIRs and the valley of death

21:39 fall in love with the problem

22:09 conventional wisdom that's wrong

24:47 making do with less

26:03 go talk to the mechanics

28:29 the stance he'll defend

30:12 where to learn more

31:03 outro

Test is where new military hardware goes to wait.

Mike sits down with Jenn Wilson, Head of Federal at Nominal, to talk about test and evaluation, the least glamorous gate between a program and the warfighter.

Nominal builds test data infrastructure for hardware. Founded in 2022 by Anduril, Palantir, and Lockheed Martin alumni, it reached a $1 billion valuation in March.

Jenn’s take is that acceleration comes from optimizing what you test for. Cutting test points is the wrong lever.

Topics include:

• Test and evaluation as a mission enabler

• High rate, multimodal test data

• Real-time telemetry and closing the test loop

• DARPA CIPHER Forge and digital twins

• Closing the sim to real gap

• The F-35 crowdsourced flight data program

• Knowledge parity between primes and government testers

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• Jenn LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-t-wilson

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Chapters: 

00:00

00:32 intro

01:47 why this, why now

02:32 test is not sexy

03:47 test as an afterthought

05:40 more data, less insight

07:18 where the name comes from

07:54 the founding story

10:43 Mike is a user

11:16 streaming telemetry in real time

13:14 design of experiments

15:17 the Fid Labs acquisition

16:31 DARPA CIPHER Forge

19:35 closing the sim to real gap

20:21 the commercial side

23:31 lessons from Ukraine

25:00 F-35 crowdsourced flight data

27:15 fleet bugs found in days

29:07 combined test force

31:50 experimental operations unit

32:34 speeding up test

33:09 the pilot taking fire

34:21 knowledge parity with the primes

35:18 a billion dollar valuation

36:03 hiring at Nominal

#defensetech #podcast #military #testandevaluation #flighttest #digitaltwins #darpa #f35 #autonomy #nationalsecurity #airforce #dualuse #militarytechnology

How do systems operate when GPS disappears?

Mike sits down with Kara Kramer, Vice President ofRaptor Sales at Vantor (formerly Maxar Intelligence), to discuss one of the most important challenges facing modern autonomous systems: operating when GPS is jammed, spoofed, or completely unavailable.

We discuss vision-based navigation (VBN), 3D geospatialintelligence, and why resilient autonomy depends on more than just the drone itself. From electronic warfare to contested operations, this conversation examines how software and spatial intelligence are enabling unmanned operations, and Vantor’s unique approach.

This isn’t just about navigation—coordinate generation and targeting elements are equally important.

Topics include:

• Vision-based navigation

• 3D geospatial intelligence

• Targeting without GPS

BONUS: Kara also shares her professional journey and how she got into the defense industry!

Whether you're building autonomous systems, working indefense technology, or simply interested in where drone technology is headed, this episode provides an inside look at one of the fastest-moving areas in aerospace.

TOGETHER WITH VANTOR.

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00:00

00:01:11 intro

00:01:54 Vantor history

00:03:26 Raptor origins

00:03:59 Vantor backstory

00:05:39 The SpaceX of VBN

00:06:32 Raptor VBN

00:10:11 issues with GPS

00:12:44 pre-GPS terrain nav

00:13:46 the Hub

00:15:20 no hardware?

00:17:57 how it all works

00:20:47 geo-registered coordinates

00:26:27 Kara's journey in defense

00:28:24 Vantor in Drone Dominance

00:35:19 Vantor partnerships

00:39:02 contrarian takes

00:40:37 fast cheap good triangle

00:42:01 final thoughts

#defensetech #dronetechnology #autonomy #gps #jamming #electronicwarfare #uas #drones #militarytechnology #geospatial #navigation #navigation #pnt #isr #aerospace #defenseinnovation #nationalsecurity #intelligence #intel #military

Anduril Industries raised $5 billion at a reported $61billion valuation—putting a nine-year-old defense tech company in the same conversation as legacy primes that have been building weapons for generations.

How did they do it, what is their strategy, and does the math make sense?

In this episode, Mike and Matthew take a deep dive inside Anduril’s products, revenue, contracts, and business strategy. They break down the Series H raise, the company’s rapid valuation climb, the difference between contract ceilings and booked revenue, and why visible federal obligations onlytell part of the story.

They also examine Anduril’s expanding product portfolio, anddebate the core question behind the company’s $61B price tag: Is Anduril the future of defense industrial production, or is the market pricing in near-flawless execution?

Topics include:

- Anduril’s $5B Series H and $61B valuation

- The gap between reported revenue and visible federalobligations

- Why Special Operations and the Border Patrol matter morethan most people realize

- The $20B Army enterprise vehicle—and why it is a rail, not acheck

- Barracuda, Fury, Arsenal-1, and hyperscale defensemanufacturing

- How Anduril compares to Lockheed, Northrop, GeneralDynamics, RTX, and Palantir

- The bull and bear case for Anduril’s long-term strategy

- What to watch next: IPO timing, task orders, deliveries, andrevenue growth

- The real bet: for Anduril to justify today’s valuation, ithas to grow from a $2B revenue company into a $20B+ revenue company very quickly.

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00:00

00:34 intro

01:20 Premium newsletter!

02:10 Anduril intro

02:26 Matthrew intro

04:32 Anduril 101

06:52 Anduril's fundraising

07:25 the next 24 months

07:38 revenue breakdown

08:23 happenings between the raises

14:10 last 5 years of sales

15:47 counter-UAS

18:22 Steve vs Steve approach

19:14 C-UAS durability?

21:04 Altius

21:52 comparing valuations

23:21 sources of new revenue

23:33 Barracuda

24:08 CCA program

27:28 Lattice

28:20 Eagle Eye

31:18 Golden Dome

35:08 Anduril's strategy

38:53 next acquisition?

41:25 wrap-up

What does it actually take to get new technology into thehands of warfighters—and why is it still so hard?

In this episode, Mike sits down with the co-founders ofDcode, Meagan Metzger and Meg Vorland, to unpack the reality behind defense innovation, acquisition reform, and the flow of capital into the sector.

Dcode operates at a unique intersection—working withstartups, investors, and the Pentagon—giving them a rare, inside-out view of how the system really works.

We break down why most acquisition reform efforts fallshort, whether recent policy changes are hitting the right targets, and what conventional wisdom in defense innovation is simply wrong.

If you’re trying to understand how defense actually getsbuilt, funded, and fielded—this is the inside baseball.

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00:00

00:44 intro

01:19 Dcode origin story

04:55 founders, funders, and fighters

09:27 acquisition reform

12:32 risk vs the no-monster

15:58 buying speed vs rigor

16:44 contracting officer shortage

17:55 bigger worse contracts

21:04 defense catalyst

21:57 leadership and training

23:05 the bigger picture

25:33 budget line-item consolidation

28:16 pass a budget

30:41 investing in companies

36:05 misconceptions

38:28 colors and fallout

39:33 conflicts of interest

41:03 RAIC

41:30 300

42:12 pilot programs

46:42 fielding

47:29 magic wand

48:49 crystal ball

50:19 outro

All modern hardware depends on good software, but in theU.S. military, most software sucks.

Rob Slaughter, co-founder and CEO of Defense Unicorns, joins the show to unpack why this is happening and what they are doing to fix it.

We dive into the rise of “software as a weapon system,” therole of open-source software in national security, and how Defense Unicorns is building an air-gapped, platform-agnostic software delivery model designed for real-world military environments.

This episode is a must for anyone in defense. You’ll learn a ton about software—we guarantee!

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00:00

00:43 intro

01:09 Defense Unicorns name

04:28 origin story

06:38 the 3 I's

08:46 software sustainment burden

09:13 wrong incentive structure

12:31 software as a weapon system

14:39 rising tech debt

16:18 open source

18:46 open is more secure?

20:43 SBOM

22:24 solutions

23:05 fighter jet software updates

24:43 submarine software

25:52 UDS

27:05 disconnected software

28:34 Chinese software underneath US systems

30:48 competition

33:43 crystal ball

35:15 $136M fundraise

37:56 magic wand - fixed price contracts

40:14 McDonald's ice cream

#AI #Technology #Tech #Innovation #Cybersecurity #youtube #Military #DefenseTech #MilitaryTech #Startup #Software #Business

This is the untold origin story of the Fury CollaborativeCombat Aircraft (CCA), as told by those who lived it.

Scott Bledsoe and Joe Murray join Mike to talk about Fury’s very beginning—way back to 2016.

Now known as Anduril’s YFQ-44, Fury originated as an SBIR project from Blue Force Technologies and may go on to become a poster child of SBIR success stories. But it’s not all good news.

The experience—and the decision to sell to Anduril—motivated Scott and Joe to start a new type of investment fund called the DoD Accelerator.

DoD Accelerator bridges the gap between venture capital and private equity, addressing the ‘funding valley of death’ they faced and the factors that led to the decision to sell their company—and Fury—to Anduril.

This is packed with never-before-revealed details and serves as the backdrop for a broader conversation about the realities of having a company in the defense industry.

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• Scott Bledsoe

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• WOTR High-Low Mix Part I

• WOTR High-Low Mix Part II

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00:00

00:26 intro

01:50 Scott and Joe

07:21 DoD Accelerator

09:51 Fury origin story

11:24 SBIR

16:28 the high-low mix

17:11 writing to understand

18:29 F-117

19:04 no part 3

19:41 red air use-case

24:29 Bandit and ADAIR-UX

25:10 funding and the valley of death

28:04 the capital void

31:11 programs consolidate

32:28 Anduril acquisition

33:37 the small business divide

34:14 DoD Accelerator fit

36:12 Baxter Aerospace example

41:19 the cheat code

44:26 crystal ball

45:17 the prime cartel?

46:32 magic wand - IR&D policy change

49:10 policy hurts start-ups

52:51 DoD Accelerator focus areas

There is a strange set of organizations that live betweenindustry and government called Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs).

They play an important—but largely misunderstood role—in national security.

What better way to understand it all than with a guest who’sone of the most famous pop-culture examples: Christine Fox.

She was the real person who was portrayed as ‘Charlie’,Maverick’s civilian love interest, in Top Gun! She spent 40+ years working as an analyst in UARCs and a civilian leader at the Pentagon, culminating in serving as the acting Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Today, she continues to serve as a Fellow at Johns HopkinsUniversity’s Applied Physics Lab (JHU APL), which is the nation’s largest UARC.

This interview has a ton of inside baseball that you won’t find anywhere else!

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00:00 intro

00:35 Top Gun

01:33 Christine Fox

02:53 origin of FFRFC & UARC

05:36 access to classified info

08:30 tech transfer

11:33 independence

14:42 threat analysis story

16:35 misunderstandings

20:29 software and competition

24:32 fix the gray

27:11 what if they disappear?

27:39 Navy Red Sea support

28:29 hypersonics

30:08 Golden Dome

31:01 whole of nation approach

38:20 2026 resolutions

39:42 closing remarks

Mike sits down with Matt Hawkins and Nick LaRovere,co-founders of Pryzm.

Pryzm is building an Operating System for defense innovation—software that uses AI to generate capture intel to make sense of Pentagon budgets, Congressional legislation, program offices, and much more.

It’s AI to understand the Pentagon.

They help connect the dots between missions, markets, andpeople to power the future of national security.

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• Pryzm homepage https://pryzm.io  

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00:00

01:43 intro

02:30 origin story

05:57 disclosure

07:07 2 PMs

08:47 Air Force tanker program

21:47 Golden Dome

28:12 sales vs business development

33:04 proactive vs reactive

34:59 intel to flip the script

37:56 a bubble?

41:18 flat toplines

43:05 requested vs executed

46:38 fundraise

48:27 DIU project

50:58 2026 outlook

55:29 outro

Chris "Snooze" Kurek, Rob “Trip” Raymond, and Erik“EZ” Brine chat with Mike “Pako” Benitez on all things fighter pilot culture—toast, roast, and lore.

Better known as Dos Gringos, Snooze, and Trip put out 4albums of fighter pilot songs that are famous (and infamous) in squadrons around the world. EZ joined the duo to form Operation Encore in 2012, a non-profit that helps veterans get their music into the world.

We dig into a century of fighter pilot history and traditions, from the origins of Dos Gringos, the squadron culture, roll call,Jermiah Weed, the ribbing and roasting, and all the camaraderie associated with military aviation.

They recently brought all of that into their latest venture, Winglore Spirits, and are doing it in a unique way that brings you into the fold.

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• ⁠Winglore Spirits⁠

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00:00

01:47 Dos Gringos

17:22 Operation Encore

24:03 AI music

27:27 The culture and bar origins

34:27 Jermiah Weed

38:13 Winglore Spirits

42:03 Bogey Dope

43:16 Nickel on the Grass

45:29 Winglore squadron

50:42 the Nellis Club

52:02 Dos Gringos concert?

54:45 outro

55:04 Carlos jumps in

56:23 I wish I had a gun like the A-10