HELLO AND WELCOME TO WEAPONS AND WARFARE. FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS I’M YOUR HOST RYAN ROBERTSON, AND AS YOU CAN SEE, ONCE AGAIN WE HAVE TAKEN THE SHOW ON THE ROAD.
WE ARE BACK IN NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND FOR THE NAVY LEAGUE’S ANNUAL ‘SEA, AIR. SPACE,’ GLOBAL MARITIME EXPOSITION. OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS WE’LL BE COVERING SOME OF THE STORIES THAT ARE HELPING SHAPE AND DEFINE THE U.S NAVY AS IT CONTINUES TO MODERNIZE AND PREPARE FOR WHATEVER CONFLICTS THE FUTURE MAY HOLD.
BUT THIS WEEK WE’RE FOCUSED ON THE BUSINESS OF ATTRACTING BUSINESS. SPECIFICALLY IN THE REALM OF NATIONAL DEFENSE.
AND ONE OF THE BIGGEST PLAYERS IN THIS GAME IS THE STATE OF OHIO. HOME TO WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE AND SOON THE RECENTLY ANNOUNCED ANDURIL INDUSTRY’S “ARSENAL” FACILITY. SEE HOW SOME INNOVATIVE THINKING IS LURING BILLION DOLLAR COMPANIES WITH THOUSANDS OF JOBS, TO THE BUCKEYE STATE.
AND, MAKING SURE MEANINGFUL INFORMATION DOESN’T FALL THROUGH THE CRACKS.
RAFT AI IS BUILDING A PLATFORM TO MAKE SURE MILITARY DECISION MAKERS HAVE THE DATA THEY NEED TO MAKE CRITICAL DECISIONS IN THE MOMENTS THAT MATTER MOST. IT’S OUR WEAPON OF THE WEEK.
BUT FIRST, SOME HEADLINES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED.
FEBRUARY AND MARCH WERE BUSY MONTHS FOR U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND. IN ADDITION TO RENEWED STRIKES ON HOUTHI POSITIONS IN YEMEN, CENTCOM LEADERSHIP SAYS THEY WERE ABLE TO TAKE OUT A SENIOR MILITARY LEADER FOR AL-QAEDA, AND THE NUMBER TWO IN CHARGE OF ISIS. IN LATE FEBRUARY, CENTCOM SAYS THEY CARRIED OUT A PRECISE AIRSTRIKE IN NORTHWEST SYRIA THAT SUCCESSFULLY TOOK OUT MUHAMMED YUSUF ZIYA TALAY, THE SENIOR MILITARY LEADER OF HURRAS AL-DIN (HAD), WHICH IS AN AL-QAEDA AFFILIATE.
“As we have said in the past, we will continue to relentlessly pursue these terrorists to defend our homeland, as well as U.S., allied, and partner personnel in the region.”
A LITTLE MORE THAN TWO WEEKS LATER, CENTCOM SAYS AN AIRSTRIKE IN COOPERATION WITH IRAQ KILLED THE TOP ISIS LEADER IN THAT COUNTRY, ABDALLAH MAKKI MUSLIH AL-RIFAI, KNOWN AS “ABU KHADIJAH”, AND ONE OTHER ISIS OPERATIVE.
AFTER THE STRIKE, WHICH CENTRAL COMMAND SAYS HAPPENED ON MARCH 13th, A DNA TEST ON THE DECEASED’S REMAINS CONFIRMED ABU KHADIJAH WAS KILLED.
OSHKOSH DEFENSE JUST ROLLED OUT A NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION OF ITS ROGUE-FIRES VEHICLE-MOUNTED ROCKET SYSTEM, AND THIS TIME IT’S EQUIPPED WITH THE SAME MUNITIONS USED IN THE HIGH MOBILITY ARTILLERY ROCKET SYSTEM, AKA HIMARS. ROGUE-FIRES, A SYSTEM WE’VE PROFILED BEFORE, STANDS FOR REMOTELY OPERATED GROUND UNIT FOR EXPEDITIONARY FIRES, IT’S AN UNMANNED SYSTEM THAT CAN BE RECONFIGURED TO PROVIDE LONG-RANGE, HIGH-IMPACT FIRE SUPPORT IN MODERN COMBAT SITUATIONS. IT CAN LAUNCH MULTIPLE ROCKETS QUICKLY, MAKING IT INCREDIBLY VERSATILE FOR EVER-CHANGING BATTLEFIELD SCENARIOS. OSHKOSH SAYS BY INTEGRATING THE MULTIPLE LAUNCH ROCKET SYSTEM, OR MLRS, FAMILY OF MUNITIONS INTO THE ROGUE-FIRES, THEY’RE SHOWCASING THE SYSTEM’S ADAPTABLE DESIGN, PROVING IT CAN HANDLE A VARIETY OF MUNITIONS AND MISSION REQUIREMENTS. BUILT ON THE JOINT LIGHT TACTICAL VEHICLE PLATFORM, ROGUE-FIRES IS DESIGNED FOR PRECISION LONG-RANGE FIRES AND CAN EVEN HANDLE AUTONOMOUS RESUPPLY OPERATIONS. PLUS, ITS POWERTRAIN CAN BE SET UP FOR HYBRID-ELECTRIC CONFIGURATIONS, WHICH MEANS IT CAN OPERATE SILENTLY FOR THOSE COVERT MISSIONS.
THE FUTURE U-S-S JERIMIAH DENTON, IS DRY DOCKED NO MORE.
THAT’S AFTER H-I-I’S INGALLS SHIPBUILDING DIVISION SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED THE THIRD FLIGHT-THREE ARLEIGH BURKE-CLASS DESTROYER BUILT AT ITS MISSISSIPPI SHIPYARD. CURRENTLY KNOWN AS D-D-G 129, SHIPBUILDERS TRANSFERRED IT FROM LAND TO THE COMPANY’S DRY DOCK, WHERE THE SHIP WAS FLOATED AND MOVED BY TUGBOATS TO A PIER AT THE SHIPYARD. THE NEW DESTROYER IS NAMED FOR FORMER U.S. SENATOR JEREMIAH DENTON JR., A VIETNAM WAR VETERAN WHO WAS AWARDED THE NAVY CROSS FOR HIS HEROISM AS A PRISONER OF WAR. INGALLS SHIPBUILDING HAS FIVE FLIGHT THREES CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION INCLUDING THE FUTURE USS TED STEVENS, SAM NUNN AND THAD COCHRAN. ACCORDING TO A RELEASE FROM INGALLS THE DENTON WILL UNDERGO FINAL OUTFITTING, SYSTEMS ACTIVATION, AND TESTING BEFORE ENTERING THE FLEET.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
INDUSTRY. IT’S WHAT DRIVES ANY CITY, STATE, OR COUNTRY FORWARD. IN AMERICA, EVERY STATE LEANS INTO WHAT IT DOES BEST. FOR SOME, THAT’S AGRICULTURE. FOR OTHERS, IT’S TOURISM, OR MINING FOR NATURAL RESOURCES. FOR THE STATE OF OHIO, IT’S MANUFACTURING. THEY’VE NOT ONLY LEANED INTO IT, THEY’RE RECRUITING IT, AND POSITIONING THEMSELVES TO BE AN EVEN BIGGER PLAYER IN OUR NATION’S DEFENSE.
THAT’S BECAUSE IN JANUARY OF THIS YEAR, ANDURIL INDUSTRIES ANNOUNCED THEY WERE HEADED TO THE BUCKEYE STATE WITH SOME VERY AMBITIOUS PLANS.
HOW AMBITIOUS?
THE ANNOUNCED PROJECT, ARSENAL-1, WILL BE A FIVE-MILLION-SQUARE-FOOT FACILITY SITTING ON 500 ACRES, JUST SOUTH OF THE STATE’S CAPITAL OF COLUMBUS.
BUT WHY OHIO? WELL, THAT’S THE SUBJECT OF THIS WEEK’S DEBRIEF.
ATTEND ANY DEFENSE EXHIBITION AND IT’S NOT UNCOMMON TO SEE STATES LIKE OKLAHOMA, VIRGINIA, OR OHIO WITH A DISPLAY OF THEIR OWN, HOPING TO LURE NEW BUSINESS INSIDE THEIR BORDERS, BECAUSE NEW BUSINESS MEANS NEW JOBS.
[TERRY SLAYBAUGH]
“The way we look at our mission is, really, what can we do to create jobs that provide a quality life for Ohioans, and whether it’s in the military, aerospace, or one of the nine other sectors that we work in, that’s really our mission is, how many of those good quality jobs can we create for the state that not only creates a great life for the Ohioan that’s going to get that job, but it’s also going to offer a valuable return to the state economically.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
BY ANY MEASURE, JANUARY’S ANNOUNCEMENT WAS SEISMIC.
[SEN. JON HUSTED]
“We’re here to announce that Anduril, one of the leading defense tech manufacturers in the world, is building Arsenal one here in Ohio.“
[GOV. MIKE DEWINE]
“This is really historic. It is the biggest one project is for the number of people who are going to be employed in all of Ohio History. And it really goes to our sweet spot. And our sweet spot is, is aviation, it’s National Defense related products.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
EVEN WITH ALL OF THAT ON THE STATE’S SIDE, TERRY SLAYBAUGH, THE VICE PRESIDENT OF SITES AND INFRASTRUCTURE FOR JOBS OHIO, SAYS LANDING COMPANIES LIKE ANDURIL TAKES MORE THAN WHAT’S VISIBLE ON THE SURFACE LEVEL.
[TERRY SLAYBAUGH]
“It used to be, you had to have sites in your state, you had to have water, sewer, you had to have the infrastructure for an opportunity like Anduril. I think now companies want to know, where is the talent going to come from? Where am I going to get the workforce? You know, JobsOhio is really focused, not just JobsOhio, but our Governor and the administration on how we can amplify the talent that we have in the state. And then how can we improve the talent?”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
IT’S FROM THAT TALENT POOL ANDURIL HOPES TO KICKSTART LARGE-SCALE PRODUCTION OF MILITARY GRADE AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS SYSTEMS, INCLUDING DRONES, AT A COST AND PACE THAT WOULD KEEP THE U.S. AHEAD OF ITS NEAR-PEER ADVERSARIES LIKE RUSSIA AND CHINA. SOMETHING PALMER LUCKEY POINTED TO IN AN INTERVIEW WHEN ARSENAL-1 WAS ANNOUNCED. LUCKEY TELLING BLOOMBERG NEWS…
[PALMER LUCKEY]
“There’s no other option. The whole point here, the reason we raised that $1.5 billion round, the reason that we’ve been accelerating this process, the reason that we’re investing in building this factory ahead of the customer actually paying us to do it, is because we believe in that timeline. Because we have to believe in it. it is critical that we hit it.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
SO WHAT DOES THAT TIMELINE LOOK LIKE? THE PLAN IS TO MANUFACTURE THE FIRST PHASE OF THE SITE AND START PRODUCTION IN MID-2026. LUCKEY WENT ON TO SAY OHIO GAVE ANDURIL THE BEST SHOT AT HITTING THOSE GOALS. SOMETHING THAT ALIGNS WITH WHY JOBS OHIO TARGETS COMPANIES LIKE ANDURIL.
[TERRY SLAYBAUGH]
“You know, we don’t count all the construction jobs, all the other jobs in retail and ancillary services that are going to be created when we bring in an annual, you know, 4000 manufacturing jobs spins off a lot of other jobs into the economy. You know, we don’t really focus on all those other jobs, because we’re looking at the value that we’re going to get from those jobs that we’re creating through our incentives, and what that return is to the state, but we know it has a huge impact on the economy.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
THAT IMPACT CAN’T BE UNDERSTATED. THE PROJECT IS EXPECTED TO YIELD MORE THAN 8,500 NEW JOBS IN TOTAL BY 2035, WITH MORE THAN $2 BILLION IN ANNUAL ECONOMIC OUTPUT AND OVER $1 BILLION FROM IN-STATE LABOR INCOME WILL BE GENERATED WITH PROJECTED TAX REVENUES ESTIMATED TO BE ROUGHLY $800 MILLION… MAKING THE BUSINESS OF ATTRACTING BUSINESS, A SMART ONE.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
“The most valuable commodity I know of is information. Wouldn’t you agree?”
YES, MR. GEKKO I WOULD. AND IT’S AS TRUE NOW AS IT WAS IN THE 1987 CLASSIC ‘WALL STREET’.
BUT HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU HAVE ALL OF THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO YOU?
HOW DO YOU MAKE SURE YOU’RE NOT MISSING A CRUCIAL PIECE THAT COULD AFFECT WHATEVER IT IS YOU’RE TRYING TO DO?
THAT’S A PROBLEM THE SUBJECT OF OUR WEAPON OF THE WEEK IS TRYING TO SOLVE.
BASED IN MCLEAN, VIRGINIA, RAFT TOUTS ITSELF AS A LEADING DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY COMPANY DEDICATED TO EMPOWERING THE U.S. MILITARY AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES WITH CUTTING-EDGE A-I, MACHINE LEARNING AND DATA SOLUTIONS.
TO THAT END, IN MARCH THEY RELEASED A NEW PLATFORM CALLED AIMS, SHORT FOR A-I MISSION SYSTEM.
[SHUBHI MISHRA]
“Focused on solving a lot of the decision making problems for different sorts of user personas, whether that be acquisition professionals, whether that be war fighters, whether that be policy makers or military decision makers, focus is on helping them aid their decision making and getting them more accurate and faster decisions”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
ONE OF THE BENEFITS OF THE U.S. HAVING A MILITARY LARGE ENOUGH TO COLLECT AND COMPILE TROVES OF INFORMATION, IS ALSO A WEAKNESS IF EVEN SOME OF THAT DATA FAILS TO GET TO THE PEOPLE THAT NEED IT. RAFT’S FOUNDER AND CEO, SHUBHI MISHRA, SAYS THAT’S A PROBLEM AIMS IS DESIGNED TO TACKLE.
[SHUBHI MISHRA]
“Unlike a lot of the large language models that are trained on the internet, trained on all the data that exist outside in military, our platform is specifically trained on the doctrine, the data that makes these services possible. So it is not trained on the stuff that does not matter to a service. It’s trained on what the pilots, the army, soldiers, and all of the different services use to train their people. And that’s what makes it very, very special.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
MISHRA SAYS THIS NEW PLATFORM CAN NOT ONLY BRIDGE LEGACY SYSTEMS WITH NEWLY DEVELOPED SYSTEMS, BUT IT CAN ALSO DO IT AT SPEED, AT COST, AND AT SCALE.
[SHUBHI MISHRA]
“For both those problem sets, you require something that attaches to those legacy or new systems and pulls that information together such that a user on the other end can make fast decisions, quick decisions. So going back to the question you asked, how does how does this get them faster, quicker, better information. It is just that. It is the conduit that transforms the information they have into the information they need.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
AS FOR HOW IT’S WORKING IN THE REAL WORLD, MISHRA SAYS BEFORE AIMS’ PUBLIC LAUNCH, RAFT WAS WORKING WITH PEOPLE HANDLING ACQUISITION AND CONTRACTING.
[SHUBHI MISHRA]
“That’s a super hard job. And so, how can that make them how can this system make them faster and more accurate, and we, what we have tested out with them, has increased their accuracy by 45% and made them faster by 30x percent.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
ESSENTIALLY, AIMS AGGREGATES DATA COLLECTED BY PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD AND GETS IT TO THE PEOPLE WHO NEED IT MOST.
[SHUBHI MISHRA]
“So they always had some way to get to the stuff. It took them months to get to it. Lot of phone calls. They have the data, but they don’t have the tools to make sense of the data. So what you have right now is the tool they have in front of them, where they can ask questions, as opposed to learning the system. So we have made it very intuitive using just you know, how you use a ChatGPT, how you use any large language model, ask a question, it’ll give you the answer. And the beauty is trained on their data, and it is trained on their doctrine.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
WHILE MISHRA WASN’T YET ABLE TO TALK ABOUT ANY SPECIFIC DEALS IN PLACE, SHE DID SAY A LOT OF INTEREST IS BEING GENERATED, WITH POTENTIAL USERS LOOKING TO GET AIMS ONBOARDED SOON.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
TIME TO HOP INTO THE WAYBACK MACHINE FOR THIS WEEK’S COMMS CHECK, WE’RE GOING ALL THE WAY BACK TO EPISODE THREE. THAT’S RIGHT, 62 EPISODES AGO WE TOLD YOU ABOUT THE ARMY’S DECISION TO BUY HUNDREDS OF RAYTHEON’S BLOCK TWO AND BLOCK THREE OF THE COYOTE COUNTER DRONE VARIANTS.
NOW A NEW VARIANT IS MAKING SOME NEWS.
RECENTLY, RAYTHEON WAS ABLE TO LAUNCH THE NEW COYOTE L-E S-R UNCREWED AERIAL SYSTEM FROM A HELICOPTER. THE COYOTE FAMILY INCLUDES A RAIL-LAUNCHED MISSILE VARIANT DESIGNED FOR HIGH-SPEED COUNTER-UAS AND LAUNCHED EFFECTS OPERATIONS. THIS NEW VARIANT IS PART OF A SERIES THAT CAN BE DEPLOYED FROM THE AIR, GROUND, OR SEA, MAKING IT SUPER VERSATILE FOR DIFFERENT MISSIONS.
WHILE IMAGES ARE SCARCE, WE DO KNOW RAYTHEON SHOWCASED THE COYOTE’S LE CAPABILITIES AT THE US ARMY’S EXPERIMENTAL DEMONSTRATION GATEWAY EVENT. WE ALSO LEARNED THAT WITH COLLABORATIVE AUTONOMY, IT CAN CONNECT WITH NEARBY SENSORS TO ADAPT ITS TACTICS IN REAL-TIME. MORE TESTS ARE SCHEDULED THROUGH 2025.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
ALRIGHT FOLKS…THAT’S GOING TO DO IT FOR US THIS WEEK ON WEAPONS AND WARFARE. IN THE WEEKS AND MONTHS AHEAD WE’LL BE ROLLING OUT ALL THE STORIES AND CONTENT WE GATHERED HERE AT THE NAVY LEAGUE’S SEA, AIR, AND SPACE EXPO–SO BE SURE TO LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE TO ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS…AND DOWNLOAD THE STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS APP TODAY.
FOR MY WRAP THIS WEEK–I’M GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF CLARITY–ESPECIALLY CLARITY FROM LEADERSHIP.
OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS–PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP AND HIS STAFF HAVE BEEN ON A MISSION TO END WOKENESS IN AMERICA–AND STOP ANY PROGRAM THAT CAN BE ASSOCIATED WITH DEI IN ANY WAY.
IN THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AND THE MILITARY AS A WHOLE–SECDEF PETE HEGSETH ORDERED THE REMOVAL OF ALL NEWS ARTICLES, PHOTOS, AND VIDEOS PROMOTING DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION…
BUT THERE WAS LITTLE CLARITY GIVEN ON WHAT CONSTITUTES A DEI ARTICLE, PHOTO, OR VIDEO–AND IN THE ABSENCE OF DIRECTION–FAR TOO MUCH WAS SACRIFICED ON THE ALTER OF ENDING WOKENESS.
BOOKS THAT FEATURED WOMEN WHO FOUGHT DURING THE CIVIL WAR WERE REMOVED FROM LIBRARIES… THE AIR FORCE BRIEFLY PULLED LESSONS ON THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN IN ITS BOOT CAMP….THE U-S NAVAL ACADEMY TOOK DOWN A DISPLAY COMMEMORATING THE FIRST JEWISH WOMEN TO GRADUATE FROM THE INSTITUTION.
COUNTLESS HOURS WERE SPENT COMBING THROUGH EVERY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT RUN BY THE DOD OR MILITARY–AND THERE ARE A LOT OF THEM–
MAKING SURE ANY PICTURE OR POST FEATURING ANYTHING THAT COULD BE DEEMED A VIOLATION OF THE DEI ORDER WAS REMOVED–THE PENTAGON EVEN TOOK DOWN A WEBSITE HONORING JACKIE ROBINSON–AN ICONIC SPORTS HERO TO MILLIONS AND AN ARMY VETERAN.
A PORTION OF THE REMOVED CONTENT WAS RESTORED….HEGSETH SAID SOME OF IT WAS REMOVED BY ACCIDENT….SOME OF IT OUT OF WHAT HE CALLED ‘MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE.’
BUT IF THERE WAS MORE CLARITY IN THE INITIAL ORDER–PERHAPS SOME OF THOSE ACCIDENTS AND CASES OF MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED.
IN THE ABSENCE OF CLEAR ORDERS–TROOPS AND APPARENTLY A-I PROGRAMS RUN AMOK DEFAULTED LARGELY TO WHAT THEY KNEW WOULD BE CONSIDERED SAFE CONTENT–ANYTHING THAT FEATURED WHITE MEN.
BUT GUESS WHAT–THERE ARE A LOT MORE PEOPLE IN THE MILITARY THAN WHITE MEN…AND THE HISTORY ABOUT HOW WE GOT HERE MAKES US BETTER FOR KNOWING IT.
IN A VIDEO POSTED TO X–PENTAGON SPOKESMAN SEAN PARNELL SAID HISTORY IS NOT DEI… SO, WHAT IS? WHAT EXACTLY CONSTITUTES A DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION-RELATED POST, ARTICLE, THOUGHT OR IDEA?
IT WOULD SEEM TO ME..IF WE CAN’T CLEARLY DEFINE IT–WE SHOULDN’T BE GIVING ORDERS TO SCRUB IT.
FOR SENIOR PRODUCER BRETT BAKER, VIDEO EDITOR BRIAN SPENCER, AND GRAPHICS ARTIST DAKOTA PITEO–I’M RYAN ROBERTSON WITH STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS, SIGNING OFF.
