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Best of LinkedIn: Defense Tech CW 42/ 43 · Best of LinkedIn: Digital Transformation & Tech

• 0:00
  Speaker 0: Provided by Thomas Ogier and Frenis, based on the most relevant posts on LinkedIn about DefenseTech in CW-Forty-Two and Forty-Three, Frenis is a B to B market research company that equips product and strategy teams with market and competitive intelligence across the defense industry.
• 0:15
  Speaker 0: Welcome to the deep dive.
• 0:16
  Speaker 0: This session is really for you, the DefenseTech professional.
• 0:19
  Speaker 0: We're cutting through the noise, giving you a synthesized look at what was really driving the conversation on LinkedIn in those couple of weeks.
• 0:26
  Speaker 0: The focus, well, it's the tangible shift we're seeing in defense industrial strategy.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: And what really jumped out wasn't just what people were talking about, but how fast things seem to be moving now.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: We saw tighter European cooperation procurement trying to speed up and this definite shift away from just concepts to actually fielding stuff, deployable capability.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: We sort of clustered this around a few key themes, platforms and autonomy, then some frankly shocking challenges in air defense and that critical piece reinventing the industrial base.
• 0:56
  Speaker 0: Okay, let's dive right into that.
• 0:57
  Speaker 0: first one then.
• 0:58
  Speaker 0: platforms, systems, and this huge push for autonomy.
• 1:02
  Speaker 0: It's fascinating, the speed difference between, say, new crude fighters and these uncrewed programs.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: That speed difference is, I think, the biggest strategic takeaway here.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: You look at the Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky U-Hawk.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Dan Tenney and Frank St.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: John were highlighting this one.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: The
• 1:17
  Speaker 0: Autonomous Black Hawk Conversion.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: That's the one, a fully autonomous UH-SixDL.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing, using their Matrix autonomy system, they got twenty-five percent more cargo space.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: And, ah, this is the kicker.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: They went from a concept on paper to a working prototype in less than ten months.
• 1:35
  Speaker 0: Wow, ten months for a full helicopter conversion?
• 1:37
  Speaker 0: That's... That's almost unheard of in standard defense procurement.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: It tells you that, you know, autonomy and software-driven approaches, they might actually be finding ways around the decades of standard acquisition bureaucracy.
• 1:49
  Speaker 0: That's a big deal.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: And you saw that same focus on speed and logistics across the portfolio.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Dr.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Mark T. Maybury, he introduced the Nomad family.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: These are group three and four hybrid electric UAS.
• 2:00
  Speaker 0: ISR and logistics.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: designed specifically for ISR and logistics, crucially, runway independent, modular, cheap enough that you'd probably just swap out the power unit instead of constantly fixing it.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: They're really aiming to replace older systems like the RQ-Seven Shadow at the brigade level.
• 2:17
  Speaker 0: So that focus on rapid, maybe more distributed logistics capability, it really contrasts with the huge long-term commitments you see with crude air dominance programs, which, let's be honest, are still the industrial backbone in many ways.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: And those big programs are still moving.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Lockheed Martin, Jim Teichlet confirmed it, finalizing agreements for nearly three hundred F-thirty-fives globally.
• 2:40
  Speaker 0: To two ninety-six, I think?
• 2:41
  Speaker 0: Yeah,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: a huge number.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: And Greg Olmer pointed out the F-sixteen block, seventy milestones rolling out in places like Slovakia and Bulgaria.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: So it's kind of a dual strategy, right?
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Invest in the future, but also shore up NATO's current capabilities with proven jets.
• 2:54
  Speaker 0: And Europe's doing something similar, but the talk there also showed some friction, maybe.
• 3:00
  Speaker 0: Simon Ellard and Alexander Schadeg, they both noted Germany signing for twenty new Eurofighters.
• 3:05
  Speaker 0: Tranche five.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Good for the industrial base, support something like a hundred thousand jobs across Europe, reinforces that supply chain.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: But yeah, the future combat air system, FCAS, the big next-gen European fighter program, it's showing some cracks.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Pascal Lim actually reported that Germany is now looking at Sweden, specifically Saab, as a potential plan B if FCAS gets bogged down.
• 3:27
  Speaker 0: A plan B already.
• 3:29
  Speaker 0: Interesting.
• 3:29
  Speaker 0: What's the focus there?
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: It seems to be on developing a future six-ton drone system, a collaborative combat aircraft, or CCA targeting around twenty thirty-two.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: So even as they commit to the big crew fighter, they're hedging with autonomy.
• 3:43
  Speaker 0: That same kind of agility seems to be what Ukraine is prioritizing too.
• 3:46
  Speaker 0: I saw an Andreas Flodström noted Ukraine signed a letter of intent for Gripens.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Up to one hundred and fifty JAS thirty-nine Greffen eJets from Sweden.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: It really highlights that demand for, well, agility and cost efficiency.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: It fits with that.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Philosophy of Yves Barzohar was championing
• 4:00
  Speaker 0: which was
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: a less complexity equals more effect.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: He spotlighted the skywarden basically a militarized air tractor a to two simple reliable low-cost Goyan platform good for persistent eyes operating from rough spots.
• 4:13
  Speaker 0: So the listen is mixed.
• 4:14
  Speaker 0: high-end is needed, but mass speed simplicity They matter hugely on today's battlefield.
• 4:20
  Speaker 0: Exactly.
• 4:21
  Speaker 0: Okay.
• 4:21
  Speaker 0: That actually leads perfectly into our second theme counter uas hypersonics and this well frankly bizarre state of readiness.
• 4:28
  Speaker 0: And we've got capability gaps and apparently legal gaps too.
• 4:32
  Speaker 0: Yeah,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: the drone threat, it's not on the margins anymore.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: It's front and center.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Oleg Vornek from Drone Shield put it very bluntly.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: The market wants counter drone systems that are proactive, integrated and deployable now, not just in small trials.
• 4:45
  Speaker 0: And the tech is responding fast.
• 4:47
  Speaker 0: Kieran Carroll mentioned Zero-Y's launching their aerial detection kit, ZAD.
• 4:51
  Speaker 0: That came straight out of Department of War requirements for spotting intrusions, weapons, and drones.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: And AI is the real engine here, isn't it?
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: The force multiplier.
• 4:59
  Speaker 0: Definitely.
• 5:00
  Speaker 0: Paul Lemmo at Lockheed Martin showed off their Sanctum CUAS, which uses AI analytics.
• 5:06
  Speaker 0: Christian Emmaus talked about de-drone by Axon partnering with Titan Technologies for integrated NATO solutions.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Even systems like Aronia AEG's RTAS.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Stefan Krzyszanski noted strong interest at ADX- Twenty-Twenty-Five.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: So the tech to find and, you know, deal with drones, it seems to be there.
• 5:26
  Speaker 0: But detection isn't the only issue.
• 5:28
  Speaker 0: Hunt Mike Dodd shared some pretty stark warnings about critical early warning radars, like in Greenland, structurally vulnerable to hypersonic missiles.
• 5:37
  Speaker 0: That needs urgent modernization.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: That's a huge strategic vulnerability.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Time is really running out on that one.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: And it's not just the hardware.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Dr.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Dirk Zimper emphasized that deep precision strike, which you need for credible deterrence, isn't just about buying a missile.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: It's
• 5:50
  Speaker 0: the whole system.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: It's integrating the ISR, the command and control, and the weapons.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: You need the doctrine to make the hardware work effectively.
• 5:58
  Speaker 0: Okay, but here's the part that really struck me.
• 6:00
  Speaker 0: The legal hurdle.
• 6:01
  Speaker 0: Nicholas McGowan von Holstein summed up a panel discussion.
• 6:04
  Speaker 0: Yeah.
• 6:05
  Speaker 0: Where the experts basically said Europe's drone defense problem isn't the technology, it's the law.
• 6:10
  Speaker 0: They have proven tech, but can't always use it.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Wait, seriously, what kind of laws?
• 6:14
  Speaker 0: Things like aviation law, GDPR privacy regulations.
• 6:18
  Speaker 0: Apparently they often stop police, security forces, even critical infrastructure owners from actually acting to neutralize a drone threat even when they see one.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: That's incredible.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: A massive bottleneck that procurement teams can't fix.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: You have the jammer, you see the threat, but legally, your hands are tied.
• 6:35
  Speaker 0: Sounds like it.
• 6:36
  Speaker 0: It raises the question, is it policy failure?
• 6:39
  Speaker 0: or maybe necessary caution given the risks in civilian airspace.
• 6:44
  Speaker 0: But it feels like legacy rules are overriding the current threat reality.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Which makes a lot of the CUAS investment potentially.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Well, less effective if you can't actually use it when needed.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: That needs fixing fast.
• 6:55
  Speaker 0: Right.
• 6:55
  Speaker 0: And speaking of fixing things, let's pivot to theme three.
• 6:58
  Speaker 0: The industrial-based cooperation and investment strategy.
• 7:02
  Speaker 0: David Roberts put it well.
• 7:03
  Speaker 0: Europe's re-arming?
• 7:04
  Speaker 0: Great.
• 7:05
  Speaker 0: But can it reinvent its industrial backbone fast enough?
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: That's the billion-euro question, isn't it?
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: And the big roadblock seems to be fragmentation.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Jean-Braise Dumont from Airbus Defense and Space was very clear.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Industry can't effectively serve a market with twenty-seven different sets of military requirements.
• 7:20
  Speaker 0: So governments need to act more like a single customer?
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Essentially, yes.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Harmonized requirements simplify the frameworks.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: That's what unlocks the scale needed for serious private investment.
• 7:31
  Speaker 0: And where that investment goes is also critical.
• 7:35
  Speaker 0: Bram Cowberg's raised a red flag.
• 7:37
  Speaker 0: He argued that even with eight hundred billion being mobilized, there's a danger it just flows into traditional systems.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Instead of preparing for future conflicts fought with data and software, his point was clear.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: IT power is combat power going forward.
• 7:51
  Speaker 0: Which ties into what Jaco Seren suggested, fixing the fragmentation of expectations.
• 7:56
  Speaker 0: Moving beyond this legacy.
• 7:57
  Speaker 0: primes versus new players thinking.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: It's got to be about integration, blending the scale and experience of the primes with the speed and innovation of the newer companies.
• 8:06
  Speaker 0: And that pressure for speed and integration is hitting procurement.
• 8:10
  Speaker 0: Jonas Singer's takeaway was pretty blunt.
• 8:12
  Speaker 0: Speedbeat spend.
• 8:13
  Speaker 0: Procurement folks need the political backing to reward smart risk, he argued, to actually accelerate things.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: And we're seeing concrete examples of this integration model.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Look at ARX Robotics partnering with DEUTZ, the German engine maker.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Dr.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Sebastian C. Schult and Mark A. Weitfeld announced it.
• 8:31
  Speaker 0: What's the deal there?
• 8:32
  Speaker 0: DEUTZ
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: isn't just investing.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: They're supplying drive systems and giving ARX access to their massive global production and service network for UGVs.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: That's how you scale robotics much faster than usual.
• 8:44
  Speaker 0: That makes sense.
• 8:45
  Speaker 0: We also saw that kind of structural shift in the UK-Ukraine partnership James C. mentioned, moving beyond just aid to actual co-production.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Using battle-tested Ukrainian designs with UK industrial muscle.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Smart way to field capability quickly.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Okay,
• 8:59
  Speaker 0: let's talk money.
• 8:59
  Speaker 0: The venture capital side.
• 9:01
  Speaker 0: Nicholas Ann made a strong case that this defense tech funding surge heading towards ten billion dollars globally this year isn't a bubble.
• 9:09
  Speaker 0: He argues it's structural, driven by real sustained government demand finally catching up after decades of underinvestment.
• 9:15
  Speaker 0: Okay,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: so if it's structural, not just hype, what are the risks for investors or companies trying to get in?
• 9:21
  Speaker 0: Well, Nicholas N. did warn that valuations are already sky-high, median around a hundred and forty-six million dollars, especially in crowded spaces like drones.
• 9:30
  Speaker 0: Apparently, sixty percent of all defense tech funding is going there.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: That smells like defense washing risk, doesn't it?
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Companies may be overstating their military relevance to catch the wave?
• 9:39
  Speaker 0: Could be.
• 9:39
  Speaker 0: And that brings us to Louis Sanlon's dose of reality for newcomers.
• 9:43
  Speaker 0: He was blunt.
• 9:44
  Speaker 0: Compliance is hell.
• 9:46
  Speaker 0: You don't ship fast in defense.
• 9:47
  Speaker 0: You certify, test, retest.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Sales cycles are notoriously long, too.
• 9:51
  Speaker 0: Exactly.
• 9:52
  Speaker 0: Painfully long.
• 9:53
  Speaker 0: And for AI startups, getting hold of real-world operational data is often impossible, so they have to get really creative with training their models.
• 10:01
  Speaker 0: It takes a kind of patience, maybe toughness, that typical VC timelines don't always allow for.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: which teased up our final theme perfectly, scaling AI and the talent challenge.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: How did these defense AI firms grow fast without leasing that crucial mission focus?
• 10:16
  Speaker 0: Well, Noam Persky from Palantir talked about their concept of mission mode.
• 10:20
  Speaker 0: It's about keeping that founder level intensity across the whole company.
• 10:23
  Speaker 0: Driven
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: by a commitment to the outcome, not just stock options.
• 10:26
  Speaker 0: Precisely.
• 10:28
  Speaker 0: Using the hard constraints, the compliance hell, the data scarcity we just talked about to actually drive innovation, not let bureaucracy creep in.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: And you see that commitment in M&A, too.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Florian Seivel announced quantum systems acquired Splenelabd, why?
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: To accelerate growth and specifically strengthen their software and AI core with specialized edge perception tech.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: They know software integration is key.
• 10:50
  Speaker 0: And we're seeing the results reaching the warfighter.
• 10:53
  Speaker 0: Torsten Stab presented Eagle Eye.
• 10:54
  Speaker 0: That's an AI-enabled helmet system.
• 10:56
  Speaker 0: What
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: does it do?
• 10:57
  Speaker 0: Integrates mixed reality, multimodal sensing, basically aims to give soldiers superhuman perception by fusing data, drone feeds right onto their visor for real-time decisions.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: And Mohammed Sobi Foda showcased Salus CHIRB AI Platform II.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: That one's focused on ultra low-power edge AI, embedding autonomy right at the tactical edge.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: huge potential there, on Earth or even in space.
• 11:21
  Speaker 0: But, you know, despite all this incredible tech and AI focus, we have to come back to the human element.
• 11:25
  Speaker 0: It's still often the biggest limiting factor.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Absolutely critical point.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Elena Krzysztofska emphasized that something like eighty percent or more of a drone mission success still comes down to the pilot skill.
• 11:36
  Speaker 0: Eighty percent.
• 11:36
  Speaker 0: That's huge.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: And training people on these advanced NATO systems takes time, patience, specific skills.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: She mentioned it takes, on average, three months in Ukraine just to get proficient on one new platform type.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Technology doesn't fix a lack of train resilient people.
• 11:52
  Speaker 0: Very true.
• 11:53
  Speaker 0: And maybe a good place to wrap the talent discussion is with that quote from General Jekyll and Venovos that Brian B. shared about logistics and leadership.
• 12:00
  Speaker 0: Even now, the cargo you carry is not supplies, it's possibilities.
• 12:06
  Speaker 0: Powerful reminder.
• 12:07
  Speaker 0: Okay, so wrapping this all up, what does it mean for you listening?
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Well, the defense tech market right now seems to find by, I'd say, three urgent drivers.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: First, that focus on deployable, really pragmatic autonomy.
• 12:19
  Speaker 0: Second, the need to urgently address those big strategic and weirdly legal gaps, especially around hypersonus detection and the authority to actually use counter UAS tech.
• 12:29
  Speaker 0: And third, that really powerful necessary push towards a more unified, faster European industrial base.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Which leads us to maybe a final thought for you to chew on.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Nicholas Senn talked about this huge structural shift in VC funding pouring in.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: But Louis Sarans reminded us about the compliance as hell, the slow, deliberate certification process.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: So how does the industry actually manage that tension?
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: The tension between the necessarily slow, careful process of traditional defense procurement and the mission mode speed needed to actually stay ahead technologically.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: That balancing act feels like the challenge defining military acquisition right now.
• 13:09
  Speaker 0: That's a great question to ponder.
• 13:10
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• 13:13
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• 13:22
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