[RYAN ROBERTSON]
HELLO AND WELCOME TO ANOTHER EPISODE OF WEAPONS AND WARFARE. FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS I’M YOUR HOST RYAN ROBERTSON. JUST AHEAD ON THIS EPISODE OF THE SHOW…
ANDURIL TURNS ITS ATTENTION TO THE OPEN WATERS OF THE WORLD AS THE COMPANY CONTINUES TO EXPAND ITS ARRAY OF OFFERINGS, THIS TIME WITH AN EYE ON WHAT’S HAPPENING BELOW THE SURFACE.
AND GAME PLAY WITH SERIOUS IMPLICATIONS.
WE VISIT WITH THE LEAD WARGAMER AT THE CENTER FOR NAVAL ANALYSES TO SEE HOW ROLLING THE DICE, AND DEALING WITH THE RESULTS, IS HELPING SHAPE AMERICAN MILITARY MINDS AND HOW OUR NEXT CONFLICT COULD BE FOUGHT.
BUT FIRST SOME HEADLINES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED.
FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER LEAVING THE SERVICE, MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT, SERGEANT DAKOTA MEYER, IS WEARING THE MARINE CORPS UNIFORM ONCE AGAIN. IN A CEREMONY AT THE PENTAGON, THE 36-YEAR-OLD RE-ENTERED THE SERVICE WITH THE SAME RANK HE HELD ON ACTIVE DUTY AND WILL SERVE AS AN INFANTRYMAN IN THE RESERVES.
WHEN ASKED ABOUT HIS REASONS FOR REENLISTING, MEYER SAID HE WAS DRIVEN BY A DEEP SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY TO HIS FELLOW MARINES AND TO HIMSELF.
[SGT Dakota Meyer, MOH Recipient Reenlists in the USMC]
“The mission has always stayed the exact same. It’s to lead and to live with integrity and to be unconditional in everything that you stand for. And now I get to step back in this uniform, and it’s not to start over. It’s to renew my commitment to not only to the United States Marine Corps, but to the Constitution, and to the United States of America.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
MEYER RECEIVED THE MEDAL OF HONOR FOR HIS HEROIC ACTIONS DURING A DEADLY 2009 BATTLE IN AFGHANISTAN’S KUNAR PROVINCE.
SOME BIG DEVELOPMENTS FOR EPIRUS, MAKERS OF HIGH-ENERGY, HIGH-POWER MICROWAVE WEAPON SYSTEMS, AKA COUNTER-DRONE DEFENSE.
MEET LEONIDAS H-2-0. A HIGH-ENERGY MICROWAVE WEAPON SYSTEM CAPABLE OF SIMULTANEOUSLY TARGETING BOAT MOTORS, UNMANNED SURFACE VESSELS, AND DRONES WITH A SINGLE MICROWAVE PULSE.
DURING TESTS CONDUCTED BY THE US NAVY, THE SYSTEM EFFECTIVELY DISABLED SEVERAL MOTORS AT SIGNIFICANT DISTANCES, SHOWCASING ITS OPERATIONAL POTENTIAL.
IN MARCH, WE TALKED WITH EPIRUS REP ANDREW WARGOFCHIK ABOUT THOSE OPEN WATER TESTS.
[Andrew Wargofchik, Strategic Communications, Epirus]
“We’ve recently demonstrated our HPM effectiveness against unmanned surface vehicles, vessels. So think drone boats, storms of drone boats coming at a destroyer. You have some Epirus HPM systems in position; you can take out those swarms of boats.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
IT’S BEEN A GOOD WINTER FOR THE CALIFORNIA-BASED COMPANY.
IN MARCH, IT ANNOUNCED $250 MILLION IN SERIES-D FUNDING, BRINGING THE COMPANY’S TOTAL VENTURE FUNDING TO MORE THAN $550 MILLION, ALLOWING EPIRUS TO SCALE PRODUCTION OF ITS LEONIDAS PRODUCT LINE.
FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, A FEMALE RANGER NOT ONLY TOOK PART IN THE ARMY’S ANNUAL BEST RANGER COMPETITION, SHE AND HER TEAMMATE FINISHED 14TH OUT OF AN INITIAL FIELD OF 52.
FIRST LIEUTENANT GABRIELLE WHITE AND HER TEAMMATE, CAPTAIN SETH DELTENRE, TACKLED THE INTENSE THREE-DAY EVENT, EARNING 14TH PLACE AMONG THE 16 TEAMS THAT MADE IT TO THE FINAL ROUND.
THEY WERE PART OF A LARGER GROUP OF 52 TEAMS, ALL COMPETING FOR THE TITLE OF THE BEST IN THE ELITE RANGER FORCE.
LIEUTENANT WHITE IS A 25-YEAR-OLD INFANTRY OFFICER WHO GRADUATED FROM WEST POINT IN 2021 AND COMPLETED RANGER SCHOOL IN APRIL 2022.
TO PARTICIPATE, SOLDIERS MUST BE ARMY RANGERS AND FACE OFF IN MORE THAN 30 EVENTS, COVERING MORE THAN 60 MILES IN JUST THREE DAYS. THE CHALLENGES INCLUDE HELICOPTER MISSIONS, WEAPONS QUALIFICATION, AND OBSTACLE COURSES.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
WHEN DOES A STARTUP STOP BEING A STARTUP AND BECOME SOMETHING ALL ITS OWN? SOMETHING NEW? SOMETHING TO BE RECKONED WITH?
WHEREVER THAT IMAGINARY LINE EXISTS, IT SEEMS ANDURIL INDUSTRIES CROSSED IT.
NO LONGER THE NEW TOY IN PALMER LUCKEY’S PORTFOLIO OF VENTURES, ANDURIL IS A SERIOUS PLAYER IN THE D-O-D’s EFFORTS TO MODERNIZE ITS FORCES WHILE PREPARING FOR AMERICA’S NEXT CONFLICT.
FROM ANDURIL’S AIR SYSTEMS LIKE BOLT, BARRACUDA, AND ROADRUNNER, TO THE FURY, THEIR ENTRY IN THE RACE TO BUILD THE AIR FORCE’S COLLABORATIVE COMBAT AIRCRAFT, ANDURIL CLEARY HAS SIGHTS ON THE SKIES.
SO IT REALLY SHOULD BE NO SURPRISE THE COMPANY IS AMPING UP ITS UNDERWATER EFFORTS AS WELL. AND THAT’S THE SUBJECT OF THIS WEEK’S DEBRIEF.
WITH A MARKETING LOOK AS DISTINCTIVE AS THE APPROACH TO DEVELOPING NEW HARDWARE FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, ANDURIL’S LAUNCH OF ITS UNDERWATER SYSTEMS THE COPPERHEAD AND SEABED CENTURY MARKS ITS LATEST SALVO IN THE RACE TO BUILD AFFORDABLE, SUSTAINABLE OPTIONS FOR THE D-O-D.
[Shane Arnott, Sr. VP of Programs & Engineering, Anduril]
“The whole intent here is to create a new type of subsea effector to deal with the proliferation of enemy UUVs, particularly the PRC, also Russia, and getting very good at this. So why spend a very expensive weapon like a <ark 48 on a UUV? That’s perhaps like a fifth of the cost. So we created this particular system, which is a fraction of those, to address the new targets that are proliferating in the maritime space.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
TO DO THAT ANDURIL BUILT A COUPLE DISTINCTIVE VARIANTS OF THE COPPERHEAD A-U-V.
[Shane Arnott, Sr. VP of Programs & Engineering, Anduril]
“One of the variants, if you will, of the copperhead is the copperhead M, which is the munitions variant. So in effect, that is a torpedo. So the two different sizes, the copperhead 100 is 100 pound payload. The Copperhead 500 500 pound payload. And that basically kind of tracks generally with the mark 54 torpedo, which roughly has 100 pound warhead, and the the mark 48 which roughly has a five to 600 pound warhead”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
NOT CONTENT DELIVERING PAYLOADS, ANDURIL IS ALSO DEVELOPING AN AI-POWERED SENSOR CALLED SEABED SENTRY THAT CONNECTS USERS TO THE OCEAN’S DEPTHS.
BY PLACING THESE SENSORS IN LARGE NUMBERS, ANDURIL CAN CREATE A WIRELESS NETWORK ALLOWING OPERATORS TO MONITOR AND COMMUNICATE UNDERWATER IN REAL TIME, MAKING IT POSSIBLE TO CONSTANTLY WATCH MARITIME ASSETS AND INFRASTRUCTURE.
[Shane Arnott, Sr. VP of Programs & Engineering, Anduril]
“This particular system is completely cableless so it comes out of it can be delivered clandestinely by the dive XL, which is super important because you don’t want your security cameras in places that your threat knows. Whereas these cabled systems, they’re laid by big ships, so you know exactly where the surveillance system is going to be. So we’re just providing this different approach. ”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
GIVEN ANDURIL’S WORK WITH AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES, YOU MIGHT THINK ITS UNDERWATER SYSTEMS WOULD OPERATE MUCH LIKE THE ARIEL SYSTEMS, BUT THAT WOULD BE A MISTAKE. ACCORDING TO SHANE ARNOTT, ANDURIL’S SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF PROGRAMS & ENGINEERING, THE SEA IS PRETTY UNFORGIVING WHEN IT COMES TO COMMUNICATION.
[Shane Arnott, Sr. VP of Programs & Engineering, Anduril]
“You’re GPS denied the whole time you’ve got no access to satellites. So it is a real master class for autonomy to do that. But absolutely, all of our systems talk with each other … They’re all talking the same language, using lattice AI, and that gives us the ability to school or to team all of our different systems together to achieve kind of combined outcomes.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
WHILE VISITING WITH ARNOTT WE DISCOVERED AN ANDURIL PARTNERSHIP WITH ANOTHER STARTUP WE’VE PROFILED HERE ON ‘WEAPONS AND WARFARE’, SHARROW MARINE, THE MICHIGAN-BASED STARTUP THAT’S LEADING THE WAY IN PROPELLER INNOVATION, CAN BE FOUND ON AN ARRAY OF ANDURIL’S A-U-Vs.
[Shane Arnott, Sr. VP of Programs & Engineering, Anduril]
“So Sharrow, best in class when it comes to efficiency of props. So, yeah, we’ve been working with them on some other projects that aren’t public, and it was an easy read across for them to come onto this particular system in the Copperhead. And they’re in an affordable category, like you look at some of the props that are on the real torpedoes. They’re incredibly expensive. The props alone would be the same cost as a full Copperhead.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
FINALLY, ANDURIL’S BIG AMBITIONS, REQUIRES SOME BIG REAL ESTATE. SHORTLY AFTER ANNOUNCING THE COPPERHEAD AND SEA SENTRY PLATFORMS, THE ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL REPORTED ANDURIL WOULD BE RENTING SOME WAREHOUSE SPACE A LITTLE LESS THAN A MILE FROM ITS HEADQUARTERS IN COSTA MESA, BRINGING ITS TOTAL FOOTPRINT IN ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA TO ABOUT 1.1 MILLION SQUARE FEET.
THE LEASE MARKS YET ANOTHER STEP IN ANDURIL’S METEORIC GROWTH SINCE OPENING SHOP IN A SMALL BUILDING NEAR JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT BACK IN 2017.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
FOR MUCH OF WHAT’S ON DISPLAY AT DEFENSE EXHIBITIONS, IT’S A LOT LIKE A MUSEUM.
YOU CAN LOOK, YOU JUST CAN’T TOUCH.
WHICH IS WHAT MAKES OUR WEAPON OF THE WEEK SO INTERESTING.
NESTLED IN THE FAR CORNER OF THE CONVENTION CENTER AT THIS YEAR’S NAVY LEAGUE SEA, AIR, SPACE EXHIBITION WAS A DISPLAY THAT INVITED PASSERS-BY TO NOT ONLY STOP AND ASK QUESTIONS, BUT TO LITTERALLY ROLL THE DICE.
JEREMY SEPINSKY IS THE LEAD WAR GAMER AT THE CENTER FOR NAVAL ANALYSES, MORE COMMONLY KNOWN AS C-N-A. HE’S IN CHARGE OF ORGANIZING AND DEVELOPING THE SKILLS OF THEIR WARGAME DESIGN TEAM. A GROUP THAT DESIGNS AROUND 20 GAMES EVERY YEAR. EACH ONE CREATED TO EXPLORE SPECIFIC CUSTOMER NEEDS.
[Jeremy Sepinsky, Lead War Game Designer, CNA]
“The number one question we always ask is, what are we trying to do with the game, right? What is the outcome? How is the game fitting into a research or an analytic or an educational portfolio for where it’s trying to fit? It’s not all about, hey, I’ve got this comeback position. Let’s, let’s do more of this. It’s always what are we trying to do at CNA, we design war games to fit into whatever problem space our sponsor is actually looking for.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
ONCE CNA’S WARGAMERS DETERMINE THEIR OBJECTIVES, THEY ANALYZE THE GAME AND CONSIDER WHAT CONTINGENCIES AND CONCERNS MIGHT EVOLVE DURING PLAY. THEN, THEY SET UP A WARGAME FOCUSED ON THAT OPERATION, ENSURING IT ENCOURAGES PLAYERS TO EXPLORE “WHAT IF” SCENARIOS.
[Jeremy Sepinsky, Lead War Game Designer, CNA]
“And we play through those what if scenarios and our data collectors are going to record what happened? Why? What are some of the contingency planning exercises that need to be considered? So we can write a report about, Hey, have you thought about this? Have you thought about this that goes back to those sponsors and helps them to understand what may or may, what they may or may not need to think through in the whole problem space.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
SEPINSKY SAYS THE WARGAMES ENABLE PARTICIPANTS TO ENGAGE IN REALISTIC SIMULATIONS, THAT HOPEFULLY SPARK DISCUSSIONS AROUND DECISION-MAKING, OPERATIONAL PLANNING, AND CONTINGENCY SCENARIOS.
[Jeremy Sepinsky, Lead War Game Designer, CNA]
“So we hope that our sponsors take the output of that game and use them to decide where they really need to be thinking about so that way they can decide where and how to put their efforts in the future. Let it really inform their decision making.“
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
OVER THE COURSE OF A DECADE AT CNA SEPINSKY ESTIMATES HE’S DESIGNED MORE THAN 60 WARGAMES. AND EVERY YEAR HE, AND A TEAM OF 12, EXECUTE AS MANY AS 20 OF THEM FOR THEIR CUSTOMERS. ONE THING HE WAS QUICK TO POINT OUT: WARGAMES ARE JUST ONE PIECE OF ANY EVENTUAL SOLUTION.
[Jeremy Sepinsky, Lead War Game Designer, CNA]
“I’ve been talking a lot about analytic war games, but war games provide an immersive educational experience as well, but they’re not stand alone. They need to be emphasized from an analytic perspective with a real analytic plan and program that they’re feeding, and from an educational perspective with a real educational curriculum. So that way, they’re not standing all alone by themselves, and you get reinforcement learning and reinforcement analysis through all the other methods that really support what we call the cycle of research. That really is that feedback loop between exercises analysis and war games that helps you understand the full spectrum of conflict.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
SEPINSKY WAS ALSO QUICK TO POINT OUT THE OUTCOMES OF THEIR WARGAMES USUALLY HAVE LONG-TERM IMPLICATIONS RATHER THAN IMMEDIATE IMPACTS. STRESSING THEY SHOULDN’T BE USED FOR QUICK DECISIONS OR MAJOR STRATEGY CHANGES; INSTEAD, THEY HELP IDENTIFY KEY ISSUES FOR DEEPER ANALYSIS.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
$898 MILLION.
THAT, ACCORDING TO A NEWLY RELEASED CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, IS HOW MUCH THE U.S. NAVY IS ASKING CONGRESS TO ALLOT IN FISCAL YEAR 2025 FOR THE CARRIER BASED AERIAL REFUELING SYSTEM.
THAT NUMBER WOULD GREENLIGHT THE PROCUREMENT OF THREE M-Q-25 STINGRAYS. MARKING THE START OF LOW-RATE INITIAL PRODUCTION FROM THE FOLKS AT BOEING DEFENSE.
AND THAT ALL BRINGS US TO THIS WEEK’S COMMS CHECK.
BACK IN 2016 THE NAVY DECIDED TO SCRAP ITS UNMANNED CARRIER LAUNCHED SURVEILLANCE AND STRIKE PROGRAM FOR THE CARRIER BASED AERIAL REFUELING SYSTEM, OR WHAT CAME TO BE KNOWN AS THE MQ-25 STINGRAY. ESSENTIALLY AN AIRBORNE GAS STATION.
THE NAVY SAID THE MQ-25 WOULD RELIEVE F/A-18 E/F SUPER HORNET FIGHTERS OF HAVING TO CONDUCT AIR-TO-AIR REFUELING MISSIONS FOR CARRIER AIR WINGS.
FAST FORWARD NEARLY A DECADE, AND THE STINGRAY IS GETTING CLOSER TO BECOMING A REALITY.
[John Scudi, Bus. Dev. Lead & Advanced Capabilities Director for MQ-25, Boeing]
“Those aircraft in final assembly also represent us transitioning into the bespoke factory specifically designed for MQ 25 over 300,000 square foot of Henry Ford manufacturing production line. And so what that is going to do for us and the Navy is take us to ground test here soon. That will lead into getting back in the air this fall. So first fly since we’ve done the last flights with the prototype that we talked about, I think, last year, and that’ll roll into testing the aircraft on the aircraft carrier next year. And the intent for that, for the Air Boss, Vice Admiral Cheever, who was speaking about this here at Sea, Air, Space is to start deploying in 2027 so we’re on timeline.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
JOHN SCUDI IS BOEING’S BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT LEAD AND ADVANCED CAPABILITIES DIRECTOR. HE SAYS THE TIMING FOR THE NEXT STEP IN THE STINGRAY’S DEVELOPMENT COULDN’T BE MUCH BETTER.
[John Scudi, Bus. Dev. Lead & Advanced Capabilities Director for MQ-25, Boeing]
“You might have heard Secretary the Navy talking about ship building. Same thing in aviation, right? And so this is kind of the Vanguard for autonomous platforms. The Navy is looking to us to have those autonomous behaviors and get the aircraft airborne to work on manned, unmanned teaming and interface with manned platforms, but also to lead that charge with some of the other things that we’re doing for fifth, sixth Gen aircraft that you might have also seen in the press here recently as well.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
IT’S THAT EYE ON THE FUTURE THAT SCUDI SAYS IS DRIVING MUCH OF WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH NOT ONLY THE MQ-25, BUT THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AND AMERICA’S ALLIES.
[John Scudi, Bus. Dev. Lead & Advanced Capabilities Director for MQ-25, Boeing]
“Having the ability to have this platform be the centerpiece and facilitate manned platforms in a different way, by presenting sensors forward, maybe in a contested environment, those sorts of things, because that’s one of the reasons why you have an unmanned aircraft getting those dirty, dangerous and boring missions out of the way so the manned platforms can do their work in other domains or collaboratively, is really important, and that collaboration is going to then help facilitate how we naval Aviation, enterprise and even Air Force and other air forces start to work together in that manned, unmanned trust to have all the assets to be able to deter and defend”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
IF ALL GOES TO PLAN, AND THE NAVY GETS WHAT IT’S ASKING FOR FROM CONGRESS, THE MQ-25 PROGRAM INCLUDES A TOTAL OF 76 AIRCRAFT. 67 FOR OPERATIONAL NEEDS, WITH AN ADDITIONAL NINE DESIGNATED FOR TESTING AND DEVELOPMENT.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
ALRIGHT, THAT JUST ABOUT DOES IT FOR THIS WEEK’S EPISODE OF WEAPONS AND WARFARE. AS ALWAYS, WE WANT TO ENCOURAGE YOU ALL TO LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE TO OUR SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDS–AND DOWNLOAD THE STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS APP TODAY.
FOR THIS WEEK’S WRAP–THE WEAPONS AND WARFARE TEAM DECIDED WE SHOULD PROBABLY MAKE THE CASE IT’S TIME FOR AMERICA TO GET ITS ACT TOGETHER. QUICKLY.
WHY? WELL, LET’S JUST GO AHEAD AND TAKE A GANDER AT CURRENT GLOBAL EVENTS THAT COULD IMPACT U-S NATIONAL SECURITY.
OBVIOUSLY THERE’S THE WAR IN UKRAINE, GROWING TENSIONS IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA AND WESTERN PACIFIC, GROWING TENSIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND INDIA, AS WELL AS BETWEEN AZERBAIJAN AND UZKBEKISTAN.
THE MIDDLE EAST–AS ALWAYS–IS A POWDER KEG AND VENEZUELA STILL WANTS TO INVADE GUYANA.
IN THE MIDST OF ALL THAT CHAOS–AT LEAST THREE NUCLEAR POWERS AND AMERICAN ADVERSARIERS–CHINA, RUSSIA, AND NORTH KOREA–ARE WORKING TOGETHER MORE CLOSELY THAN THEY EVER HAVE BEFORE–WHILE ALSO NOT-SO-SECRETLY HELPING IRAN BECOME THE LATEST NUCLEAR-ARMED MEMBER OF CLUB ANTI-AMERICA.
AND AT HOME–INSTEAD OF STANDING WITH OUR ALLIES AND FACING THESE GLOBAL THREATS HEAD ON WITH A UNIFYING SENSE OF PURPOSE…THERE’S CHAOS.
WHETHER ITS THE WAR ON WOKENESS, THE WHITE HOUSE’S TRADE WARS OR ITS FIGHT WITH FEDERAL OFFICES, OR THE DEFENSE SECRETARY REPORTEDLY SHARING CLASSIFIED INFORMATION WITH HIS WIFE AND BROTHER OVER A NON-SECURED THIRD-PARTY APP… ALL OF THE CHAOS CAN’T GO UNNOTICED BY OUR ALLIES, AND OUR ENEMIES.
AND MAKE NO MISTAKE, OUR ENEMIES WANT US IN DISARRAY. BECAUSE WHILE RUSSIA OR CHINA MAY NOT TRY AND ATTACK THE MAINLAND U-S DIRECTLY–
IF WE’RE TOO BUSY FIGHTING WITH EACH OTHER, WE AREN’T FOCUSED ON WHAT OUR REAL ENEMIES ARE DOING–AND THAT COULD BE MORE COSTLY THAN ANY BATTLE. I MEAN, OUR SECRETARY OF EDUCATION PRONOUNCES A-I AS A-1, MEANWHILE CHINA COULD WIN THE A-I RACE WITHOUT FIRING A SHOT.
GEORGE WASHINGTON ONCE SAID TO ERR IS NATURE, TO RECTIFY ERROR IS GLORY. IF WE REALLY WANT TO BE A GREAT NATION–WE GOTTA FIX THIS STUFF. NOW.
FOR SENIOR PRODUCER BRETT BAKER, VIDEO EDITOR BRIAN SPENCER AND GRAPHICS ARTIST DAKOTA PITEO–I’M RYAN ROBERTSON WITH STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS SIGNING OFF.
