- E11 – Lockheed Martin Ventures
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
59m | May 14, 2023 - E10 – Unmanned Fighter Drones
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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* Support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/the_merge
* 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
54m | Apr 30, 2023 - E9 – Tech Happenings
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
58m | Apr 9, 2023 - E8 - Leading the Blue Angels & Thunderbirds
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
1h 15m | Mar 19, 2023 - E7 - Ukraine: 1 Year Later
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
44m | Feb 24, 2023 - E6 - Hypersonic Airplanes
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
1h 0m | Feb 12, 2023 - E5 - Military Tech Spending is Broken
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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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
1h 16m | Jan 29, 2023 - E4 - How the Pentagon Buys Stuff
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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Links
* Sign up for our amazing newsletter https://www.themerge.co
* Support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/the_merge
* 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
1h 25m | Jan 15, 2023 - E3 - Nukes, Fusion, & ChatGPT
Nukes, Fusion, and ChatGPT
Mike Benitez is back with Jake Chapman (@VC), and Tim Nolan (@natsectim) to discuss Russian nukes in the news, a breakthrough in fusion, TikTok, and all things ChatGPT. Tim cheats on a pop quiz in real time, Mike discovers Jake’s secret past, and Jake opines on the value of a future PutinGPT.
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* Tim’s nuke article
* ChatGPT
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Show Notes
(00:30) Intro
(1:24) Russia nuke news
(3:23) details don’t matter
(9:00) we finally read the article
(11:34) missile sponge
(14:18) pop quiz
(15:03) Tim explains fission
(16:55) Tim share’s his secret
(17:46) The best segway
(18:26) fusion in the news
(26:38) the next best segway
(28:32) Mike share’s his secret
(29:23) ChatGPT
(37:15) PutinGPT
(41:10) ChatGPT comments
(42:06) TikTok
(45:36) Jake’s TikTok spicy take
(49:02) You were a lawyer?!
(51:00) How to ban tiktok?
(53:32) ChatGPT writes the outro
55m | Jan 1, 2023 - E2 - Red Air
Host Mike Benitez brings the spirit of the Merge in a full court press to discuss Adversary Air—aka Red Air—in a way you’ve never heard. It’s an entertaining journey through the history, policy, technology, strategy, industry, and business of Red Air.
Today’s guests:
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* Support us on Patreon
* Shaggy - Top Aces
* Scar - Blue Force Technology
* Vader - Kodiak Shack Podcast
* Stinger’s F-117 article: Train Like You Fight
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Show Notes
(1:28) – Guest Intros
(4:23) – What is adversary air?
(13:15) – the industry
(15:25) – Congress gets involved
(18:54) – how’s it going now (industry)
(22:46) – how’s it going now (fighter pilot)
(34:05) – Top Aces buys F-16s
(39:30) – F-117 red air
(47:08) – adversary drones
(52:07) – the cost of self-supporting adversaries
(55:21) – training is deterrence
(56:18) – training modernization
(1:04:27) – story time
1h 16m | Dec 17, 2022 - E1 - A Star is Born!
Episode 1: A Star is Born! After too many excuses, the Merge newsletter’s Mike Benitez launches the inaugural Merge podcast! Co-hosting duties are shared with Jake Chapman (@VC) and Tim Nolan (@NatSecTim). In this episode, we talk about 3 things the newsletter has never covered in its 2-year existence: venture capital, TikTok, and American Dynamism.
Show Notes:
(00:30) – the world’s most okayist defense podcast
(1:02) – Co-host intros
(3:58) – What is venture capital
(20:49) – Jake and the Army Venture Capital Corporation
(26:20 ) – TikTok and national security
(39:16) – WTH is ‘American Dynamisn’
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51m | Nov 23, 2022
