Why the US military needs a ‚Defense Unicorn‘: Weapons and Warfare

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

CHINA VERSUS CHINA ON THE HIGH SEAS, SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SHIPS COLLIDE.

PLUS, FORCED FROM THE SERVICE AND DENIED EARLY RETIREMENT. A DIFFICULT CHOICE FOR SOME SOON TO BE VETERANS.

AND DRONES ARMED WITH ANTI-PERSONEL MINES IN THE SKIES OVER ALABAMA. WHY THEY’RE MAKING HISTORY.

HELLO AND WELCOME TO WEAPONS AND WARFARE. A SHOW MADE FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT OUR NATIONAL DEFENSE. 

OUR GOAL IS TO HELP YOU HAVE AN INFORMED CONVERSATION ABOUT WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH AMERICA’S MILITARY.

FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS, I’M YOUR HOST, RYAN ROBERTSON, AND WE START THIS WEEK WITH A VISIT WITH AN AIR FORCE VETERAN, AND CO-FOUNDER SLASH CEO OF A COMPANY CALLED DEFENSE UNICORNS. 

OFFICIALLY–THEY’RE NAVIGATING  AIR-GAPPED ENVIRONMENTS AND CYBERSECURITY CHALLENGES TO MITIGATE SECURITY RISKS FROM FOREIGN APPLICATIONS.

TRANSLATION? THEY’RE WORKING TO BRING A US-BASED SOFTWARE SOLUTION TO THE DOD’S DEFENSE SYSTEMS.

ALL RIGHT. ROB SLAUGHTER, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR JOINING US WITH DEFENSE UNICORNS. I KNOW THAT I WAS JUST TOLD YOUR TITLE, BUT JUST TO MAKE SURE I GET IT RIGHT, CAN YOU JUST, CEO? CO-FOUNDER? LIKE WHAT’S..?

[Rob Slaughter, Co-Founder/CEO, Defense Unicorns]

“CEO, co-founder of Defense Unicorns.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

ALL RIGHT, YOU ALL ARE FOCUSED ON SOFTWARE, SOFTWARE DRIVEN SOLUTIONS AND CREATING A SOFTWARE THAT CAN BE ACROSS ANY SYSTEM, ANY DEVICE, WHICH YOU KNOW, WHEN YOU READ ABOUT IT’S LIKE, OH, THAT SOUNDS LIKE I KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. BUT FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, WAS, WHAT DOES THAT REALLY MEAN TO HAVE A A SYSTEM AGNOSTIC, DEVICE AGNOSTIC SOFTWARE THAT YOU KNOW, THE ENTIRE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CAN BE ABLE TO USE?

[Rob Slaughter, Co-Founder/CEO, Defense Unicorns]

“Yeah. Well, really starts to really frame what we build from a solution perspective, it’s really good to talk about the problem, because it’s really an understanding the problem that you start to understand, Oh, wow. Like, that’s ultimately like, Oh, wow. You know, it makes sense, everybody kind of knows that a lot of the defense systems, they’re they’re best in the world at what they do. The United States government makes the best stealth technology. We make, the best submarines we make, the best hypersonics, we make the best, you know, insert word here. But what people also realize is that on the software end, a lot of these systems struggle, especially because they tend to live for decades at a time. So even like our newest fighters, like take the F 22 for example, you know, it’s already been fielded for decades, right? And so even though we build this amazing technology, what inadvertently happens is the software that’s used on these systems is many times very outdated, and the entire world has gone through so much changes in the software world and so much modernization that really the DOD has really struggled to catch up. And part of the fundamental issue is that a lot of the software solutions and software platforms that were built for the commercial world. It’s not that they’re 100% incompatible, but they just weren’t designed for defense customers in mind. So there’s some of these challenges that are very, very common in the defense world that are just not at all really experienced in the commercial world to the same extent. So to kind of talk about, you know, really three of the challenges. First and foremost, in the DOD, you have a ton of air gapped software systems. You have a lot of environments that are either semi disconnected or fully disconnected from the internet. Ryan, in your life, I’m sure you’re plugged into the Internet. 24/7 the rest of my life, everybody’s life, you don’t even know what it means to not be connected to the internet. Yet most of our defense systems are disconnected. And for very, very good reason, the next thing is, there’s a ridiculously complex cybersecurity stack. And so like everybody is, you know, is tracking the news, is tracking everything that China and Russia is doing to our infrastructure, is doing to our defense systems. And for very good reason, these tech stacks that are deployed in defense are built and designed assuming that somebody’s going to try to penetrate them. And how do you monitor that? How do you actually run within those systems? How do you detect and eliminate them? And the third thing is that the person, the people who are operating these systems, don’t have the same experience as everybody else, and so they’re hard because they’re disconnected. They’re complex because of this, you know, complicated cybersecurity stack. And then the people operating them, the young Airmen, the soldier, the prime contractor, they’re not a Google engineer. And it turns out the Googles of the world built systems that favor and cater to Google type engineers. And that’s not to discredit it. The technology is amazing, but you actually have to build something from the ground up that takes care of the air gap situation, that actually has all the cybersecurity aspects and considerations in by default. And then, thirdly, is actually built by design to support that soldier, to support that airman. And nothing else other than what Defense Unicorns offers does that today.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

AND WHERE, I MEAN, WHERE IS THIS OPERATING SYSTEM GOING TO GO? RIGHT? IS IT, IS IT GOING TO GO INTO OPERATING THE SENTINEL 3s AND THE B-21s AND, YOU KNOW, THE STINGER MISSILE, YOU KNOW, REMOTE CONTROL THING THAT I HAVE, LIKE, WHAT, LIKE, ALL OF THOSE THINGS?

[Rob Slaughter, Co-Founder/CEO, Defense Unicorns]

“Yeah, so don’t want to list specific, sure, but everything from fighter jets to nuclear submarines to, you know, everything that’s a tank or plane or a cloud system, the smallest systems we work on is like small tactical drones. And then the largest systems that we work on are like enterprise platform solutions that are, you know, contributing and working with, you know, tens of 1000s of users.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

AND ONE OF THE THINGS KIND OF HOLDING BACK THE THE INTEGRATION OF THIS IS A LOT OF THE TECH IS BASED ON CHINESE SPECIFICATIONS. AND. AS CHINESE COMPONENTS IN IT, AND SO THAT THERE’S NO WAY CAN EVER BE, YOU KNOW, ACCREDITED AS BEING GOING INTO THE DOD STUFF BECAUSE IT’S CHINESE BASED. IS THAT ACCURATE?

[Rob Slaughter, Co-Founder/CEO, Defense Unicorns]

“Absolutely. A lot of people, when they think about supply chain security, they’re looking at things like chips and suppliers that are feeding these hardware systems. On the software side, there’s also as big of, if not a greater concern, which is who’s actually writing this code. And so, of course, on the commercial side, you have some closed source solutions. But even on the open source side, you have open source solutions that could be 4050, 60% owned and maintained by people who are from and currently residing in nations that are not friendly to the US and what’s terrifying to us and has been really one of the motivators for some of the technologies we built, including our latest release of UDS registry, which literally just released a week ago, is building technology that is US based, that is us sourced, that has the ability to not just secure software, but under the hood, is owned and maintained by US and US friendly allies. Right now, that’s becoming a more and more greater concern. And what you see, you know, you brought up Sentinel as a good example, a lot of these programs are leveraging open source and those open source solutions, what they’re finding out is, under the hood, they might be 2030, 4050, 60% Chinese maintained. Do we really want our nuclear arsenal? 4050, 60% maintained by China? Absolutely not.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

WHY IS IT TAKING SO LONG FOR THIS KIND OF FOR YOU AND DEFENSE UNICORN LIKE, WHY WASN’T THIS HAPPENING 10 YEARS AGO, 20 YEARS AGO, WHEN, YOU KNOW, WHEN AL GORE INVENTED THE INTERNET? HOW COME THIS WASN’T A PART OF EVERYTHING WHEN WEAPONS WERE BEING DEVELOPED? 

[Rob Slaughter, Co-Founder/CEO, Defense Unicorns]

“Yeah, I think I’ll actually go back to the first problem we solved, which was an air gapped environment. 30 years ago, every environment was air gapped. This wasn’t a problem, you know. And if you look at society, like I said, you know, Netflix wasn’t Netflix. They were mailing DVDs. And so the the persona of who manages your software, you know, 30 years ago, you did you you bought it, you went to the store, you bought a CD, you plugged it into the device. You manage your own software right now, we’re running on software. There’s, you know, recording of us running on some platform. You don’t run that. I don’t run that. Somebody else is running that, because the entire world has adopted a SaaS, you know, software type of experience to where somebody else is actually managing the IT operations of the system, because it’s more efficient. You don’t have to worry about it. You don’t have to do the updates yourself. Somebody else is doing that. When you go into defense, you have an air gap network. You are running that yourself. Sometimes that’s a soldier, sometimes that’s a soldier deployed overseas, and sometimes they have a vulnerability in their system. Sometimes they have a latest software update that they have to manage and go through. The rest of the world’s not doing that. They’re they have centralized systems. You know, you obviously cover a ton of the, you know, defense news. You know, it is decentralized command and control and decentralized execution on software. It is all centrally managed. Everything is central and everything in defense is highly decentral and highly distributable. So it’s just fundamentally apples and oranges. And 30 years ago, this wasn’t a problem, because software, like I said, it was air gapped, it was highly distributable. Fast forward a couple decades, and the DoD is still treating software like it’s a Microsoft operating system, and like you’re going to install it on a disk. And because of that, there’s this huge mismatch between the technology that the smartest people in the world has developed and how the DoD actually needs to run its software and defense. Unicorns exists to make that amazing, best in class, world class software actually work in these environments.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

WHAT’S THE RISK IF, IF YOU FAIL, WHAT’S THE RISK IF THIS, IF, IF THIS KIND OF SOFTWARE, IF THIS KIND OF INITIATIVE, DOES NOT GET ADOPTED BY THE DOD, WHAT’S WHAT’S AT STAKE?

[Rob Slaughter, Co-Founder/CEO, Defense Unicorns]

“Yeah, I think, I think it goes back to global competition. I think we continue to spend a ton of money in the defense budget, and you’re overall going to have to spend more for your software. You’re going to have to spend more for the same results. If we are successful, you’re going to have to spend less quote per unit of software, which allows you to become more mission effective. So I think it goes back to global competition. I think it becomes harder to compete with China. China doesn’t have a problem integrating their tech startups that are making AI capabilities. Those are direct injecting into their military pretty quickly. If we’re successful, the entire nation can inject technology into the defense systems. If we’re not, then there’s. Going to be this one or two or three year delay. If you follow how rapidly AI has changed in the last three years, imagine going to combat to where, you know, somebody’s running with the latest version of AI from their latest LLM, and you’re still running on something three years old. That’s, you know, in our opinion, that’s a losing proposition.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

A BIG THANK YOU TO ROB AND HIS TEAM FOR MAKING SOME TIME FOR US. AS WE WERE WRAPPING THINGS UP, ROB TOLD ME ULTIMATELY IT COMES DOWN TO THIS, TO EFFECTIVELY COMPETE WITH CHINA, THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE NEEDS TO ADOPT UNIFORM DATA SYSTEMS OR SOMETHING SIMILAR. PUTTING AN EMPHASIS ON THE NEED FOR A COHESIVE STRATEGY THAT WILL ALLOW SENIOR MILITARY LEADERSHIP TO RESPOND EFFECTIVELY TO EXTERNAL THREATS.

I’M JOINED NOW BY SENIOR PRODUCER, AND AIR FORCE VETERAN, BRETT BAKER.

FOR SOME HEADLINES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

ALRIGHT BRETT–BEFORE WE DIVE INTO THIS STUFF–I WANT TO KIND OF HARKEN BACK TO YOUR TIME IN THE AIR FORCE–OBVIOUSLY, IT’S BEEN A MINUTE–BUT DID YOU AND YOUR FELLOW AIRMEN EVER FORESEE OUR MILITARY GETTING SO TECHY? 

[BRETT BAKER]

YOU KNOW, I CAN REMEMBER THE DAY WHEN I WAS AT AIR FORCE TELEVISION NEWS AND WE ALL GOT OUR FIRST PAGERS. THAT WAS, LIKE, A BIG DEAL, LIKE WE GOT PAGERS. THIS IS PRETTY COOL.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

I WAS RAISED TO THINK ONLY DRUG DEALERS HAD PAGERS, BUT WHATEVER.

[BRETT BAKER]

SO DID THE AMERICAN MILITARY. AND YOU KNOW, WHEN WE WENT TO NON-LINEAR EDITING, DIGITAL EDITING, IT WAS A BIG DEAL. SO YOU COULD SEE THE PATH. I DON’T THINK ANY OF US COULD HAVE PREDICTED WHAT THE WORLD WAS GOING TO BE LIKE IN THAT REGARD. I MEAN, I WAS, I GOT OUT IN ‘99, SO THAT YOU’RE STILL TALKING BEFORE WIDE ACCESS TO CELL PHONES AND WI-FI AND ALL THAT COOL STUFF. YEAH, SO I, YOU KNOW, I COULDN’T HAVE PREDICTED IT FOR SURE. I’M SURE OTHERS COULD HAVE. BUT LIKE I SAID, WE WERE JUST STOKED TO GET PAGERS.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

OKAY–WELL, THIS IS THE HEADLINES SEGMENT, SO LET’S GET TO IT…

EARLIER THIS MONTH, THE UNITED STATES DEPLOYED THE USS HIGGINS, A GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER AND USS CINCINNATI, A LITTORAL COMBAT SHIP TO UPHOLD FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION IN A DISPUTED SOUTH CHINA SEA SHOAL, WHERE TWO CHINESE NAVY AND COAST GUARD SHIPS COLLIDED WHILE TRYING TO DRIVE AWAY A SMALLER PHILIPPINE SHIP IN A HIGH-SEAS ACCIDENT THAT WAS ALL  CAPTURED ON CAMERA.

A VIDEO MADE PUBLIC BY THE PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD SHOWS THE CHINESE COAST GUARD SHIP BLASTING ITS WATER CANNON SHORTLY BEFORE THAT PART WAS HIT BY THE SPEEDING CHINESE NAVY SHIP.

THE CHINESE NAVY SHIP SUSTAINED DEEP DENTS AND WHAT APPEARED TO BE LINEAR GUSHES ON ITS HULL…THE BOW OF THE COAST GUARD CRAFT WAS SMASHED IN

BRETT–CHINA HAS THE LARGEST NAVY IN THE WORLD–BY HULL COUNT–

BUT, THEY MIGHT NOT HOLD THE TITLE FOR LONG IF THEY KEEP DOING STUFF LIKE THIS

[BRETT BAKER]

YOU KNOW, IT’S KIND OF A WONDER THIS HASN’T HAPPENED BEFORE. IF YOU’VE WATCHED ANY OF THESE VIDEOS, THEY ARE EXTREMELY AGGRESSIVE, WHICH IS PART OF THE POINT WHEN YOU’RE A BULLY TRYING TO BULLY A SMALLER FORCE, AND THIS TIME IT BIT THEM. YEAH, AND, YOU KNOW, I CAN’T SAY I’M SORRY TO SEE IT. I HAVE TO THINK OF THOSE GUYS IN THE PHILIPPINE SHIP THAT WERE TRYING TO STEAM OUT OF THEIR WAY. WE’RE VERY GLAD TO SEE IT. BUT YEAH, IT’S, IT’S JUST RECKLESSNESS FOR THE SAKE OF INTIMIDATION. AND YOU KNOW, WE MAY SEE MORE OF IT. I’M SURE SOMEBODY GOT IN A LOT OF TROUBLE. 

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

I WOULD IMAGINE THE CAPTAINS OF BOTH THE CHINESE COAST GUARD VESSEL AND THE CHINESE NAVY VESSEL PROBABLY MAYBE NEVER HEARD FROM AGAIN, BUT YEAH, YOU’RE RIGHT. IT’S AGGRESSIVENESS, AND WHEN A BULLY YOU KNOW, TAKES A SWING AND FALLS DOWN, EVERYBODY LAUGHS.

SPEAKING OF BULLIES,  THE U.S. AIR FORCE HAS DECIDED TO DENY EARLY RETIREMENT OPTIONS FOR TRANSGENDER SERVICE MEMBERS WITH 15 TO 18 YEARS OF SERVICE.

INSTEAD, THEY ARE BEING SEPARATED WITHOUT RETIREMENT BENEFITS.

THIS DECISION MEANS TRANSGENDER SERVICE MEMBERS MUST CHOOSE BETWEEN A LUMP-SUM SEPARATION PAYMENT OR LEAVING THE SERVICE WITHOUT BENEFITS.

AN AIR FORCE SPOKESPERSON CONFIRMED THAT NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS POLICY WERE APPROVED, DESPITE PREVIOUS NOTIFICATIONS TO SOME MEMBERS.

ALL TRANSGENDER MEMBERS ARE BEING SEPARATED UNDER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S POLICIES.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

BRETT–YOU WERE IN THE AIR FORCE–YOU HAVE FRIENDS STILL SERVING–

HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF ANYTHING LIKE THIS? AN ACTIVE DUTY SERVICE MEMBER BEING FORCED OUT–POTENTIALLY WITHOUT THE BENEFITS THEY SPENT THE BETTER PART OF TWO DECADES EARNING?

[BRETT BAKER]

I’VE I’VE NEVER HEARD OF ANYTHING LIKE THIS. I MEAN, AN EARLY RETIREMENT IS USUALLY SOMETHING THAT COMES ALONG BECAUSE MAYBE THE POSITION GETS ELIMINATED. YOU KNOW, THAT PARTICULAR SKILL SET, OR WHAT HAVE YOU, IS NO LONGER NEEDED, DIVORCING OURSELVES FROM THE POLICY ITSELF, I THINK IT’S A REAL DISSERVICE TO THE FOLKS WHO HAVE SERVED HONORABLY FOR 15 YEARS OR MORE, WHO LIKE. WOULD HAVE GONE, BECAUSE AT A CERTAIN POINT YOU HAVE TO MAKE THAT DECISION. AM I GOING TO MAKE THIS A CAREER? OR I’M GOING TO, YOU KNOW, GET IN NINE, TEN YEARS, I GOT OUT A LITTLE LESS THAN 10 YEARS. I THINK THAT’S KIND OF LIKE WHEN YOU PROBABLY MAKE THAT DECISION. SO FOR THESE FOLKS WHO HAVE SERVED HONORABLY, OBVIOUSLY, TO GET TO 15 YEARS, AND WE’RE TALKING ABOUT, LET’S LOOK AT THE NUMBERS HERE. POINT 2% OF AMERICA’S MILITARY FORCE. THAT’S LOWER THAN THAN THE NATIONAL AVERAGE, POINT 6% FOLKS WHO IDENTIFY AS TRANSGENDER. SO WE’RE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT 4200 SOME ODD PEOPLE ACROSS THE MILITARY, NOT JUST IN THE AIR FORCE. SO YOU’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT A LOT OF MONEY THAT’S GOING TO BE GOING OUT IN TERMS OF RELATIVE SPENDING, RIGHT? SO I THINK THIS IS A STICK IN THE EYE WHEN THERE’S ALREADY A STICK IN ANOTHER EYE THAT THEY DIDN’T NEED TO PULL THE TRIGGER ON. OBVIOUSLY, I HAVE THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ON WHY THEY PROBABLY DID IT, BUT I DO THINK IT’S A REAL DISERVICE TO THOSE FOLKS WHO HAVE SERVED HONORABLY, BECAUSE YOU DON’T GET TO 15 YEARS BY BEING A SCHMUCK, RIGHT? YOU KNOW, SCHMUCKS ARE USUALLY OUT BY THEN. SO, YEAH, THIS IS, THIS IS NOT A GOOD LOOK, AND I THINK IT’S A REAL, A REAL POOR DECISION.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

REGARDLESS OF HOW ANYBODY FEELS ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT TRANSGENDER PEOPLE, YOU KNOW, REGARDLESS OF THAT ARGUMENT, LET’S JUST PUT ALL OF THAT ASIDE. SOME OF THESE, YOU KNOW, SOME OF THESE MEMBERS BY TAKING THE LUMP SUM PAYMENT AND NOT HAVING THE BENEFITS, YOU KNOW, IF, IF THEY HAD AN INJURY, OR THEY HAVE SOME KIND OF MEDICAL THING THAT STEMS OUT OF THEIR SERVICE, AND THEY AREN’T ABLE TO GET THE TREATMENT FOR THAT BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE THEIR BENEFITS, THAT LUMP SUM PAYMENT PROBABLY IS NOT GOING TO BE ENOUGH TO COVER A LOT OF MEDICAL COSTS. I KNOW HOW EXPENSIVE MEDICAL PROCEDURES ARE IN THE UNITED STATES, SO I I HAVE NOT SERVED IN THE MILITARY, BUT I HAVE TO IMAGINE THAT FOR THE FOLKS WHO HAVE PUT IN THAT TIME, IT’S THIS IS A HARD PILL FOR THEM TO SWALLOW.

[BRETT BAKER]

ABSOLUTELY.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

NEXT UP…

THE US MILITARY ACHIEVED ITS FIRST-EVER AIR-TO-AIR DRONE KILL USING AN ARMED FIRST-PERSON VIEW –OR FPV–SYSTEM, MARKING A MILESTONE IN U-S UNMANNED AERIAL COMBAT.

A SKYRAIDER DRONE EQUIPPED WITH A CLAYMORE MINE INTERCEPTED AND DESTROYED ANOTHER UNMANNED AIRCRAFT IN A SIMULATED ENGAGEMENT AT FORT RUCKER, ALABAMA, IN EARLY AUGUST.

AND BRETT–WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE CONFLICTS IN UKRAINE, OR GAZA…IT’S OBVIOUS DRONE WARFARE IS A MAJOR COMPONENT–THE U-S MILITARY IS TRYING TO INCORPORATE NEW DRONE DOCTRINE ACROSS THE JOINT FORCE–

SO THIS IS A GOOD STEP ALONG THAT PATH

[BRETT BAKER]

FOR SURE. AND WHEN, WHEN I SAW THE STORY ORIGINALLY, I SHOT A NOTE TO YOU, AND I’M LIKE, IS THE FIRST PERSON VIEW THE THING THAT MAKES THIS HISTORY, THAT MAKES IT YEAH, AND IT IS BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY WE HAVE SEEN OTHER DRONES. THE PALADIN COMES TO MIND FROM THE AIR FORCE RESEARCH LAB. WE’VE SEEN THAT TAKE OUT OTHER DRONES, AND OBVIOUSLY WE’VE SEEN OTHER DRONES TAKE OUT OTHER DRONES AND TRAINING EXERCISES, WHAT HAVE YOU RIGHT? BUT TO THE FIRST PERSON VIEW IS IS A BIG STEP, BUT ALSO THIS IS SOMETHING UKRAINE HAS BEEN DOING NOW FOR MORE THAN TWO YEARS, PROBABLY, YEAH, SO YOU CAN SEE HOW FAR BEHIND THE POWER CURVE WE KIND OF ARE IN THIS REGARD. SO AS LONG AS WE’RE MOVING FORWARD, I THINK THAT’S A GOOD THING. IT’S CRAZY TO THINK OF A CLAYMORE LAND MINE, YEAH, BEING OR CLAYMORE MINE BEING TAKEN ALONG IN THE AIR. BUT HEY, YOU KNOW, IF IT WORKS, IT WORKS. BUT YEAH, THAT WAS, THAT WAS INTERESTING. AND LIKE I SAID, THOUGH, I THINK IT DOES KIND OF SHOW LIKE WE’VE GOT SOME GROUND THAT NEEDS TO BE MADE UP IN A SHORT TIME.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

THAT’S TRUE. THAT’S TRUE. I REMEMBER REPORTING, DOING STORIES FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS WHEN UKRAINE FIRST STARTED PUTTING CLAYMORES ON TOP OF THEIR FPV DRONES AND LIKE THE DRAGON’S BREATH, LIKE THE DRONE THAT DROPS BURNING THERMITE ON ON POSITIONS. SO UKRAINE DEFINITELY DOING A LOT OF DRONE INNOVATION, FOR SURE. AND THEY HAVE THE, I FORGET THE NAME OF IT OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD, BUT THERE’S, LIKE, A DRONE INNOVATION HUB THAT UKRAINE IS OPERATING TO KIND OF TEACH, YOU KNOW, THE NATO ALLIES. BUT IT’S NOT REALLY A NATO ALLY, YOU KNOW, TEACH WESTERN COUNTRIES ALL THE DRONE DOCTRINE THAT THEY’VE LEARNED, BUT YOU’RE RIGHT, THE US, THEY HAVE SOME CATCHING UP TO DO. WHAT? ONE THING THAT I FOUND INTERESTING WHEN WE WERE DOING SOME OF THE RESEARCH ON THIS STORY, THERE WAS AN OFFICER WHO SAID, YOU KNOW, THE GUYS WHO MAKE THE BEST DRONE PILOTS ARE THE ONES WHO GO PLAY VIDEO GAMES ON THE WEEKEND. LIKE, IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE, RIGHT?

[BRETT BAKER]

THAT IS A TRANSFERABLE SKILL IN THIS REGARD FOR SURE.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

SO YOU KNOW THE MILITARIES OF TOMORROW, LIKE, IF YOU’RE PLAYING A BUNCH OF CALL OF DUTY RIGHT NOW, YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW IT, BUT YOU’RE, YOU KNOW, COULD POTENTIALLY BE TRAINING FOR A CAREER IN THE MILITARY YOU DON’T KNOW. SO TAKE THAT,

[BRETT BAKER]

LEAVE ME ALONE, MOM, I’M GETTING READY TO SERVE.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

YOU BET. THANKS, BRETT.

[BRETT BAKER]

YOU BET.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

DRONES, THEY ARE EVERYWHERE, WHICH MEANS EVERYONE IN THE US MILITARY NEEDS TO FIND OUT WAYS TO COUNTER THEM. JOINING ME NOW TO TALK A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT THAT IS MATT MCCRAN WITH DRONE SHIELD US. MATT, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR JOINING US TODAY. THANKS FOR HAVING ME SO WE HAVE A COUPLE OF DIFFERENT PIECES OF EQUIPMENT HERE, RADIO SCREEN, FANCY LOOKING RIFLE THERE. KIND OF TALK TO ME ABOUT HOW THESE HELP ONE DETECT DRONES AND THEN TWO DEFEAT DRONES,

[Matt McCrann, CEO DroneShield]

“Sure. So what we do at drone show we do detection and defeat capabilities, and we tailor that for different missions or different use cases. What we have on display here is our dismounted or handheld solutions. So think about these capabilities as going to that tactical edge and providing situational awareness for the end user, what we have here is our RF patrol. It’s completely passive RF detection, which means you detect and classify all the signals in your area without being detected yourself. With this information, you can identify if there are road drones or potential adversary drones in your area, and then move into a response posture. So and that’s where the drone gun mark four comes into play. So it’s a familiar form factor for many tactical operators, and it’s really meant to be a point and shoot capability that’s highly accurate up to one kilometer of range. So it allows soldiers and operators to be completely self sufficient with situational awareness and defense capabilities at the tactical edge”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

AND MATT, WHEN WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THE TACTICAL EDGE, OFTENTIMES THAT MEANS PUTTING SOMETHING ON A VEHICLE AND BEING MOBILE, RIGHT? AND THIS DOES BOTH OF THAT?

[Matt McCrann, CEO DroneShield]

“So this is our drone, century X mark two, and this is meant to be mounted to commercial vehicles, military vehicles, unmanned ground vehicles and even vessels. And what it provides is that situational awareness that we saw for the dismounted equipment, for a broader area, and for on the move capabilities. So now we’re seeing potentially out to 10 kilometers, 360 degrees hemispheric, wherever the operators go, it detects out to 10 kilometers.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

WE WERE TALKING A LITTLE BIT EARLIER, THE IT’S PART OF THE SECRET SAUCE ABOUT WHERE IT’S EFFECTIVE TO THOUGH, RIGHT?

[Matt McCrann, CEO DroneShield]

“Yes. So we’re pretty conservative in what we publish, as far as ranges for offset reasons.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

AS FAR AS YOU KNOW, THE WEIGHT OF THIS THING IS THIS. I MEAN, I’M NOT GOING TO PICK IT UP RIGHT NOW, BUT WHEN YOU SAY CAN BE INSTALLED ON VEHICLES, IT’S, IS IT SOMETHING THAT REQUIRES A CRANE, OR CAN A COUPLE OF GUYS IN AN EXPEDITIONARY ROLE, YOU KNOW, INSTALL US ON WHATEVER VEHICLE THEY NEED.

[Matt McCrann, CEO DroneShield]

“So one to two guys can take this from a vehicle and then pop it up in the configuration that we have here. So it’s really important, because this is a capability that moves and adapts with the operators as they move and adapt with the mission. So something that can go on the move on a vehicle, can now be a stationary or rapid deployable system providing fixed site capabilities in the field. ”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

ALL RIGHT. MATT, WANT TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME TODAY. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR JOINING US ON WEAPONS AND WARFARE. TAKE CARE. AND AS HE WAS JUST SAYING, THAT ADAPTABILITY IS WHAT MAKES WEAPONS SYSTEMS LIKE THIS CENTURY SO IMPORTANT, AND THAT’S ALL THE TIME WE HAVE FOR THIS WEEK’S WEAPON OF THE WEEK.

TIME FOR COMMS CHECK, AND THIS WEEK WE’RE DOING WHAT YOU’RE NEVER SUPPOSED TO DO, WE’RE READING THE COMMENTS. SPECIFICALLY WE’RE GOING TO  YOUTUBE TO TACKLE A VIEWER QUESTION..

HENDY FOUR SEVEN FIVE WRITES IN PART: 

“I saw in a previous report from one of the military manufacturers shows there’s a company looking to repurpose self-propelled drill platforms, these things are being offered up in a hospital platform, submarine, tender, ship maintenance and replenishment…  I just wanted to see if it was something that you could look into it may possibly do a story on it. I found it very interesting and I’d like to know if there was actually any movement.” – @Hendy475 

THIS IS A GREAT QUESTION. FOR THOSE UNFAMILIAR, THE PROJECT HENDY IS REFERRING TO IS THE MOBILE DEFENSE/DEPOT PLATFORM, OR MODEP.  IT’S A CONCEPT CREATED BY GIBBS AND COX, A SUBSIDIARY OF THE DEFENSE AND AVIATION GROUP LEIDOS. 

IT WAS A PRETTY POPULAR TOPIC COMING OUT OF THE NAVY LEAGUE’S ‘SEA, AIR, SPACE 2024’ EVENT AND WAS COVERED BY A NUMBER OF INDUSTRY MEDIA OUTLETS.  

SINCE THEN THERE HASN’T BEEN A LOT SAID ABOUT IT, BUT THAT’S NOT UNCOMMON. SOMETIMES THESE THINGS CAN TAKE YEARS TO GET MOMENTUM. 

IN FACT, THIS VIDEO ABOUT THE PROJECT WAS UPLOADED TO THE LEIDOS YOUTUBE CHANNEL IN JUNE. 

SO IT’S POSSIBLE THERE IS SOME TRACTION TO THIS. UNFORTUNATELY AS WE RECORD, WE DON’T HAVE ANY MORE OF AN UPDATE THAN THAT. WE DO HAVE QUESTIONS OUT TO LEIDOS, NAVAL SYSTEMS COMMAND, AND GIBBS AND COX. AND AS SOON AS WE HEAR SOMETHING FROM THEM, WE’LL LET YOU KNOW.

ALRIGHT, THAT’S GOING TO JUST ABOUT DO IT FOR US THIS WEEK AT WEAPONS AND WARFARE. 

HOPEFULLY YOU LEARNED SOMETHING–AND HEY, MAYBE YOUR FRIENDS CAN TOO… SO BE SURE TO LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE TO OUR SOCIAL FEEDS–DOWNLOAD THE STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS APP–AND SHARE OUR CONTENT!

FOR MY WRAP THIS WEEK–I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE POTENTIAL DANGERS OF OUTDATED THINKING…AND, STICKING WITH THE VIEWER COMMENTS THEME FROM THE LAST SEGMENT…

THE IDEA FOR THIS WRAP CAME TO ME AFTER I SAW A RECURRING CRITIQUE IN A STORY I RECENTLY TURNED FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS. 

IT’S ABOUT A NEW UNMANNED SURFACE VESSEL THE U-S NAVY IS GETTING CALLED DEFIANT. 

I STARTED THE STORY OFF BY SAYING –

CHINA HAS THE WORLD’S LARGEST NAVY–

WHICH IS A FACT. BY HULL COUNT, CHINA HAS MORE BOATS THAN THE U-S. DOES IT MEAN ALL THEIR BOATS ARE AS BIG AND BAD AS THE U-S NAVY’S? 

NO–BUT CHINA HAS MORE BOATS.

A LOT OF FOLKS TAKE THAT AS SOME KIND OF PERSONAL INDICTMENT ON THE U-S NAVY’S POWER. IT’S NOT. IT HAS MORE SUPER CARRIERS THAN ANYONE BY A LONG SHOT–AMERICA’S NUCLEAR POWERED SUBMARINES ARE THE ENVY OF THE WORLD.  THE POWER OF AEGIS DESTROYERS IS MIND-BOGGLING. 

BUT THIS IS 2025, NOT 2005… AND MODERN TECH MEANS THE NAVY–AND THE U-S DOD AS A WHOLE–CANNOT AFFORD TO BE HAMSTRUNG BY OUTDATED THINKING. 

RUSSIA HAS A GOOD SIZED NAVY… IT USED TO BE A LOT BIGGER THREE AND HALF YEARS AGO BEFORE UKRAINE– A COUNTRY WITH NO NAVY– TOOK OUT AROUND A THIRD OF RUSSIA’S BLACK SEA FLEET WITH SMALLER DRONE BOATS–

FORCING THE KREMLIN TO RELOCATE WHAT WAS LEFT. 

THE U-S NAVY SAW THAT AND IT JUST CONFIRMED WHAT THEY ALREADY KNEW–

IT’S BEST NOT TO PUT TOO MANY EGGS IN ONE BASKET. 

SUPER CARRIERS ARE AMAZING–BUT THEY CAN’T LAUNCH PLANES FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN. 

CHEAP WEAPONS CAN AND DO DESTROY MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE AND POWERFUL SYSTEMS IN MODERN COMBAT.

SO, WHEN I READ COMMENTS THAT SAY THINGS LIKE “YEAH, BUT CHINA SAYS EVERY FISHING VESSEL IS PART OF ITS NAVY”… OKAY, DOES THAT FISHING VESSEL CARRY MISSILES? CAN THOSE MISSILES SINK OUR BOATS?  BECAUSE IF 100 CRAPPY BOATS CAN SHOOT 10 MISSILES A PIECE–SUDDENLY THERE’S A THOUSAND HIGH-POWERED DILEMMAS FLYING OUR WAY. EVEN IF OUR BOATS STOP MOST OF THOSE MISSILES–

IF ANY GET THROUGH–SOMEONE ON OUR SIDE IS GOING TO HAVE A BAD DAY. 

SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING? 

SO, DEAR VIEWERS, YES.. THE U-S NAVY MIGHT HAVE MORE POWERFUL SHIPS–

BUT IN A HIGH-END FIGHT WITH CHINA–IT WON’T BE ENOUGH. AND YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO TAKE MY WORD FOR IT–JUST LOOK AT THE BILLIONS CONGRESS JUST APPROVED TO FUND EVEN MORE DEVELOPMENT OF SMALLER, UNMANNED SYSTEMS LIKE THE DEFIANT. 

FOR SENIOR PRODUCER BRETT BAKER, VIDEO EDITOR BRIAN SPENCER, AND MOTION DESIGNER DAKOTA PITEO–I’M RYAN ROBERTSON WITH STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS SIGNING OFF.