The Chinese are leading the effort to implement a digital currency. Starting first within China and then expanding to other nation’s around the globe, the People’s Bank of China, or PBOC, is developing a form of digital currency that enables controlled anonymity - privacy between parties involved in a transaction but full visibility of the transaction details by the Chinese state, in real time, of any and all transactions employing this digital currency system.  My guest for today’s podcast...

Approximately five years ago, the Department of Defense began a new effort to collaborate with non-traditional defense suppliers as a means of accelerating its pace of innovation. The clear and present danger that is driving this strategy is the unprecedented rise of China’s economy and it’s growing military strength. In today’s episode, my guest, Col. Sean O’Brien, a professor and department head at the National Defense University, explains some of the ways DoD is modifying its acquisition...

In 2013 China announced the Belt Road Initiative, a $1 trillion project to link together countries and economies to form a Chinese-centric economic ecosystem. These linkages include telecommunications systems, physical roads and bridges, and a financial system built around a digital currency that also employs elements of blockchain. To date, over 60 countries accounting for two thirds of the world’s population have signed on to this project. In this podcast, we have two subject matter experts...

As the US military ramps up its efforts to collaborate with commercial, non-traditional suppliers of innovative products and services, these commercial firms are often puzzled and put off by the complexity and the bureaucratic maze involved in securing a government contract. In today’s episode, I interview Lorna Tedder, an agile acquisition expert for MITRE, and a former contracting officer for the US Air Force. Lorna is a change agent who throughout her distinguished career has worked to...

The DoD and the Trusted Capital Marketplace have identified autonomous systems as one of the 27 areas in which commercial technology could be leveraged for military applications. In my discussion with Pete DeNagy, a subject matter expert on both autonomous systems and 5G, we tackle this challenge head on. After I define the somewhat unique characteristics of the military use case for autonomous systems (and the unique complexities), Pete explains how the commercial world is implementing...

In 1989 the free world rejoiced as the Berlin Wall was torn down. Cheers went up again as the United States’ cold war adversary, the Soviet Union, collapsed in 1992. Some historians speculated that we had come to the end of history, that democracy and freedom, as articulated by America’s founders, would expand around the globe. But it was not to be. Starting with Deng Tse Peng’s pivot to state capitalism in 1979, the rush to outsource manufacturing to China in the 1990s, and China’s entry...

Innovation is the heartbeat of advancement in many areas of life, including commercial technology for defense. In this second episode of our discussion with Mike Courtney, a technologist and futurist, we discuss how innovation begins . . . and how it proceeds. Mike talks about “great leaps” as well as “incremental steps.” He explains why one approach may be more appropriate than the other. To provide a context for this dynamic, we use the evolution of aerial bombardment to illustrate both...

In this first part of a two part series, I talk with noted technologist and futurist, Mike Courtney, about innovation. We discuss what it takes for individuals or organizations to succeed at innovating, things that stand in the way of best practices, and lessons that can be learned from past innovation failures and successes. Because our audience is focused on military innovation and high technology, our discussion ranges widely: from the Maginot Line and Noorden bombsight, to the iPhone and...

The Pentagon’s drive to engage the commercial sector in developing dual use technology involves more than a search for technical innovation; it requires finding those firms whose commercial business case overlaps with the Pentagon’s military use case.   This is important because sustaining a dual use solution requires that the commercial firm generate revenue and profit from the private sector and not just the government. In this podcast, I discuss the application of agricultural technology...

Defense Department officials announced in October 2020 the award of $600 million in contracts to 15 prime contractors to perform testing and evaluation of 5G technologies at five military installations across the United States. Michael Kratsios, the acting undersecretary of defense for research and engineering stated that “5G networks - and the technologies that will be built upon them — are an integral component of the National Defense Strategy. Kratsios went on to say that “we at DoD are...

The mission of the United States Air Force is to fly, fight and win...in air, space and cyberspace. But doing that requires a new level of coordination and integration of both manned and unmanned systems. And a way to connect “sensors to shooters.” In today’s episode, we talk with Ohad Harlev, co-founder and CEO of LyteLoop, a firm based in New York, and a recent participant in the Air Force Space Command’s Catalyst Accelerator. Ohad and his team have been working for four years to create the...

The mission of the United States Air Force is to fly, fight and win...in air, space and cyberspace. Achieving that mission means, among other things, that the pace of innovation must accelerate and do so quickly. Three yeas ago, the Air Force stood up AFWERX, a new program designed to integrate several innovation initiatives already underway. One of the co-founders of that first team, Joey Arora, is my guest today. Joey Arora explains his journey into the Air Force and then the creation of...

For at least two years, wireless carriers have been promoting the next generation of wireless service known as 5G. This fifth generation of technology, we are told, holds great promise. But unlike earlier instantiations of wireless standards, such as 3G or 4G, 5G is more complex and nuanced. Understanding these details is important to grasp the existing and new use cases for this latest communications standard. Hi, I’m Mark Goode, host of “Commercial Innovation for Defense,” a podcast...

The explosion in use of IoT devices in commercial markets, assisted in no small part by the advent of 5G, is finding its way into the defense sector with the rapidly increasing use of sensors to create situational awareness for US forces. However, an enduring problem for all electronic communications is this: how do I authenticate the identity of the person or device with which I am communicating?   As my guest, Michael Lewellen, explains in this episode, when electronic communications via...

In our previous episode, the first part of my conversation with Michael Lewellen, we discussed the basics of blockchain and how it could be used to improve the integrity of battlefield networks. In this episode, I put Michael to the test. As he entered the studio for this recording, I handed him a 1.5 page story that was published a few months ago. It announced a second phase AFWERX SBIR award to a startup based in North Carolina named Fluree. Based solely on the limited information in the...

This is the first episode taken from my conversation with Michael Lewellen, a subject matter expert on blockchain technology. Michael is the president of Tarski Technologies, and a guest lecturer at the University of Texas at Dallas.   The key driver of the Pentagon’s many efforts to harness commercial innovation for its military systems is the growing threat from China. Christian Brose, a former senior staff member of the Senate Arms Services Committee, writes in his book “The Kill Chain,”...

This is the second episode taken from my conversation with Eric Lofgren.   In our first episode, Eric and I discussed the challenge of how DoD counts costs, a system that is based on an industrial view of the defense industry and one that dates back to the second world war. His conclusion and a view that I share is that DoD’s cost accounting system is outdated and does a poor job of providing guidance to the department’s decision makers as well as members of Congress. Yet, as the department...

This is the first episode of a conversation I had with Eric Lofgren. If you aren’t familiar with Eric, you may have heard of his blog https://acquisitiontalk.com or his podcast “Acquisition Talk with Eric Lofgren.” Eric is a subject matter expert on defense cost accounting and budgeting. Why does this cost accounting and budgeting matter? Peter Drucker, a legendary management consultant, observed that “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.” DoD’s cost accounting system and budgeting...

In this fourth and final episode of our discussion with David Shaw, he tells the story of how the Astrapi team discovered AFWERX, competed for a Phase 1 SBIR, and won.   This concluding episode provides the perfect capstone to the rollercoaster ride most entrepreneurs ride, particularly as they pursue opportunities with the Department of Defense. Email: [email protected]

This episode reflects the kind of serendipity that can play a role in breakthrough innovation. In this case, it is innovation that could end the chronic pain experienced by amputees. My business partner and I spent nearly 12 years advising senior managers at an organization that used to be named the Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Command or NSRDEC. It now is called the CCDC Soldier Center. During our time there, we learned a great deal about soldier survivability and how...

In this episode, we conclude our four part discussion with David Shaw, the co-founder of Astrapi. David takes us on his journey through DARPA, the commercial market, and then to AFWERX. And if there’s a hero to this story, it’s the team at AFWERX. They have innovated, iterated, and flexed to find solutions for accelerating the connection of startups with the US Air Force. Listen as David describes the ups and downs of his journey and take the opportunity to learn from his experience. You can...

In this third part of our four-episode interview, David explains the core innovation that his co-founder developed, how it came to be, and why there has been so much interest from both commercial and military RF engineers and companies. You can listen to this podcast on our podcast landing page, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.  Email: [email protected] and [email protected] 

In this second part of our three-episode interview, David discusses the venture that preceded Astrapi and provides an excellent case study of hope, investment, failure, and then pivot. The journey to success is rarely a straight line and in this episode you’ll hear about a twist and turn that preceded David’s successful venture, Astrapi. Email addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]

In today’s episode, we talk with David Shaw, an entrepreneur and co-founder of a firm that has developed what many believe are innovations that will change in fundamental and substantial ways both the bandwidth and the efficiency of wireless communications. In this first part of our multi-episode interview, David takes us through his interesting career journey from an entry level sales executive into entrepreneurship. David, who is in his mid-sixties, is a sterling example of the truism that...