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00:00The new C&O is a go, here from Admiral Derek Cottle, the 34th Chief of Naval Operations,
00:06as he takes command. Plus, the Pentagon restricts Ukraine's use of US missiles against Russia.
00:13What's behind the decision? And what's in a name? Why the largest department in the
00:18executive branch could be pulling the trigger on a name change.
00:21Hello, and welcome to Weapons and Warfare, a show made for people who want to know more about our
00:32national defense. Our goal here is to help you have an informed conversation about what's happening
00:38with America's military. For Straight Arrow News, I'm your host, Ryan Robertson, and we start this
00:43week with a look inside a new facility from an emerging player in a very competitive market.
00:51It's a sound that's almost immediately identifiable, the personal drone. And for more than a decade,
01:04their numbers in the US have exploded. From hobbyists to YouTubers to news outlets and beyond,
01:12there are nearly one million drones in the skies of America. According to the Federal Aviation
01:18Administration, there are a total of 822,039 drones registered to commercial and recreational pilots.
01:28But it wasn't until Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine that the idea of taking these nimble,
01:33dependable, and most of all, affordable flying machines into combat became a widely accepted idea.
01:41For more than three years, American military leadership and entrepreneurs alike have been thinking
01:47about how best to arm American troops with drones of their own. At first glance, it might seem like
01:54supply should not be an issue, but the truth is an estimated 90% of the drones operating in the United
02:01States are Chinese-made, something that, pardon the pun, doesn't fly with American military leadership.
02:10Enter Performance Droneworks. This American innovator recently opened a brand new building designed
02:16specifically to speed up the development and production of PDW's C-100 multi-mission UAS and the AMFPV
02:26attritable munition. The 90,000-square-foot facility, dubbed Drone Factory One, is built to keep up with
02:34the growing demand from the Pentagon. I recently had the chance to visit with Ryan Gure, a friend of the show,
02:39as well as PDW's CEO and co-founder, about why now is the right time to undertake a project like this.
02:48Our thesis is that there is a massive generational change occurring on the battlefield.
02:54Legacy US primes, you know, really cannot win today's wars. And there is a massive shift occurring
03:01towards attributable robotics, which is what we specialize in. And we leverage commercial technologies,
03:09much like you see in the Eastern War in Ukraine, or, you know, with Russia's use of the shot head,
03:14to develop and mass manufacture combat systems, you know, for tomorrow's war fighters.
03:20And what is, I mean, when you say you leverage commercial technologies, what does that mean? And
03:27how does that allow you to, you know, move quicker and iterate faster and all the things that the DOD is
03:35looking for? How does that all, you know, come into play by you being able to take advantage of
03:40commercial technologies? What doors does that open?
03:43Yeah, I mean, essentially, commercial technologies have reached such a point of maturity that you can
03:50develop weapons and scale them. And that's what we're seeing on the front lines in Europe.
03:56Now, 70 to 80% of all strikes are being delivered by a drone the size of a dinner plate using parts
04:02from Amazon and Alibaba. And they outperform legacy systems like the Switchblade.
04:08The Switchblade being an aeroviroment loitering munition that was the first specific system
04:15chosen for the Pentagon's replicator program. But it's the nimbleness of Ukraine's innovators
04:21and the speed of technological growth that's pushing Guri and his co-workers.
04:26When you talk about scale and, you know, the US needing to make millions of these and,
04:31uh, you know, your facility will be able to make 60,000. Do you imagine that this is the first of
04:37several facilities that PDW will have? Or is PDW part of a larger picture of other manufacturers
04:45all contributing to that billions? I mean, what's kind of your, you know, crystal ball insight into
04:51that?
04:51Well, both. You know, there's room for a few PDWs out there. And, uh, you know, the reason why we
04:57call it Drone Factory One is inferring that there'll be another. We believe that there needs to be an
05:02arsenal of small robotics on the front lines. There are a few companies, only a handful though,
05:06and they're still, you know, early stages that are aligned with us and in the style in which you
05:12make robotics. And we think that they're going to be greatly successful as well. I think what we're
05:16after is the end of these exquisite systems. We want to see a marketplace where users can rate and
05:21buy and choose what they want. We want to remove the red tape and these long programs of records.
05:26At this point, you might be wondering why Northern Alabama for this venture? For Guri and his team,
05:33the city's history in missile production and rocketry makes it an ideal place for PDW
05:39as it works to shape the future of unmanned technology. The location of the facility in
05:43Huntsville, Alabama, obviously not by chance. Um, there's, you know, the location to different
05:49military facilities in the area. How, how does that going to help with the rapid iteration and the,
05:55the feedback loop with, with your closest customers?
05:58When we, you know, we started the company in Manhattan, which was no place for a defense
06:02company. We kind of looked across America as, you know, a great home. And we thought Huntsville
06:08was just perfect. We can find big fields to fly. Everyone is supportive of what we do. Culturally,
06:14it's wonderful and it's really cost efficient. According to the company's press release with
06:19the establishment of drone factory one, PDW is introducing more than 500 new jobs in the greater
06:26Huntsville area and spurring an economic impact of more than $81 million per year.
06:33If you want to hear my entire conversation with Ryan, you can find that a little later this week
06:37on the weapons and warfare YouTube channel. Okay, folks, I'm joined now by senior producer
06:44and air force veteran Brett Baker for some headlines you may have missed. Brett,
06:48you feeling any better this week? I know last week you had some allergies you were dealing with.
06:51Yeah, I feel better. I don't sound a whole lot better, but I feel fine. It's just, yeah,
06:56my voice is not great. Probably going to Nebraska, Cincinnati at Arrowhead didn't really help with
07:02the recuperation process, but you know, these are the pains you got to pay to be a fan.
07:07Absolutely. First world problems. All right, let's get to those headlines.
07:13185 days after Admiral Lisa Franchetti was relieved of command, the Navy has its new Chief of Naval
07:20Operations. Admiral Darryl Cottle, a longtime submarine commander with 40 years of experience,
07:26is officially the Navy's 34th CNO. Those who know me best know that I am not one for standing
07:33by idle. I'm chomping at the bit to get after the work that lies ahead to ensure that our Navy remains
07:40and forever will be the most dominant, lethal, incredible maritime fighting force the world has ever
07:46known. Admiral Cottle is now part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and acts as an advisor to the
07:51President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council, and the Secretary of
07:56Defense. Brett, with the prospect of a potential war in the Pacific with China, not a bad idea to have a,
08:05you know, submariner leading the Department of the Navy.
08:08No, that's a great point. Or excuse me, the Chief of Naval Operations. Excuse me.
08:14Yeah. Sorry, go ahead. Yeah, those are the ones you don't want to, that's how you get emails.
08:18Yep, exactly.
08:21No, he's a man with a wealth of experience, probably more than ready for the job. He expressed that in
08:28his swearing in speech. And I think, you know, it's a good choice. If they had to make a change,
08:35which we can debate the merits of that later, I think this man is a good choice for that position.
08:43The Pentagon has been quietly blocking Ukraine from using U.S.-made long-range army tactical
08:49missile systems, or ATACAMs, to strike targets inside Russia, limiting Kyiv's ability to employ
08:56these weapons in its defense against Moscow's invasion. The Wall Street Journal reported in late
09:01August on this subject, citing U.S. officials. The news came as U.S. President Donald Trump has
09:08grown more frustrated publicly over the three-year-old war and his inability to secure a
09:13peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Brett, Biden had put restrictions on Ukraine when it
09:19came to using U.S. weapons. Then he lifted them right before leaving office. So this restriction is
09:24sort of a return to normal for Ukraine. Right. Which I think is unfortunate. I really
09:31think that it's important that they be allowed to have the freedom to use those munitions in the way
09:36that they best see fit. This is the kind of situation where whenever you have an advantage,
09:43you need to press it. You need to seize on it. And if you're tying a hand behind their back,
09:48that is not helping the cause. Right. Ukraine has developed some of their own long-range
09:54options like the Flamingo and the Neptune missile. They're trying to put those into mass production.
10:01Obviously, the U.S. has a lot more weapons than Ukraine does. And Mr. Trump, President Trump did
10:08put out on Truth Social that it's almost impossible to win a war if you don't strike your enemy where they
10:14live, seeming to acknowledge the fact that Ukraine needs to be able to hit Russians in Russia. So
10:21maybe this is a negotiating, like a bargaining chip that he's able to play against Putin if the
10:28ceasefire deal doesn't come to fruition. It hasn't yet. So we'll see how this goes.
10:35President Donald Trump is thinking about renaming the Department of Defense. Trump has mused about
10:41renaming the DoD to its original name, the Department of War. The name was changed in 1949.
10:48You know, Department of Defense, we won the World War I, World War II. It was called the Department of
10:55War. And to me, that's really what it is. Defense is a part of that. But I have a feeling we're gonna
11:03be changing. I'm talking to the people, everybody likes that. Trump said the previous name had a stronger
11:09sound and there might be an update on the potential name change over the next couple of weeks. And by
11:16the time this segment airs, Brett, I suppose we may have a Department of War, which, you know,
11:21honestly may be a more apt name of the department. Not all of the actions taken by the DoD are strictly
11:27defensive in nature after all. Right. But I do think that the name change when that did occur
11:34speaks more to the time and place where we are. It's about national defense. It's not about national
11:41war. Right. Yes. War happens. Yes. We have partaken in those. But I think the time and place have
11:49changed. And what? Why? Like, really, the big question is just why? It doesn't affect anything.
11:59So, yeah. I mean, it's just another one of those things. It's like, okay, sure.
12:07Yeah, I can see that. One of the things that, you know, when I started hearing about this,
12:11from a logistics perspective, like think of all of the signs, branding, like, you know,
12:19from a marketing perspective, all of the everything that says DoD will have to be changed,
12:26like everything from cards to signs to websites, letterheads, lecterns. So that's everything.
12:34That's going to be a lot of time and effort and energy. So, yeah, obviously, this idea is being
12:42criticized by folks out there. There's arguments on both sides. I understand both sides of it. So,
12:48maybe we have a Department of War right now, Brett. Maybe we don't. We record this, obviously,
12:54before it publishes. So, I guess, tell us in the comments section, folks, if we have a Department
13:00of War yet or not. Brett, always a pleasure. Look forward to seeing you next time.
13:05Next time. We'll be there.
13:08Okay. So, record scratch. Interrupt the program real quick. If you're paying attention to headlines,
13:13obviously, you know that President Donald Trump did sign an executive order allowing Secretary of
13:19Defense Pete Hegseth to refer to himself as the Secretary of War and refer to the DOD as the
13:25Department of War. So, we will have much more on this next week, but obviously wanted to update you
13:30because we recorded that last headline before the executive order was signed and then the executive
13:35order was signed. So, now you have the most up-to-date information possible.
13:39Imagine a vehicle that combines the speed of an aircraft with the ease of a boat.
13:46It features three modes, float, foil, and fly. This winged passenger ferry is called the Paladin
13:52and could revolutionize coastal transportation or serve as a new type of warship. And that's why
14:00it's our Weapon of the Week. It looks like something someone in the 1960s might have imagined about the
14:08way people would travel in the year 2000. 25 years on and this winged passenger ferry gliding over the
14:15surface of Narragansett Bay could be the future of coastal transportation or a new option for
14:22military commanders operating in the littorals of the Pacific. Its maker, Regent Kraft, is betting on both.
14:3012 propellers line the 65-foot wingspan of the Paladin, a sleek ship with an airplane's nose.
14:38Regent Kraft is testing a prototype of this vessel that it calls a sea glider, a hybrid between a boat
14:45and an aircraft that exploits a physics phenomenon called ground effect, the same cushion of air that
14:52pelicans and seagulls ride when skimming ocean waves. So, right now when seaplanes and flying boats try
14:59to take off from the water, they're slapping the surface of the water. They have very poor wave
15:03tolerance and that's why they're constrained to inland waterways, lakes and rivers. Sea gliders,
15:08by contrast, have a hydrofoil. That's an underwater wing. We're taking that from the sailing world,
15:14the racing world, America's Cup and SailGP. These underwater wings called hydrofoils lift the sea
15:19glider out of the surface of the water giving us five feet of wave tolerance. So, that's basically a
15:24hurricane allowing us to accelerate up to about 50 to 60 miles an hour before we take off on the wing.
15:30The commercial version is designed to travel at 180 miles an hour, making it possible to complete
15:37missions that last an hour on battery power, tapping seven teslas worth of batteries on board.
15:43The vessel operates in waves up to five feet high for both takeoffs and landings, making it ideal for
15:50routes connecting coastal destinations as well as overwater routes linking islands.
15:56We also have extreme interest on the defense side. We have 15 million in contracts with the US Marine
16:02Corps today. We are rapidly approaching larger programs, acquisition programs and working not only in
16:09the US but with our allied Department of Defenses and Ministry of Defenses on incorporating sea gliders
16:15into their defense and national security strategies. Regent is working with the Corps to repurpose the same
16:22wing in ground effect vessels for island hopping troops in the Pacific. Those vessels would likely
16:28trade electronic battery power for jet fuel to cover longer journeys. And the marines are not the only
16:35ones interested. Regent has also built partnerships with the US Special Operations Command and the US Coast
16:42Coast Guard Research and Development Center. In less than five years, we have our full-scale prototype on the
16:48water with safety systems sufficient to take on human crew. I mean, literally myself was on that sea glider
16:54earlier today. And we are imminent within a couple years now of our first deliveries to both
17:00commercial and defense customers. 2027 sea gliders will be in operation in multiple places in the world.
17:06So we're starting to get some clarity on the fate of the Colorado Air National Guardsmen that we
17:13profiled back in episode 78. And that's the subject of this week's comms check.
17:21It now looks like the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act that calls for the transfer of
17:27nearly 600 air guard space professionals to the Space Force is likely to happen. That's after senators
17:34in the states most likely to be affected backed off their calls to stop the move. Senators John
17:40Hickenlooper of Colorado and Mike Krapow of Idaho proposed transferring guardsmen with space missions
17:47to the active duty Space Force as early as October, a move that's still facing strong opposition from
17:53governors and lawmakers advocating for a Space National Guard. The amendments allow a one-time voluntary
18:01transfer of the guardsmen while ensuring governors are consulted. The National Guard Association
18:07continues to advocate for a Space National Guard and the repeal of the controversial transfer proposal,
18:14which could lead to talent loss. The Air Force has detailed units set for transfer starting October 1st,
18:222025, while the Space Force is developing a part-time service model that may differ from traditional structures.
18:31All opinions expressed in this segment are solely the opinions of the contributors.
18:37All right, folks, that's going to just about do it for us this week at Weapons and Warfare. If you
18:42like what you heard and you want to help us in our mission to make stories of military matters and
18:48national defense more accessible for the average person, please like and subscribe to our social media
18:53feeds and download the Straight Arrow news app today. For my wrap this week, I'm going to spend just a few
19:00minutes talking about the issue of gun violence in the United States. Before you labeled me as just
19:05another liberal reporter who doesn't know anything about the subject, though, I learned how to shoot with
19:10my granddad's Ruger 10-22 when I was eight years old, and he taught me a healthy respect for firearms.
19:16My dad and I used to spend hours at the range or in a field plinking, or preparing for the zombie apocalypse,
19:23as we used to joke. And today I still own guns, so you can believe me when I say I support the Second
19:29Amendment. But I also grew up in the age of school shooter drills. When I was a freshman and sophomore
19:36in high school, I went to a school that was very close to Columbine High School. I actually knew Rachel
19:42Scott, one of the victims in that massacre. Since then, there have been more school shootings than I
19:48care to count in this country. It's happened so much that we can predict the reactions. Republicans
19:54say it's a mental health issue. Democrats say it's because of quick and easy access to guns.
19:59And in the middle are people screaming for change. Not much has changed, though. After the assault
20:06weapons ban expired in the early 2000s, the only major restriction on firearms came with President
20:12Trump's bump stock ban in his first term, but even that was overturned. Congress keeps cutting funding
20:18for mental health, which certainly is not helping the problem. But last week, I was encouraged to hear
20:25President Trump speaking about the need for more mental health resources. He acknowledged the US has
20:32far too many active shooters, and even supported the idea of reopening some psychiatric institutions.
20:39So people who may not need to go to jail or prison, but still need help, can get it. It's obviously
20:47still too early to tell how this all plays out exactly. But the fact Democrats and Republicans are
20:53both talking about more mental health resources, honestly, is just such a breath of fresh air in this
21:00conversation, which has gone on for far too long. For senior producer Brett Baker, video editor Brian
21:08Spencer, and motion designer Dakota Patio, I'm Ryan Robertson for Straight Arrow News, signing off.
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