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Fence in for interviews and anecdotes about the ins, outs, and happenings at the intersection of technology, industry, strategy, and policy of aerospace and national defense.
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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 4 albums 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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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
Nooks co-founder and CEO Sean Blackman spills all thesecrets about what it takes to do classified business with the Pentagon.
Nooks is a venture-backed startup founded in 2021 to solve amassive pain point: access to classified offices and networks to perform sensitive national security work.
Nooks is attacking the problem in an innovative way called Classified-Infrastructure-as-a-Service (CIaaS), which is a subscription access to a nationwide network of classifiedworkspaces and IT.
If you are in the defense industry—or even thinking about it—and there is even a sliver of a chance you will touch classified work, this episode is everything you need to know.
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00:00
00:46 intro
01:49 Nooks
02:52 origin story
09:49 name and logo
12:30 locations and spaces
13:30 location and the real value unlock
17:57 COVID
19:20 fractional labs
20:06 fundraising for a weird company
22:01 information disadvantage
23:33 myth of hiring security clearances
30:00 SCIF
34:09 mobile SCIF
39:23 touchpoints and impact
42:13 security in shared spaces
46:48 the real impact
47:36 magic wand - crystal ball
49:50 make the problem go away
secrets, top secret, military, technology, tech, defense, national security, air force, navy, army, marine corps, usmc
Red 6 CEO and co-founder Dan Robinson discusses augmented reality for pilots, the military metaverse, and the future of high-end training and tactics development.
Red 6 was founded in 2018 around a revolutionary approach to military flight training called ATARS—the Advanced Tactical Augmented Reality System—that creates virtual outdoor worlds to deliver threat-relevant,near-peer-level training scenarios.
It’s much more than an augmented reality helmet—it's rethinking the entire pilot training and readiness experience.
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00:00
00:42 intro
01:41 origin story
05:22 thesis of Red 6
06:17 co-founder meeting
10:43 lack of adversaries to train against
16:03 realism that gets missed
17:58 surface threats
21:03 progress and iteration
25:25 all of the technical challenges
27:20 suspension of disbelief
30:37 replacing helmet-mounted cueing
32:09 Enders Game
34:18 the Red 6 name
35:59 UK Royal Air Force
38:33 manned + unmanned
45:08 validating tactics and training
51:34 quality vs quantity training
54:30 the technology is coming
55:21 flying
56:43 the chief morale officer
Mike sits down with Steve “Wingie” Wingfield to discuss the Joint Direct Attack Munition, aka the JDAM—the world’s first operational GPS-aided bomb.
Wingie played a big role in the Air Force, doing weaponsflight testing and requirements writing, then went on to have another career at Boeing working on JDAM and other weapons.
He’s one of the few people who got to see the entire storyarc, from the pain points in Desert Storm that started the whole thing, to other evolutions like Laser JDAM and extended range JDAM, and how those programscame to be.
If you want a rare inside look at how one of the most successful acquisition programs in the past 30 years happened, this episode is for you.
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00:00
01:02 intro
05:43 JDAM name origin
06:56 accuracy spec origin
10:43 Desert Storm McPeak Memo
11:16 GAM before JDAM
12:29 Kosovo combat debut
14:39 40k for 40k competition
17:44 JDAM adoption
22:50 production feast & famine
25:19 9/11 demand signal
26:33 surging with standards
28:43 Iraqi Freedom GPS jamming
29:53 Laser JDAM origins
33:38 the impact
36:01 hitting moving targets
37:54 106 mph!
39:39 MOP
41:33 JDAM-ER
41:47 Ukraine
42:53 integration and modularity
43:41 aerial mining
46:22 outro
#military #airforce #navy #aviation #tech #technology #JDAM #boeing #GPS #defense #desert storm #iraq #syria #afghanistan #miltech #engineering #USA #security
In this episode, Mike sits down with Dan Jablonsky, CEO ofUrsa Major, to discuss solid rocket motors and how Ursa Major is doing it differently.
Once dominated by just two suppliers, America’s SRM propulsion base has been stretched thin—leaving gaps exposed by today’s conflicts.
Dan explains how Ursa Major is tackling that challenge withmodular production, 3D printing, Highly Loaded Grain propellants, and advanced manufacturing using what they’ve learned from their liquid motor product lines.
We also talk about the big picture: hypersonics, cruisemissiles, and upcoming programs with RTX (Raytheon), the U.S. Navy (SM-2, SM-3, SM-6), the Army, and Stratolaunch.
If you want to understand why missile production is one of the biggest defense challenges of our time—and how new entrants like Ursa Major are building solutions—this episode is for you.
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• Ursa Major website
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00:00
00:42 intro
01:04 Ursa Major
02:22 company name
03:48 getting into the SRM business
05:29 SRM industrial base
07:15 doing SRMs differently
09:14 SRM 101
12:07 Highly Loaded Grain
13:08 increasing missile range
15:34 rapid development
16:44 scale with safety
22:25 rapidly adapting SRMs to the threat
23:03 3D printing everything?
24:59 hypersonic motors
27:20 missiles in space
27:47 affordable mass
29:14 outro
Electronic warfare is a crucial element of armed conflict involving controlling and protecting the electromagnetic spectrum, which is vital for communication, navigation, and target identification.
EW also permits the disruption and denial of adversaries' use of the spectrum, hindering their ability to operate effectively.
Benjamin “Chuck” Angus, Director of Business Development in Naval Power at Raytheon, a business of RTX, joins us this week to discuss Raytheon's involvement in EW, specifically offensive electronic attack, with its NextGeneration Jammer—an advanced electronic attack system that denies, disrupts, and degrades enemy technology, including communication tools and air-defense systems.
In this episode, Mike and Jake catch up on defense techhappenings.
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00:36 intro
03:31 defense tech investing
17:25 Anduril & Golden Dome
18:13 Golden Dome
25:51 frequency auctioning
28:12 Ukraine forcing a US reckoning
34:27 DIU criticism
42:24 the 4th offset?
46:39 Sun Tzu terrain
47:45 the torpedo
50:05 Ukraine drones and Israeli pagers
Tomorrow’s fight will be fast, complex, and contested. Victory won’t come from a single platform, weapon, or payload—it will depend on how well everything works together.
That’s where modeling and simulation (M&S) matters.
This week, Raytheon (an RTX company) joins us to discuss how they are leading the way with Rapid Campaign Analysis and Demonstration Environment (RCADE), a campaign-level M&S capability built to help decision-makers think beyond individual systems and enables them to see the entire operational ecosystem.
Don’t miss our newsletter!That's where we drop weekly knowledge bombs to help you make sense of defense!
In this episode, Mike sits down with Sheila Cummings,founder, president, and CEO of Cummings Aerospace.
Cummings Aero started in 2009 supporting the Huntsville,Alabama missile market, but recently decided to launch their own product—the Hellhound.
The Hellhound S3 is a man-portable, 3D-printe,d jet-powered kamikaze drone...and we have the FIRST-PUBLIC views of the actual drone—audio and video!
BREAKING NEWS: Sheila also announced a new variant—theHellhound S4. It’s tube-launched, bigger, better, and even faster than the S3!
If you're into military drones, cutting-edge tech, and thestart-up culture of finding ways to help the warfighter—this episode is for you.
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00:00 start
01:18 intro
01:56 origin story
05:03 high speed background
06:34 Hellhound origin story
10:54 introducing the Hellhound
11:27 3D-printed
12:31 finding an engine
13:34 See the Hellhound
21:20 naming the Hellhound
22:39 family of drones
24:38 supersonic variant
29:22 China & Industrialization
32:32 Industrial Mobilization Board
35:47 outro
Joe “Grip” Beissner, Director of Requirements and Capabilities for Radio Frequency Solutions at Raytheon, a business of RTX, joins us to discuss the cutting-edge AESA radars Raytheon delivers for our warfighters.
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