Mike hosts Air Force Colonel Don “Stryker” Haley to talk about how the US military predicts the future. Learn about how future concepts are created and war-gamed, and how that determines which technology should be prioritized for development to solve the right problems.

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* Don “Stryker” Haley on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-stryker-haley/

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Show Notes

(00:44) intro

(04:32) setting the stage

(09:16) 2018 NDS

(12:06) JWC 1.0

(16:10) what wargames are for

(19:20) JWC 2.0 and Integrated Deterrence

(19:40) 4 functional battles – CJADC2

(23:17) JWC 3.0

(24:04) the problem with near-term wargaming

(26:27) Top Secret

(28:13) who looks at the future

(31:36) wargaming

(32:19) white/blue/red teams

(40:59) what operators get wrong

(45:10) a blitz may be a mistake

(47:30) Globally Integrated Wargames (GIWG)

(48:33) lots of secrets

(54:01) learning no one’s in charge

(57:17) what happens after wargaming

(1:00:46) the budgeting realities

(1:02:36) Agile Combat Employment (ACE)

(1:08:34) cruise missiles from cargo planes

(1:15:12) AI-powered drones (CCAs)

(1:19:13) outro

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#wargame, #wargames #airforcefutures #jointwarfighting #airforce #militaryplanning #militarytechnology #china #CCA #rapiddragon #collaborativecombataircraft #nationalsecurity #drones #cruisemissile #military #usmilitary #pentagon# strategy #technology #mil tech #military tech #airforce #air force #army #navy # marine corps #secrets

Mike and Jake chat with Chris Moran, VP and General Manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures, for an inside look into why the world’s largest defense company invests hundreds of millions of dollars into tech startup companies.

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* Support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/the_merge

* Lockheed Martin Ventures https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/who-we-are/lockheed-martin-ventures.html

* Machina Labs https://www.machinalabs.ai/

* Norm Augustine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_R._Augustine

* Augustine’s laws https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine%27s_laws

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Show Notes

(01:03) intro

(03:08) icebreaker

(04:59) how Chris got into defense

(07:35) how Chris got into defense finance

(11:52) VC 101

(12:21) Lockheed’s investment track record

(14:32) how to exit an investment

(19:10) quantum use-cases

(20:30) Machina Labs

(23:02) investment tension

(25:11) times have changed

(32:20) dual-use hedge

(38:15) Lockheed Martin CEOs

(41:46) Kelly Johnson

(48:16) magic wand

(49:51) what everyone gets wrong about innovation

(52:17) graveyard of eVTOL companies

(55:13) lightning round

(58:45) outro

Mike and Tim chat with Andrew “Scar” Van Timmeren from Blue Force Technologies to hear about their experience in the defense tech sector and how they are trying to punch above their weight class—by building an unmanned fighter jet drone.

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* Blue Force Technologies https://blueforcetech.com/ 

* Scar’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewvt/

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Show Notes

(01:05) intro

(03:03) Scar intro

(05:52) BFT

(13:01) spicy take on digital engineering

(15:28) BFT's SBIR experience

(24:56) funding gaps

(25:47) valley of death

(34:47) end user vs. customer are not the same

(36:18) Fury

(37:35) practice squads

(43:27) mission-specific vs multi-role engineering

(46:30) autonomy and atrophy

(48:28) speed of business vs govt

(50:10) the ask – security and over-classification

(52:03) Mike's spicy take

(52:55) outro

Mike, Jake, and Tim reunite to catch up on three tech topics: the SVB bank run, national security concerns with TikTok, and the latest with generative AI.

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Links

* Sign up for our amazing newsletter https://www.themerge.co

* Support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/the_merge

* Ask Sage (GPT for US govt CUI data) https://www.asksage.ai

* Creating a task-driven autonomous agent using GPT4 https://yoheinakajima.com/task-driven-autonomous-agent-utilizing-gpt-4-pinecone-and-langchain-for-diverse-applications

* Jake’s AI book recommendation (Daemon, by Daniel Suarez): https://www.amazon.com/DAEMON-Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731  

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Show Notes

(00:31) intro

(1:25) Jake’s SVB steak dinner

(2:00) SVB bank run

(4:51) SVB and national security

(16:57) TikTok

(19:46) the upside of TikTok

(23:56) TikTok's algorithm after the hearing

(27:18) TikTok's big China problem

(34:08) The Restrict Act

(39:33) Generative AI

(41:08) BingAI vs ChatGPT

(43:53) AI story time

(44:55) Ask Sage

(49:18) ChatGPT for legal help

(58:42) outro

Mike joins forces with The Afterburn Podcast’s John “Rain” Waters to co-host an epic interview with the Commander of the Air Force Thunderbirds AND the Executive Officer of the Navy Blue Angels. We go behind the scenes with both teams to learn about leadership, flying, teamwork in a way you’ve never heard before.

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* Support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/the_merge

* The Afterburn Podcast https://www.theafterburnpodcast.com/

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Show Notes

(01:20) intro

(2:45) icebreaker

(10:06) sitting in the same room

(12:53) learning from each other

(13:55) T-birds rough period

(14:47) sometimes you can see culture

(15:40) cultural waves in the two teams

(16:36) the T-birds T-38 cultural era

(19:02) President Carter’s Crisis of Confidence

(26:02) Blue’s “glad to be here” culture

(27:59) how tough is the flying?

(29:44) there is no off-season

(33:37) team dynamics of an exemplar squadron

(35:08) The T-birds’ hangar

(36:27) contagious culture of excellence

(36:42) Agile Combat Employment

(37:27) Blue Angels' hangar

(39:57) how they travel

(43:28) authority and trust are key

(45:19) Fat Albert

(46:12) Van Halen M&Ms

(47:15) they’ve never canceled due to maintenance

(48:47) Angels on arrival

(50:01) debrief culture

(50:52) Fat Albert JATO

(52:18) Top Gun Maverick

(54:10) new Super Hornets

(57:30) T-Birds’ tricks to flying that good

(1:03:00) Angels’ tricks to flying that good

(1:04:43) counting feathers

(1:06:17) aiming to crash

(1:07:57) most memorable experience on the teams

(1:08:59) Chris Darnell

(1:14:12) outro

Mike “Starbaby” Pietrucha joins Mike and Jake to talk about Ukraine on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion. Hear about how it all happened, where the war stands today, what matters now, and what the future looks like for peace.

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* Support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/the_merge

* NAFO https://nafo-ofan.org/

* Saint Javelin https://www.saintjavelin.com/

* Sign My Rocket https://signmyrocket.com/

* Amateur Hour Part II: https://warontherocks.com/2022/08/amateur-hour-part-ii-failing-the-air-campaign/

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Show Notes

(00:50) intro

(2:28) Starbaby becomes an expert

(3:51) the real invasion start

(9:03) why did Putin invade?

(12:14) Nazis?

(15:20) torture

(17:07) weather stalemate

(18:42) climate change?

(20:26) NAFO and the internet campaigns

(22:26) sponsor suicide boats

(23:05) foreign aid

(25:17) a lab to observe

(29:25) ground-launched SDB

(31:12) ATACMS

(31:44) Kerch Bridge

(33:22) logistics

(34:15) Russia’s inability to fight a war

(36:26) China is watching

(37:23) what does peace look like?

(41:23) Ukrainian’s take on peace

(44:25) outro

Hermeus CEO AJ Piplica joins us to talk about the hypersonic airplanes they’re building, breaking the SR-71 speed record, their go-to-market strategy, the parallels to Top Gun Maverick, and a ton of other stuff.

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* AJ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajpiplica/

* AJ Twitter https://twitter.com/AJ_Piplica

* Hermeus https://www.hermeus.com/

* Hermeus Twitter https://twitter.com/HermeusCorp

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Show Notes

(00:57) intro

(5:45) AJ’s origin story

(7:25) how old were you?

(8:24) not a space person

(10:11) sequestration

(10:48) missiles to aircraft

(12:41) Monospony the board game

(13:12) Raising money the right way

(15:04) the name?

(16:42) how Hermeus was funded

(18:33) AJ loves our ChatGPT rap song

(19:16) AJ's spicy take on defense profits

(22:06) climbing the food chain

(23:14) using a T-38 engine to go Mach 4

(24:08) Top Gun Maverick

(25:52) Quarterhorse

(28:52) breaking the SR-71 speed record

(31:04) Darkhorse

(33:41) avoiding the Valley of Death

(40:09) lobbying is the price of entry

(41:22) AJ's Christmas Tree

(46:05) why do it at all?

(49:00) Hermeus has one competitor

(51:28) Halcyon

(55:51) how the Pentagon prices things

(59:52) outro

Merge Podcast Episode 5: Mike, Jake, and Tim pick apart some op-eds about military spending for research and development spending, innovation, and why the military sucks at getting tech to the warfighter. They also catch up on the news about grounded airplanes with NOTAM crash, ponder the legalisms of having secrets in a garage, and end with a discussion on some AI tools—and a surprise.

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* Op-Ed 1: https://warontherocks.com/2023/01/leveraging-u-s-capital-markets-to-support-the-future-industrial-network/

* Op-Ed 2: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/federal-contracting/why-dod-should-get-out-of-the-r-d-business-mislav-tolusic

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Show Notes

(1:00) intro

(2:03) op-ed 1 – $$

(13:39) lab to field challenges

(15:55) IP

(17:10) cemented culture

(18:56) misaligned incentives

(20:11) op-ed 2 - defund R&D

(22:37) innovation time horizons

(23:36) proportion investing in R&D vs procurement

(25:07) Mike’s spicy take on R&D spending

(29:30) Tim on transitioning tech

(32:50) Congress spending cuts

(37:42) cut the Pentagon

(40:20) – how a bill becomes a law

(41:37) the deficit is a national security challenge

(42:39) NOTAMs down!

(47:34) Mike goes down a NOTAM rabbit hole

(47:55) military NOTAM website

(50:40) classified papers by a corvette

(59:01) ChatGPT or other AI news

(1:13:28) a rap song

(1:15:48) outro

Mike hosts defense acquisition experts Eric Lofgren and Matt MacGregor to better understand just how hard it is for the US military to buy stuff. We also discuss a shortcut called a Middle Tier Acquisition (MTA), along with some examples you’ve probably heard of: B-52 engines, F-15EX fighter jets, and hypersonic missiles.

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* Eric contact https://www.linkedin.com/in/elofgren/

* Eric’s Acquisition Talk https://acquisitiontalk.com 

* Matt contact https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-macgregor77/

* Matt’s op-ed https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2022/09/get-know-middle-tier-awesomeer-acquisition/377017/

* Pentagon Wars (full movie) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir0FAa8P2MU

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Show Notes

(1:00) intro

(4:12) overview

(5:06) monopsony

(6:58) requirements

(9:04) Pentagon Wars

(20:45) acquisition strategy

(23:44) “joint”

(31:58) how much does it cost?

(35:38) the budget

(37:11) the PPBE

(43:06) what is the NDAA?

(45:38) what is an MTA?

(53:15) MTA examples

(53:27) B-52 engines

(1:01:00) IVAS (Army AR headset)

(1:05:06) F-15EX

(1:11:05) F-22 Link-16 and IRST

(1:11:50) ARRW (hypersonic)

(1:17:44) story time