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PODCAST

The Merge

Military technology, trends, and national security...presented with unique insights, salt, and wit from combat aviator veterans and industry experts. Fence in for interviews and anecdotes about the ins, outs, and happenings at the intersection of technology, industry, strategy, and policy of aerospace and national defense. Brought to you by The Merge newsletter.

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All Episodes

00:27:09

E62 – Rethinking Aircraft Maintenance with Perfect...

The Merge ·

2026/10/04

Buying a fighter jet is the cheap part.Mike sits down with Jim Becker, President and CEO of Perfect Point EDM, to talk about the biggest line in any defense program: keeping the fleet flying.Perfect Point builds the E-Drill, which uses electro discharge machining (EDM) to pull aircraft fasteners. Founded in 2005, it turned a lab curiosity into a fielded tool that removes a rivet in about 30 seconds instead of 10 minutes, with no debris and almost no rework.Jim's take is blunt. The aircraft

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00:36:42

E61 – Rebuilding the Test Playbook with Nominal

The Merge ·

2026/08/30

Test is where new military hardware goes to wait.Mike sits down with Jenn Wilson, Head of Federal at Nominal, to talk about test and evaluation, the least glamorous gate between a program and the warfighter.Nominal builds test data infrastructure for hardware. Founded in 2022 by Anduril, Palantir, and Lockheed Martin alumni, it reached a $1 billion valuation in March.Jenn’s take is that acceleration comes from optimizing what you test for. Cutting test points is the wrong lever.Topics include:Test

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00:43:40

E60 – GPS-Free Navigation

The Merge ·

2026/07/12

How do systems operate when GPS disappears?Mike sits down with Kara Kramer, Vice President ofRaptor Sales at Vantor (formerly Maxar Intelligence), to discuss one of the most important challenges facing modern autonomous systems: operating when GPS is jammed, spoofed, or completely unavailable. We discuss vision-based navigation (VBN), 3D geospatialintelligence, and why resilient autonomy depends on more than just the drone itself. From electronic warfare to contested operations, this conversation

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00:42:44

E59 – Business Breakdown: Anduril

The Merge ·

2026/06/04

Anduril Industries raised $5 billion at a reported $61billion valuation—putting a nine-year-old defense tech company in the same conversation as legacy primes that have been building weapons for generations.How did they do it, what is their strategy, and does the math make sense?In this episode, Mike and Matthew take a deep dive inside Anduril’s products, revenue, contracts, and business strategy. They break down the Series H raise, the company’s rapid valuation climb, the difference between

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00:51:22

E58 – Dcode the Pentagon Buying Machine

The Merge ·

2026/04/26

What does it actually take to get new technology into thehands of warfighters—and why is it still so hard?In this episode, Mike sits down with the co-founders ofDcode, Meagan Metzger and Meg Vorland, to unpack the reality behind defense innovation, acquisition reform, and the flow of capital into the sector. Dcode operates at a unique intersection—working withstartups, investors, and the Pentagon—giving them a rare, inside-out view of how the system really works.We break down why most acquisition

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00:42:21

E57 – The War on Bad Software (Defense Unicorns)

The Merge ·

2026/03/28

All modern hardware depends on good software, but in theU.S. military, most software sucks.Rob Slaughter, co-founder and CEO of Defense Unicorns, joins the show to unpack why this is happening and what they are doing to fix it.We dive into the rise of “software as a weapon system,” therole of open-source software in national security, and how Defense Unicorns is building an air-gapped, platform-agnostic software delivery model designed for real-world military environments. This episode is a must for

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00:53:59

E56 – The Fury Origin Story

The Merge ·

2026/02/01

This is the untold origin story of the Fury CollaborativeCombat Aircraft (CCA), as told by those who lived it.Scott Bledsoe and Joe Murray join Mike to talk about Fury’s very beginning—way back to 2016.Now known as Anduril’s YFQ-44, Fury originated as an SBIR project from Blue Force Technologies and may go on to become a poster child of SBIR success stories. But it’s not all good news.The experience—and the decision to sell to Anduril—motivated Scott and Joe to start a new type of investment fund

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00:41:33

E55 – Christine Fox: the REAL Charlie

The Merge ·

2026/01/18

There is a strange set of organizations that live betweenindustry and government called Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs).They play an important—but largely misunderstood role—in national security.What better way to understand it all than with a guest who’sone of the most famous pop-culture examples: Christine Fox.She was the real person who was portrayed as ‘Charlie’,Maverick’s civilian love interest, in Top Gun! She spent

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00:55:57

E54 – Pryzm: AI to understand the Pentagon

The Merge ·

2025/12/14

Mike sits down with Matt Hawkins and Nick LaRovere,co-founders of Pryzm.Pryzm is building an Operating System for defense innovation—software that uses AI to generate capture intel to make sense of Pentagon budgets, Congressional legislation, program offices, and much more. It’s AI to understand the Pentagon.They help connect the dots between missions, markets, andpeople to power the future of national security. Links• Sign up for the newsletter⁠! • Support us on ⁠Patreon⁠!• Pryzm homepage

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00:58:27

E53 – The Fighter Pilot Spirit

The Merge ·

2025/12/10

Chris "Snooze" Kurek, Rob “Trip” Raymond, and Erik“EZ” Brine chat with Mike “Pako” Benitez on all things fighter pilot culture—toast, roast, and lore.Better known as Dos Gringos, Snooze, and Trip put out 4albums of fighter pilot songs that are famous (and infamous) in squadrons around the world. EZ joined the duo to form Operation Encore in 2012, a non-profit that helps veterans get their music into the world.We dig into a century of fighter pilot history and traditions, from the origins

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00:56:43

E53 – The Fighter Pilot Spirit

The Merge ·

2025/11/25

Chris "Snooze" Kurek, Rob “Trip” Raymond, and Erik“EZ” Brine chat with Mike “Pako” Benitez on all things fighter pilot culture—toast, roast, and lore.Better known as Dos Gringos, Snooze and Trip put out 4 albums of fighter pilot songs that are famous (and infamous) in squadrons around the world. EZ joined the duo to form Operation Encore in 2012, a non-profit that helps veterans get their music into the world.We dig into a century of fighter pilot history and traditions, from the origins

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00:51:53

E52 – Top Secret Offices

The Merge ·

2025/10/25

Nooks co-founder and CEO Sean Blackman spills all thesecrets about what it takes to do classified business with the Pentagon. Nooks is a venture-backed startup founded in 2021 to solve amassive pain point: access to classified offices and networks to perform sensitive national security work.Nooks is attacking the problem in an innovative way called Classified-Infrastructure-as-a-Service (CIaaS), which is a subscription access to a nationwide network of classifiedworkspaces and IT.If you are in the

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00:58:01

E51 – Red 6 and the Military Metaverse

The Merge ·

2025/10/05

Red 6 CEO and co-founder Dan Robinson discusses augmented reality for pilots, the military metaverse, and the future of high-end training and tactics development.Red 6 was founded in 2018 around a revolutionary approach to military flight training called ATARS—the Advanced Tactical Augmented Reality System—that creates virtual outdoor worlds to deliver threat-relevant,near-peer-level training scenarios.It’s much more than an augmented reality helmet—it's rethinking the entire pilot training and

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00:47:09

E50 – JDAM: the GPS-Guided Bomb

The Merge ·

2025/09/14

Mike sits down with Steve “Wingie” Wingfield to discuss the Joint Direct Attack Munition, aka the JDAM—the world’s first operational GPS-aided bomb.Wingie played a big role in the Air Force, doing weaponsflight testing and requirements writing, then went on to have another career at Boeing working on JDAM and other weapons. He’s one of the few people who got to see the entire storyarc, from the pain points in Desert Storm that started the whole thing, to other evolutions like Laser JDAM and extended

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00:31:01

E49 – Ursa Major Solid Rocket Motors

The Merge ·

2025/08/31

In this episode, Mike sits down with Dan Jablonsky, CEO ofUrsa Major, to discuss solid rocket motors and how Ursa Major is doing it differently.Once dominated by just two suppliers, America’s SRM propulsion base has been stretched thin—leaving gaps exposed by today’s conflicts. Dan explains how Ursa Major is tackling that challenge withmodular production, 3D printing, Highly Loaded Grain propellants, and advanced manufacturing using what they’ve learned from their liquid motor product lines.We also

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00:25:50

The Future of Air Warfare: Offensive Electronic...

The Merge ·

2025/07/13

Electronic warfare is a crucial element of armed conflict involving controlling and protecting the electromagnetic spectrum, which is vital for communication, navigation, and target identification. EW also permits the disruption and denial of adversaries' use of the spectrum, hindering their ability to operate effectively.Benjamin “Chuck” Angus, Director of Business Development in Naval Power at Raytheon, a business of RTX, joins us this week to discuss Raytheon's involvement in EW,

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00:54:04

E48 – Golden Dome, DIU, and the Innovation Reckoning

The Merge ·

2025/06/22

In this episode, Mike and Jake catch up on defense techhappenings. Links• Sign up for the newsletter⁠! • Support us on ⁠Patreon⁠!• ⁠⁠Website⁠⁠ ---- Follow us on... • LinkedIn• Instagram⁠• ⁠X⁠• ⁠Facebook⁠---- 00:36 intro03:31 defense tech investing17:25 Anduril & Golden Dome18:13 Golden Dome25:51 frequency auctioning28:12 Ukraine forcing a US reckoning34:27 DIU criticism42:24 the 4th offset?46:39 Sun Tzu terrain47:45 the torpedo50:05 Ukraine drones and Israeli pagers

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00:30:07

The Future of Air Warfare: Modeling & Simulation...

The Merge ·

2025/06/05

Tomorrow’s fight will be fast, complex, and contested. Victory won’t come from a single platform, weapon, or payload—it will depend on how well everything works together. That’s where modeling and simulation (M&S) matters.This week, Raytheon (an RTX company) joins us to discuss how they are leading the way with Rapid Campaign Analysis and Demonstration Environment (RCADE), a campaign-level M&S capability built to help decision-makers think beyond individual systems and enables them to see

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00:38:16

E47 – Cumming's Hellhound

The Merge ·

2025/04/27

Don’t miss our newsletter!That's where we drop weekly knowledge bombs to help you make sense of defense!In this episode, Mike sits down with Sheila Cummings,founder, president, and CEO of Cummings Aerospace. Cummings Aero started in 2009 supporting the Huntsville,Alabama missile market, but recently decided to launch their own product—the Hellhound.The Hellhound S3 is a man-portable, 3D-printe,d jet-powered kamikaze drone...and we have the FIRST-PUBLIC views of the actual drone—audio and

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00:38:09

The Future of Air Warfare: Radars (Sponsored)

The Merge ·

2025/03/03

Joe “Grip” Beissner, Director of Requirements and Capabilities for Radio Frequency Solutions at Raytheon, a business of RTX, joins us to discuss the cutting-edge AESA radars Raytheondelivers for our warfighters.

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67 results

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