🔷 Air Force Weapons Czar

Feature

We recently sat down with Andrew Hunter, the US Air Force’s weapons czar, to chat about how he’s changing the way the Air Force buys things to support Great Power Competition.

His official title is the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (ATL), but “weapons czar” sounds much cooler.

His name may not be as other civilians in the Pentagon, but he plays a massive role: He oversees more than 550 acquisition programs exceeding $60B—annually—and is the advisor to the Air Force leadership on modernization efforts.

We discussed how he’s driving acquisition innovation and steering the Air Force through an ‘acquisitions perfect storm.’

The conversation ranged from the good (the B-21 bomber program), the bad (the Sentinel ICBM program), and the unusual (the E-7 Wedgetail negotiation)—and why those things have played out the way they did.

These are insights—straight from the source—that you won’t find anywhere else.

Other things we geeked out over: evolving views of commercial vs. defense markets, how the Air Force wants to structure programs to maintain competition for industry, ‘non-traditional’ companies in defense, workforce development, how he’s using a brand new authority Congress granted the Pentagon, and finally…can Elon Musk’s design principles be applied to Pentagon processes?

He even shared some new data on the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program that has not previously been made public.

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

Check it out!

YouTube 

Apple 

Spotify

In That Number

70 years old

The C-130 just turned 70 years old—the link is an excellent reflection on the history back to its 1st flight on Aug. 23, 1954.

TRIVIA

What do Google Earth, the CIA, and James Bond have in common?

On the Radar

Istari is partnered with Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works to be the first to digitally certify an aircraft for flight. The effort is part of the Air Force’s Flyer One program; Istari was awarded a $19m contract last year, but the partner aerospace company was unnamed at the time.

• The Merge’s Take: The goal of proving that a digital design can be reliably certified for flight before an aircraft is physically built….is not this. They are using Lockheed’s X-56A MUTT, a low-cost modular 500-lb drone used as a testbed for NASA that’s been around for 11 years. The effort is to replace some parts of the X-56A—the landing gear, cameras, and some obsolete components—then fly it in parallel in the real world and compare those flight science results with the digital model in simulation. The goal is to meet the burden of physical proof normally required for a Military Flight Release (MFR). Gotta start somewhere, and this proof of concept seems like it’s working—the updated X-67A just passed critical design review.

Defcon AI closed a seed fundraising round to improve military logistics with decision-making tools for mobility planners.

• The Merge’s Take: 3 things jump out to us. First, the seed round was a massive $44m—likely the largest ever seed round for a venture-backed US defense company. Second, it’s already delivered an automated planning system to the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command. Lastly, its co-founder is retired Air Force General Paul Selva, a former mobility pilot who led the branch’s Air Mobility Command and served as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I sense a podcast episode in the near future.

Northrop Grumman flew a new type of sensor for the first time on a military aircraft. The Electronically-Scanned Multifunction Reconfigurable Integrated Sensor (EMRIS) is like an AESA radar antenna but uses back-end digital electronics designed to be upgradeable on commercial timescales.

• The Merge’s Take: Did you know that Northrop designs and builds their computer chips? We didn’t either, but that’s one of the enablers for this new tech. It sent us waay down a rabbit hole about chips and national security—stay tuned for a feature topic….

They Said It
“If you can produce something at a price point [that’s] a third of the F-35 that will work effectively without the man being able to be in it, I’ll be asking for it… It’s not really a technology issue. It’s more of a CONOPs and expense issue.”

— Dr. Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, on his support for autonomous drones called Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA)

Knowledge Bombs

• Shield AI flight tested collaborative autonomy using jet drones

• The Pentagon revealed more funded RDER projects that transitioned to the military services this year, which now total 9 (7 in the link due to classification in the link)

• Joby & Reliable Robotics' autonomous Cessnas were used for unmanned logistical missions during a recent Air Force exercise

• DIU tapped 3 companies—Auterion, ModalAI, and Neros—to prototype anti-jam solutions for drones

• Sikorsky’s VH-92A helo finally became ‘Marine One’ when it took the skies for the first time with a President on board

• TrustPoint won 2 SpaceWERX contracts, furthering their plan to establish a GPS alternative with C-band constellation in low-Earth orbit

• Ares Industries, a new US defense start-up, announced they already flight-tested a low-cost anti-ship cruise missile concept

• Kaman & Elroy Air completed a performance evaluation of their competing autonomous resupply drones for the Marine Corps

• The Air Force is looking for a new ISR drone that flies for 24 hours and 1,500 miles for Middle East operations—that isn’t an MQ-9

🎁Earn Free Merch!🎁 

Hey. Don't keep us a secret!
Share the Merge = earn free swag. It's that simple.

You currently have 0 referrals, only 3 away from receiving Stickers.

Or copy and paste this link: https://themerge.co/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

ANSWER
Google Earth originated as a program called EarthViewer, developed by Keyhole Inc. in 2001. The CIA’s venture capital firm, In-Q-Tel, invested in Keyhole to enhance the software for intelligence purposes. In-Q-Tel's name is a nod to "Q," the fictional gadget inventor in James Bond. Google acquired Keyhole in 2004 and transformed EarthViewer into the Google Earth we know today.