The Merge
The Merge
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 .
5d ago
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 https://pryzm.io ---- Follow us on... • LinkedIn • Instagram • X • Facebook • Website ---- 00:00 01:43 intro 02:30 origin story 05:57 disclosure 07:07 2 PMs 08:47 Air Force tanker program 21:47 Golden Dome 28:12 sales vs business development 33:04 proactive vs reactive 34:59 intel to flip the script 37:56 a bubble? 41:18 flat toplines 43:05 requested vs executed 46:38 fundraise 48:27 DIU project 50:58 2026 outlook 55:29 outro
Oct 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 defense industry—or even thinking about it—and there is even a sliver of a chance you will touch classified work, this episode is everything you need to know. Links • Sign up for the newsletter ! • Support us on Patreon ! • Nooks website • Nooks LinkedIn ---- Follow us on... • LinkedIn • Instagram • X • Facebook • Website ---- 00:00 00:46 intro 01:49 Nooks 02:52 origin story 09:49 name and logo 12:30 locations and spaces 13:30 location and the real value unlock 17:57 COVID 19:20 fractional labs 20:06 fundraising for a weird company 22:01 information disadvantage 23:33 myth of hiring security clearances 30:00 SCIF 34:09 mobile SCIF 39:23 touchpoints and impact 42:13 security in shared spaces 46:48 the real impact 47:36 magic wand - crystal ball 49:50 make the problem go away secrets, top secret, military, technology, tech, defense, national security, air force, navy, army, marine corps, usmc
Oct 5
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 readiness experience. Links • Sign up for the newsletter ! • Support us on Patreon ! • Red 6 homepage • Red 6 LinkedIn • Red 6 IG • Red6CEO IG ---- Follow us on... • LinkedIn • Instagram • X • Facebook • Website ---- 00:00 00:42 intro 01:41 origin story 05:22 thesis of Red 6 06:17 co-founder meeting 10:43 lack of adversaries to train against 16:03 realism that gets missed 17:58 surface threats 21:03 progress and iteration 25:25 all of the technical challenges 27:20 suspension of disbelief 30:37 replacing helmet-mounted cueing 32:09 Enders Game 34:18 the Red 6 name 35:59 UK Royal Air Force 38:33 manned + unmanned 45:08 validating tactics and training 51:34 quality vs quantity training 54:30 the technology is coming 55:21 flying 56:43 the chief morale officer
Sep 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 range JDAM, and how those programscame to be. If you want a rare inside look at how one of the most successful acquisition programs in the past 30 years happened, this episode is for you. Links • Sign up for the newsletter ! • Support us on Patreon ! ---- Follow us on... • LinkedIn • Instagram • X • Facebook • Website ---- 00:00 01:02 intro 05:43 JDAM name origin 06:56 accuracy spec origin 10:43 Desert Storm McPeak Memo 11:16 GAM before JDAM 12:29 Kosovo combat debut 14:39 40k for 40k competition 17:44 JDAM adoption 22:50 production feast & famine 25:19 9/11 demand signal 26:33 surging with standards 28:43 Iraqi Freedom GPS jamming 29:53 Laser JDAM origins 33:38 the impact 36:01 hitting moving targets 37:54 106 mph! 39:39 MOP 41:33 JDAM-ER 41:47 Ukraine 42:53 integration and modularity 43:41 aerial mining 46:22 outro #military #airforce #navy #aviation #tech #technology #JDAM #boeing #GPS #defense #desert storm #iraq #syria #afghanistan #miltech #engineering #USA #security
Aug 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 talk about the big picture: hypersonics, cruisemissiles, and upcoming programs with RTX (Raytheon), the U.S. Navy (SM-2, SM-3, SM-6), the Army, and Stratolaunch. If you want to understand why missile production is one of the biggest defense challenges of our time—and how new entrants like Ursa Major are building solutions—this episode is for you. Links • Sign up for the newsletter ! • Support us on Patreon ! • Ursa Major website • Ursa Major LinkedIn • Ursa Major Instagram • Ursa Major X ---- Follow us on... • LinkedIn • Instagram • X • Facebook • Website ---- 00:00 00:42 intro 01:04 Ursa Major 02:22 company name 03:48 getting into the SRM business 05:29 SRM industrial base 07:15 doing SRMs differently 09:14 SRM 101 12:07 Highly Loaded Grain 13:08 increasing missile range 15:34 rapid development 16:44 scale with safety 22:25 rapidly adapting SRMs to the threat 23:03 3D printing everything? 24:59 hypersonic motors 27:20 missiles in space 27:47 affordable mass 29:14 outro
Jul 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, specifically offensive electronic attack, with its NextGeneration Jammer —an advanced electronic attack system that denies, disrupts, and degrades enemy technology, including communication tools and air-defense systems.
Jun 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 intro 03:31 defense tech investing 17:25 Anduril & Golden Dome 18:13 Golden Dome 25:51 frequency auctioning 28:12 Ukraine forcing a US reckoning 34:27 DIU criticism 42:24 the 4th offset? 46:39 Sun Tzu terrain 47:45 the torpedo 50:05 Ukraine drones and Israeli pagers
Jun 5
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 the entire operational ecosystem.
