From BUD/S to the Boardroom: The Fight to Revolutionize Munitions Factories
Release Date: 08/13/2025
SkyFoundry and the Future of American Drone Production at Scale
Cogs of War
China and Russia are churning out millions of drones while the United States has little capacity to build them at scale. Rep. Pat Harrigan of North Carolina introduced the to change this, and it got rolled into the latest . This law authorizes a government-run facility capable of producing one million small drones annually, cutting China out of our supply chains and ending years of procurement delays. It's a truly new way for the government to work with multiple industry partners. Harrigan joined Ryan to discuss how SkyFoundry is supposed to work, the tradeoffs of a government-run...
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Building an Academic Arsenal
Cogs of War
Since World War II, America’s universities have been part of the nation’s arsenal, forging the ideas, technology, and talent that underpin national defense. That engine of innovation never stopped running. John Beieler and John Paul Sawyer of the University of Maryland join Ryan to talk about the power of public–private partnerships in defense tech, quantum science, and AI, and how that work keeps American innovation humming just outside Washington.
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The Tech and Tradecraft Behind Open Source Intelligence
Cogs of War
Open-source intelligence has matured into a complex blend of technology, access, and tradecraft. Ryan is joined by Ryan Curran of ZeroFox, Tucker Moore of Booz Allen Hamilton, and Scott Petry of Authentic8 to explore how today’s practitioners manage attribution, collect at scale, preserve provenance, and ensure human judgment remains at the center of the process.
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Missiles and the Math of Modern Warfare
Cogs of War
When it comes to missiles, America lacks the magazine depth for a long fight, especially against a peer competitor like China. A major part of the problem: Traditional U.S. missiles are simply too costly to produce at scale. Ryan sits down with three industry leaders working to change that. Listen to Ethan Thornton (Mach Industries), Sean Pitt (Castelion), and Steve Milano (Anduril) as they explain how they aim to produce different kinds of missiles at scale at costs orders of magnitude lower than the primes. Can they deliver?
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What it Takes for Dual-Use Tech Companies to Truly Succeed
Cogs of War
Sherman Williams, the co-founder of AIN Ventures, joins Ryan at the bar to discuss the hard realities of dual-use investing. They dig into inflated valuations, the dangers of easy capital, and the risks of betting on defense budgets that may not endure. They also examine the outlook for space companies, the role of private equity, and what it really takes for startups to survive in this sector.
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Rockets, Politics, and Power: A Conversation with Tory Bruno of ULA
Cogs of War
Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance, joins us to talk about the hard business of getting things into space. He reflects on competition, what it took to turn ULA around, the politics of building new rockets, and what assured access to space means in the new era of great-power competition.
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Moving at the Speed of War: A Conversation with Horacio Rozanski of Booz Allen
Cogs of War
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,...
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From BUD/S to the Boardroom: The Fight to Revolutionize Munitions Factories
Cogs of War
A career-ending spinal injury during Navy SEAL training could have closed Joe Musselman’s chapter of service. Instead, it became the catalyst for a new one. He first founded to help special operators bring their elite standards to civilian leadership, then launched , a venture fund backing relentlessly focused founders. He most recently assembled the founding team at , a munitions company designed to re-imagine munitions production. In this conversation, Musselman shares the through line in all of his work and how elite standards, trust, and execution can reshape...
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Solving the Pentagon's Acquisition Puzzle
Cogs of War
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.
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Lessons Learned and a Big Play on Drones from Latvia
Cogs of War
Could this small state's collaborative approach to defense planning be the future for countries seeking asymmetric advantages? Ryan traveled to northeastern Europe to sit down with Uģis Norītis, Latvia's undersecretary of state for planning at its Ministry of Defence, to discuss how Latvia is growing its defense industry and industrial base. Hear how Latvia leverages battlefront testing in Ukraine, military-led prototyping, its budding drone industry, and expansive drone testing and training ranges that it wants to make available to companies from allied countries to prepare for the future...
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