00:00The relation to China is that many see space, the domain of space, as the next battleground.
00:09And China is a competitor in that space.
00:12That's right. There's no question that China views the space domain as a battlefield.
00:17They think about it as part of an integrated approach to information warfare.
00:21And China really was the first mover in the modern era to build space weapons at scale.
00:26It started as early as 2007. The United States and its allies didn't face significant space threats after the fall of the USSR.
00:32But China started building space weapons as early as 2004, fielded them for the first time in 2007, and has really just scaled up.
00:39And in the meantime, the United States has largely been left in the dust of China from a space superiority standpoint.
00:47They're really gearing up on launch.
00:48And what Evan, therefore, is true anomaly doing to rectify that, to rebalance, to ensure that U.S. is winning?
00:53So for the first time ever, the United States really needs dedicated space superiority capabilities.
00:58We've used the space domain for intelligence. We've used it for missile warning.
01:02It's the backbone of American economic superiority in many ways, and certainly military superiority.
01:08But now we have to defend that infrastructure.
01:10We need to defend the high ground and use the high ground for integrated information warfare.
01:15So what we do is we build countermeasures and dedicated space superiority systems that are designed to protect that infrastructure in space and from space.
01:24You, with respect, sort of lower volume of production right now in those autonomous craft.
01:30But going back to the headlines from the president on tariffs and therefore supply chain, how would that impact your industry?
01:39The industry writ large will experience impacts from this.
01:43As you pointed out, true anomaly doesn't build at the volumes yet.
01:46But in a couple of years, when space superiority systems are fielded at scale, we'll experience significant impacts.
01:52How do you, therefore, think about national security of your own future supply chain and in that, the entire ecosystem that needs to win out for you to surface it?
02:01I think we're operating in the same vein that Brian was actually just talking about, which is the urgency and impetus of onshore and manufacturing, tapping in to the industrial base that the United States has experienced, investing in that, investing in talent.
02:16Is the government investing enough in that?
02:17I think we're starting to see the crest of that, but not remotely close to enough with respect to what we will need, especially as China starts to become more aggressive.
02:26Evans, the CEO of True Anomaly, we're alive at Anderil's headquarters.
02:30We were talking about defense technology.
02:32Then the president broke that news of increasing tariffs on China.
02:35The bond markets reacting, that's super important.
02:39Who leads this race in space, seriously?
02:43Does America really carry the way forward?
02:46Or you talked about China's first mover advantage.
02:49Are they ahead in certain aspects?
02:51In certain aspects, there's no question that China is ahead.
02:53The United States took too long to build defensive and offensive capabilities.
02:58In fact, doesn't have any fielded at scale today at all.
03:01So we're really behind from a defensive standpoint.
03:05The United States exploits the space domain in ways that China is starting to catch up on, but not yet.
03:11I have to ask you about a story I broke yesterday.
03:14My understanding is that Jared Isaacman has been meeting with President Trump and that they are discussing a path forward for a re-nomination.
03:21Your industry, your reaction to the idea that Jared Isaacman might actually be in charge of NASA at the end of the day.
03:29I don't know, Jared.
03:31In fact, we're not deeply involved in civil space.
03:34We're pretty focused on military applications of space.
03:37But I think Jared is widely respected and would make a great NASA administrator.
03:41When you're thinking about government needing to lean in to the supply chain and the local manufacturing, what does Pete Hegseth, what does the Defense Department need to be doing to clear the way for you and for your private sector to step into any void that thus has been left?
03:57I think they've planted some really important early seeds, which is to say that space superiority is a priority.
04:03The presidential policy is supportive of this.
04:06The Defense Department is starting to shift capital into technologies that are designed to exploit and continue to exploit the space domain and protect infrastructure.
04:13I think there's more work to be done there.
04:15But you can see the shifting budgets from legacy programs that are big, monolithic capabilities, a billion dollars per satellite, into proliferated, low-cost architectures that really resemble swarm technologies and capabilities that we're starting to see fielded in other domains.
04:30We're at the forefront of that.
04:32We're building low-cost, dedicated space superiority platforms that are designed to defend infrastructure in space.
04:38It's very different from a performance envelope standpoint that exists today for other spacecraft.
04:44Most spacecraft are designed to look at the surface of the Earth.
04:47Our spacecraft are designed to engage.
04:49And therefore, you need to keep on building for that.
04:52You need capital of your own.
04:53You've been raising money seriously.
04:54How do you see private sector desire to back defense tech right now?
04:58And will you raise again soon?
04:59We will raise again soon, particularly as we start to think about our place in future defense tech applications like Golden Dome, et cetera.
05:06My experience in the capital markets has been that there's a lot of support and interest in defense tech and a lot of support and interest in space.
05:16So we benefit from the intersection of both of those trends.
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