Cogs of War

Is it too late to stop criminals and American adversaries from exploiting AI to conduct cyberattacks or design novel pathogens? Has regulation kept pace with the threat civilian drones pose to critical infrastructure? AI researcher Lennart Heim, Army drone strategist Paul Lushenko, and CEO of Sentinel Bio Claire Qureshi join Jonathan to discuss the trade-offs between protecting the public and letting the private sector forge ahead. The conversation gets into synthetic DNA, the risk of drones at the FIFA World Cup, and whether the U.S. government should get early access to Silicon Valley's newest large language models.

The future fight won't be won by those with the biggest budgets, most polished strategies, or largest armies. It will be won by those who can translate breakthrough technology into usable capability at speed and scale. Ryan was joined by Horacio Rozanski, the CEO of Booz Allen, to talk about the role his company is playing in this race. Having reoriented Booz Allen into a technology integrator, he shares the cultural and organizational challenges of turning Booz Allen into a company of builders, the bets being made on emerging technologies, and how his personal journey — from immigrant to Booz Allen intern to CEO — shapes how he sees change.

There's a fundamental mismatch between the agile acquisition processes that the Pentagon says it wants, and the unfortunate bureaucratic reality. Bonnie Evangelista, an acquisition maverick, joins the show to explain why. She spent the last seven years implementing rapid acquisition strategies for Army Defensive Cyber, the Joint AI Center, and the Chief Digital AI Office, and is now a strategic advisor supporting the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul team rewriting the Federal Acquisition Regulations.

What does it take to push aerospace innovation from concept to battlefield? Ryan sits down with John Clark, Lockheed Martin's senior vice president for technology and strategic innovation and former head of the legendary Skunk Works. They unpack the Skunk Works playbook for rapid innovation, reveal proven strategies for bending the cost curve, and explore why established defense giants may have an unexpected edge in the race for AI advantage.

"Innovation adoption is a contact sport." As the chief technology officer of the Department of the Navy, Justin Fanelli is one of the leaders responsible for ensuring warfighters have access to bleeding edge solutions. Listen to his conversation with Ryan Evans, recorded live at an event in Washington, DC — our first episode of Cogs of War, a new vertical on defense tech and the defense industry brought to you by War on the Rocks and supported by Booz Allen Hamilton.