[RYAN ROBERTSON]
HEY EVERYONE, WELCOME AGAIN TO OUR SHOW WEAPONS AND WARFARE. FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS I’M YOUR HOST RYAN ROBERTSON. JUST AHEAD ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE…
WE MEET ONE OF THE YOUNGEST ENTRANTS IN THE DOD’S RACE TO RAMP-UP PRODUCTION, AND DRIVE DOWN THE COSTS, OF ARMING U.S. TROOPS WITH THE WEAPONS AND TECH THEY’LL NEED TO FIGHT, AND WIN, AMERICA’S NEXT CONFLICT.
AND IF YOU LIKE HIGH TECH GEAR, OUR WEAPON OF THE WEEK IS A CAN’T MISS. WE VISIT WITH THE FOLKS FROM ELBIT AMERICA TO GET THE DEETS ON THE X-SIGHT HELMET. WEARABLE TECH THAT COULD BE A GAME CHANGER FOR HELICOPTER PILOTS.
BUT FIRST, YOU KNOW THE DRILL–SOME HEADLINES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED.
FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE DONALD TRUMP’S SECOND TERM IN THE WHITE HOUSE BEGAN THE U.S. MILITARY CARRIED OUT AIR STRIKES AGAINST YEMEN’S HOUTHI REBELS, AFTER THE REBELS SAID THEY TARGETED THE USS HARRY S. TRUMAN AIRCRAFT CARRIER.
ACCORDING TO A U.S. OFFICIAL, THE HOUTHIS DID FIRE DRONES AND AT LEAST ONE MISSILE IN RESPONSE TO U.S. ATTACKS ON YEMEN. TEN OF THE DRONES WERE INTERCEPTED BY U.S. AIR FORCE FIGHTER JETS AND ONE WAS INTERCEPTED BY A NAVY F/A-18 FIGHTER JET.
THE MISSILE FELL INTO THE WATER FAR FROM THE SHIP, AND NOTHING CAME CLOSE TO HITTING EITHER THE CARRIER OR THE WARSHIPS IN ITS STRIKE GROUP, THE OFFICIAL SAID.
BUT THE AMERICAN MUNITIONS–OH, THEY HIT THEIR TARGETS.
SOME BIG NEWS COMING OUT OF THE ARMY. THE NATION’S LARGEST SERVICE BRANCH IS PREPARING TO SHIP ITS LONG-RANGE HYPERSONIC WEAPON (LRHW), ALSO KNOWN AS DARK EAGLE, TO ITS FIRST OPERATIONAL UNIT. IT’S THE BIGGEST STEP FORWARD FOR A PROGRAM THAT FACED NUMEROUS DELAYS DURING TESTING.
WITH A RANGE OF A LITTLE MORE THAN 1,700 MILES DARK EAGLE IS A GROUND-LAUNCHED MISSILE WITH A HYPERSONIC GLIDE BODY, CAPABLE OF HITTING SPEEDS OF MORE THAN 3,800 MILES PER HOUR ON THE EDGE OF THE EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE. THIS SPEED WOULD ALLOW IT TO EVADE CURRENT AIR AND MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEMS, WHILE DELIVERING ITS PAYLOAD WITH HARDLY ANY WARNING.
IF ALL GOES ACCORDING TO PLAN, DARK EAGLE WOULD BE ON IT’S WAY TO ITS FIRST UNIT BY THE END OF FISCAL YEAR 2025. DARK EAGLE WAS DEVELOPED WITH THE NAVY, TOO…WHICH MEANS SHIP-LAUNCHED HYPERSONIC WEAPONS ARE COMING TO A U-S FLEET NEAR YOU SOON.
AND WE’RE SEEING MORE MOVEMENT ON PRESIDENT TRUMP’S PLANS FOR AN INCREASED MILITARY PRESENCE ON THE SOUTHERN BORDER. ACCORDING TO A RELEASE FROM THE DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE APPROXIMATELY 550 ARMY SOLDIERS WILL BE ARRIVING AT THE BASE NEAR TUCSON, ARIZONA IN THE COMING WEEKS.
THIS AS U.S. NORTHERN COMMAND IS WORKING WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY TO AUGMENT U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION ALONG THE BORDER WITH ADDITIONAL MILITARY FORCES.
300 MILES TO THE EAST, ARMY UNITS FROM ACROSS THE U.S. ARE STARTING TO ARRIVE AT FORT BLISS IN TEXAS, WHERE, ACCORDING TO MULTIPLE ARMY RELEASES, THEY WILL INTEGRATE WITH FORCES ALREADY DEPLOYED TO “PROTECT AND DEFEND THE TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF THE UNITED STATES.”
AND ON THE WEST COAST, MARINES IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HAVE BEEN PLACING NEW LAYERS OF CONCERTINA WIRE ALONG THE WALL AT THE BORDER NEAR OTAY MESA…AND THE USS GRAVELY GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER IS NOW IN THE WATERS NEAR THE BORDER TOO
THESE LATEST MOVES ARE ALL PART OF THE PRESIDENT’S PROMISE TO CLAMP DOWN ON ILLEGAL ENTRIES, WITH THE MILITARY BACKING-UP BORDER CONTROL.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
FOR DECADES THE NATURE AND SHAPE OF HOW AMERICA’S MILITARY DID BUSINESS WITH CIVILIAN CONTRACTORS LOOKED VERY MUCH THE SAME. BILLION DOLLAR BEHEMOUTHS AND YEARS LONG PROCUREMENT EFFORTS. BUT WHAT WAS ONCE THE STANDARD, IS CHANGING.
AS THE U.S. MILITARY CONTINUES TO SHIFT ITS FOCUS FROM THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR TO MORE TRADITIONAL ADVERSARIES, LIKE RUSSIA AND CHINA, SO TOO IS THE WAY THEY’RE GOING ABOUT ARMING THEIR FORCES. LOOKING TOWARDS NEWER, SMALLER, FLEET OF FOOT OUTFITS THAT OFFER NEW IDEAS, WITH FASTER TURNROUNDS THAT WON’T BREAK THE BUDGET. OUTFITS LIKE MACH INDUSTRIES, AND THEIR 21 YEAR-OLD CEO AND FOUNDER ETHAN THORNTON.
IT ALMOST SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING FROM A HOLLYWOOD STUDIO; AN MIT FRESHMAN LEAVES SCHOOL TO PERSUE HIS AMBITIONS IN THE DEFENSE SECTOR, CONVINCING INVESTORS AND OTHER BRIGHT MINDS TO JOIN HIS MISSION. FAST FORWARD A COUPLE OF YEARS, A FEW BUMPS IN THE ROAD, AND SEVERAL LESSONS LEARNED, AND ETHAN THORNTON SAYS HE HAS MACH INDUSTRIES POINTED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
[ETHAN THORNTON]
“So think high altitude balloons. Think long loaded high altitude aircraft. Again, very bullish there. And that is probably work we’re closer to doing as a company. I can’t talk too much about that work, but very passionate there.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
HOPEFULLY WHAT YOU CAN TALK ABOUT IS YOUR IDEAS ON HOW WE CAN GET THE AMERICAN MANUFACTURING PROCESS, NOT NECESSARILY TO CATCH UP WITH OUR ADVERSARIES, BUT TO YOU KNOW, PROVIDE THE AMERICAN MILITARY FORCE WITH A SIGNIFICANT PUNCH COUNTER PUNCH TO OUR ADVERSARIES. BUT IT ALL STARTS WITH OUR MANUFACTURING BASE. HOW DO WE FIX IT? IT’S WE BUILD BIG THINGS VERY SLOWLY. HOW DO WE BUILD SMALL THINGS VERY QUICKLY?
[ETHAN THORNTON]
“So manufacturing for like arming Ukraine or for arming Taiwan looks very different than manufacturing design specifically for near peer conflict. And so I think for the first one, you need very, very large automated factories producing hundreds to or 1000s to 10s of 1000s of platforms a month, right? And that’s that’s pretty linear thinking that is going to be extremely challenging from electronics perspective. And I think if our targeting specific areas that we need to be investing in very heavily as a country, it is making sure that we have the flight controllers, the radios, the gimbals, all of the sensors we need to scale to those. Numbers, because we are going to need to scale to those numbers at some point in the next few decades.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
WHAT’S IT GOING TO TAKE TO GET AMERICA INTO THAT MODE OF THESE ARE THE THINGS WE NEED TO START MANUFACTURING IN ORDER TO CONTINUE AMERICAN WORK. CONTINUING AMERICAN LIFE WHEN, WHEN THERE’S SO MANY DISTRACTIONS IN THE WORLD, HOW DO YOU GET AMERICA, THE AMERICAN POPULATION, FOCUSED TO THE POINT WHERE OUR MANUFACTURING REFLECTS ALL THESE THINGS THAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT?
[ETHAN THORNTON]
“I think the biggest bottleneck right now is actually that we aren’t, we aren’t procuring enough for these mature platforms that we are capable of manufacturing at scale. So yeah. I mean, at the limit, I think we need, we need to reform, like trade school education, right? We need to be become culturally obsessed with manufacturing, and we need to spend a ton of time vertically integrating the manufacture of rare earths, right? Like there are a lot of structural things, but I think right now more of the work needs to be done in procurement and then in the actual, just development of excellent platforms.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
AS FOR PLATFORMS MACH IS WORKING ON, THERE ARE TWO. THEIR HUNTINGTON, CALIFORNIA FACTORY IS CURRENTLY MANUFACTURING THE COMPANY’S TWO PRIMARY PRODUCTS: A WEAPON NAMED GLIDE AND A SUPER-LIGHT, JET-POWERED UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV) KNOWN AS VIPER. VIPER IS RECOGNIZED FOR ITS ABILITY TO TAKE OFF VERTICALLY, ELIMINATING THE NEED FOR A RUNWAY, AND MACH CLAIMS IT COSTS UP TO 300 TIMES LESS TO PRODUCE COMPARED TO CONVENTIONAL UAVS.
WHERE DO YOU SEE MACH INDUSTRIES GOING IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS? AND WHERE DO YOU SEE THE AMERICAN, YOU KNOW, DRONE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY GOING IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS?
[ETHAN THORNTON]
“So for us, specifically as a company, it’s bringing these two platforms to market. So they’re they’re both flying right, pushing through TRL levels and bringing those in production, getting them into the hands of of operators here in the US and abroad, and then doubling down, and we have a few next generation product bets we’re getting ready to make. And my goal is that by that kind of 2728 gate, that we have five to seven incredibly capable hardware products that we vertically integrated, that we can turn on the machines scale production and make 10s of 1000s of .”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
THEY ARE LOFTY GOALS TO BE SURE. BUT IF THORNTON AND HIS TEAM CAN CRACK THE CODE, AND DELIVER ON HIS VISION, THE IDEA OF HOLLYWOOD WANTING TO TELL THEIR STORY SUDDENLY WOULDN’T BE SO FAR-FETCHED.
AND IT’S NOT LIKE THE STORY DOESN’T HAVE LEGS…OR OUTSIDER INTEREST. SINCE TALKING WITH ETHAN, MACH INDUSTRIES SIGNED A CONTRACT WITH THE U-S ARMY TO BUILD A NEW CRUISE MISSILE–AND IN A SEPARATE DEAL, MACH SIGNED A CONTRACT TO BUILD UAV’S FOR HEVEN DRONES, ANOTHER COMPANY WE’VE TALKED ABOUT HERE ON WEAPONS AND WARFARE.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
REGULAR VIEWERS OF THE SHOW WILL KNOW WE HERE AT WEAPONS AND WARFARE ARE BIG FANS OF THE HELMET SYSTEM USED BY F-35 PILOTS. WITH A PRICETAG OF $400K, AND SOME INCREDIBLE CAPABILITIES, WE EVEN FEATURED IT IN OUR SPECIAL ON THE LIGHTNING TWO ASSEMBLY FACILITY.
SO WHEN THE GOOD FOLKS AT ELBIT AMERICA TOLD US THEY’D HAVE A SIMILAR PRODUCT FOR HELICOPTER PILOTS ON DISPLAY AT THIS YEAR’S AFA WARFARE SYMPOSIUM, WE KNEW WE HAD TO TAKE A LOOK AND SHARE IT WITH YOU IN OUR WEAPON OF THE WEEK.
FIRST THINGS FIRST, THE X-SIGHT LOOKS COOL.
BUT REALLY IT’S WHAT’S ON THE INSIDE THAT MAKES THIS PIECE OF TECH SO APPEALING TO MOST ANYONE THAT’S EVER FLOWN A HELICOPTER.
[ERIC “DELTA” BURKE]
“The X-Sight is a binocular visor projected helmet. And so before, when I flew, I flew a monocle based HMD or helmet mounted display, and it was a single, monochrome, very small HMD, and it’s matured over the last 1520 years to where it’s now a instead of monochrome, it’s high resolution, full color as well as the field of regard, or field of view, is now over 60 degrees. And what that does is it allows you to see a lot more information, a lot more symbology, but you could still see through the visor and look outside the aircraft to those things that are important, especially for a rotary wing or helicopter pilot,”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
ERIC BURKE, CALL SIGN DELTA, IS ELBIT AMERICA’S SENIOR DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. HE’S ALSO A FORMER MARINE HELICOPTER PILOT. WHICH GIVES HIM SOME UNIQUE INSIGHT INTO WHAT THE X-SIGHT BRINGS TO THE TABLE.
[ERIC “DELTA” BURKE]
“A helicopter pilot typically is going to fly anywhere between 103 100 feet above the ground, so it is very dangerous, inherently, where a fixed wing pilot could be flying anywhere between 3020 1000 feet so they don’t have to worry about power lines. Mountainous terrain like helicopter pilots have to power lines in particular are very dangerous for helicopter pilots, so flying into those things is obviously very hazardous, where a typical fixed wing pilot doesn’t have to deal with those dangerous situations.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
“And the X-Sight allows the pilot to be able to recognize those threats a little bit sooner, a little bit quicker. And then, you know, plan accordingly on their flight path?”
[ERIC “DELTA” BURKE]
“It does. The X-Sight has both real and augmented reality, and it knows where power lines, power poles, other obstacles, whether it’s man made or even what we call a priori or existing data. So knowing where that is and having that depicted as symbology on the helmet really allows the helicopter pilot to fly and avoid those obstacles”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
THE X-SIGHT ALSO UTILIZES ACTIVE SENSORS SUCH AS LIDAR, T-F/T-A RADAR, AND OBSTACLE WARNING SYSTEMS TO GIVE THE PILOT A 3D REPRESENTATION OF WHAT’S IN FRONT OF THEM.
ALL THIS INFORMATION IS DISPLAYED ON THE ADVANCED X-SIGHT SCREEN, SPECIFICALLY-DESIGNED TO MEET THE NEEDS OF TODAY’S PILOTS.
[ERIC “DELTA” BURKE]
“As a helicopter pilot, you constantly have to look down at the instrument panel, whether it’s at up on a paper map or digital moving map. You’re always checking your gages, making sure your temperatures and pressures and rpms are all what we call in the green, or operating normally, where now I could look outside the aircraft, and all of those things are being displayed in 3d symbology. And if it’s literally in the green, if the numbers are green, everything’s good. If it’s yellow, you’re getting close to that danger area. And if it’s red, obviously it’s going to get your attention very quickly, and you’re going to be able to address that situation, whether it’s reducing power, increasing your altitude, things of that nature.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
OF COURSE, THE BIG QUESTION IS ALWAYS HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? WHILE BURKE DIDN’T PROVIDE A NUMBER, HE DID SAY THAT IT COSTS LESS THAN THE PRICE TAG ON THE F-35 HELMET. AND WITH THE X-SIGHT NOT BELONGING TO A SPECIFIC AIRCRAFT, HE HOPES INCREASED PRODUCTION NUMBERS WILL MAKE IT AN EVEN MORE AFFORDABLE OPTION FOR OPERATORS.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
FOR VIEWERS OF A CERTAIN AGE THIS SCENE FROM ‘STAND BY ME’ MIGHT HAVE BEEN YOUR FIRST EXPOSURE TO THE THEME SONG FROM THE LATE FIFTIES HIT ‘HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL’. A WEEKLY SERIES ABOUT A COWBOY SLASH INVESTIGATOR NAMED PALADIN.
OF COURSE THE NAME ITSELF TRACES BACK TO A GROUP OF KNIGHTS FROM THE 8TH CENTURY. FAST FORWARD THIRTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AND THE NAME NOW BELONGS TO A COLLATERAL EFFECTS INTERCEPTOR DRONE DEVELOPED BY THE AIR FORCE RESEARCH LABORATORY.
IN FACT WE FEATURED THE PALADIN IN A WEAPON OF THE WEEK SEGMENT A LITTLE MORE THAN A YEAR AGO. BUT AS WE FOUND OUT DURING OUR RECENT TRIP TO COLORADO THE PALADIN PACKED ON SOME UPGRADES. AND THAT’S WHY IT’S THE SUBJECT OF THIS WEEK’S COMMS CHECK.
EVEN WHEN PERCHED ON A DISPLAY STAND IN THE MIDDLE OF A BUSY CONVENTION CENTER, THE PALADIN IS AN INTIMIDATING PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY.
BUT IT’S IN THE AIR WHERE THIS INTERCEPTOR, DESIGNED TO KEEP THE AIR SPACE OVER MILITARY RUNWAYS AND INSTALLATIONS FREE OF UNINVITED DRONES, REALLY FLEXES HIS MUSCLES.
[CAPT TROY KIEL]
“So it’s advertised as fully autonomous. I’ll walk you through the kill chain really quick. So it’ll get sensor data from an external sensor source, whether that’s radar or whether it’s RF sensing, and then it will be queued with alt, sorry, with altitude, lat and long. And then it can be dispersed by a member in the base defense Operations Center. Say, Go get it. It’ll go out track the target, then it switches to its onboard radar and onboard camera systems, and then it can tail the target until told to execute”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
SINCE WE FIRST INTRODUCED OUR AUDIENCE TO THE PALADIN IT’S UNDERGONE SOME CHANGES, THE MOST OBVIOUS BEING THE SWITCH FROM A BENELLI TO A GENISIS ARMS, GEN 12 SHOTGUN. THE AFRL ALSO WORKED WITH ZONE 5 TECHNOLOGIES TO GIVE THE PALADIN THE ABILITY TO CARRY LOUD SPEAKERS, OR A RIFLE. BUT THE BIGGEST CHANGE FOR THE PALADIN? PROBABLY ITS AVAILABILITY.
[CAPT TROY KIEL]
“This has moved to field testing, and it actually is being purchased operationally by operational commanders at this time. Awesome. Awesome. Are you allowed to talk about where that’s happening? So it just got recently put on the blue UAS list, so commanders can go on GSA and purchase them with their cards.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
FOR THE PEOPLE THAT WORK AT A-F-R-L, LIKE CAPTAIN TROY KIEL (Kyle), THAT STEP IN THE PROCESS ISN’T JUST A BOX ON A CHECKLIST THAT NEEDS TO BE TICKED.
[CAPT TROY KIEL]
“It feels really, really good. I haven’t been in a position where I felt this much impact. No offense to dispose right the program offices, but Air Force Research Lab is very, very good at moving fast and getting technology to the war fighter again and again and again. Technology maneuver is very, very fierce here, where we’re able to connect different types of technologies, whether it’s software, hardware, have them work agnostically, have them work together, interoperable and yeah, it’s, it’s been, it’s been great.”
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
ALRIGHT FOLKS, THAT’S GOING TO DO IT FOR US THIS WEEK ON WEAPONS AND WARFARE–AS ALWAYS, PLEASE LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE TO OUR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS, AND LET YOUR FRIENDS KNOW ABOUT THIS GREAT SHOW YOU FOUND THAT KEEPS YOU INFORMED ABOUT ALL THINGS WEAPONS AND WARFARE.
FOR MY WRAP THIS WEEK– I’M GOING TO ADDRESS SOME OF THE FALLOUT WE’RE SEEING AS THE UNITED STATES CHARTS A NEW PATH OF INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY.
WHEN THE U-S CUT OFF AID AND INTELLIGENCE SHARING TO UKRAINE–AN ALLY–EVERY OTHER U-S ALLY AROUND THE WORLD SAW THAT –AND IS NOW REACTING TO IT IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER.
PORTUGAL AND CANADA, FOR INSTANCE, ARE RETHINKING WHETHER OR NOT THEY SHOULD CONTINUE WITH THEIR PLANS TO BUY F-35 FIGHTERS FROM THE U-S. NOT BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE ELON MUSK AND THINK MANNED FIGHTERS ARE POINTLESS IN MODERN WARFARE–SOMETHING ISRAEL DISPROVED OVER IRAN…
NO, CANADA AND PORTUGAL MAY NOT SPEND BILLIONS TO BUY THE WORLD’S MOST ADVANCED FIGHTER BECAUSE THEIR CONFIDENCE IN AMERICA’S COMMITMENT TO ITS ALLIES WAS SHAKEN.
NOW, THE DEALS AREN’T DEAD JUST YET. CANADA IS SCHEDULED TO RECEIVE THE FIRST BATCH OF 16 F-35S NEXT YEAR–BUT THE DEAL WAS FOR 88–AND CANADA’S PRIME MINISTER SAID THEY’RE LOOKING TO SEE IF ITS IN THE COUNTRY’S BEST INTEREST TO CONTINUE. PORTUGAL’S OUTGOING DEFENSE MINISTER SAID THE COUNTRY SHOULD LOOK FOR F-35 ALTERNATIVES BECAUSE, QUOTE, THE PREDICTABILITY OF OUR ALLIES IS A FACTOR TO BE RECKONED WITH.
I UNDERSTAND THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION’S DESIRE TO FOCUS ON PROTECTING AMERICAN INTERESTS–BUT SNUBBING ALLIES AND POTENTIAL ALLIES COULD DRIVE THEM AWAYDRIVES THEM AWAY…POSSIBLY TOWARD OUR ENEMIES. INDIA WAS THINKING OF BUYING F-35S…WILL THEY GO WITH BEIJING NOW?
IN TERMS OF DEFENSE, THE U-S HOMELAND IS SAFER WHEN MORE NATIONS BUY AMERICAN. IT MAKES OUR ECONOMY STRONGER, STRENGTHENS DIPLOMATIC TIES–AND MAKES OUR OWN DEFENSE CHEAPER…WHICH SHOULD BE APPEALING TO A WHITE HOUSE THAT’S HYPERFOCUSED ON GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY.
THE POINT IS–I UNDERSTAND THERE IS AN UPSIDE TO BEING UNPREDICTABLE WHEN NEGOTIATING DEALS–KEEP YOUR OPS GUESSING…THAT’S A GOOD STRATEGY.
BUT PORTUGAL AND CANADA AREN’T AMERICA’S “OPS”… THEY’RE ALLIES. FRIENDS…AND MAKE NO MISTAKE, AMERICA WILL NEED FRIENDS IN A FUTURE CONFLICT WITH NEAR PEAR ADVERSARIES.
FOR SENIOR PRODUCER BRETT BAKER, VIDEO EDITOR BRIAN SPENCER, AND GRAPHICS ARTIST DAKOTA PITEO, I’M RYAN ROBERTSON WITH STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS SIGNING OFF.
