✈️ The Air Force's "reoptimization"
Come see us at Air, Space & Cyber.
Welcome back to the Nexus Newsletter, Applied Intuition Defense’s biweekly newsletter covering the latest in national security, autonomy, and software-defined warfare.
Ahead of the Air & Space Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber conference (we’ll be at booth #1647), we’re diving into what looks like a significant shake-up for the Air Force. But first, we’ll tell you about our new partnership and share a recent interview with our GM Jason Brown.
🚛 Applied Intuition x Isuzu Motors Ltd.: Driving the future of autonomous trucking
We recently announced a partnership with Isuzu Motors that will enable the company to develop autonomous trucking solutions, paving the way for a more sustainable and efficient future in commercial transportation.
We’re proud to be a dual-use company that combines best practices and insights from the world’s largest automotive and defense companies to enable our customers to accelerate the development of their systems. Interested in joining us? We’re hiring!
Listen our founders Qasar Younis and Peter Ludwig share more about our Isuzu Motors partnership 👇
💻 Jason Brown: “Software and data are the weapons that matter most”
Our GM Jason Brown was interviewed by Axios, where he shared some thoughts on what the future of defense looks like, why a talented workforce is critical, and more. Check it out below.
“New guns and things that go boom often attract the most eyes. But when ‘we look at what matters most, it still comes down to people, then ideas, then technology,’ Brown told Axios during a Q&A at the company's offices in Virginia.” (Axios)
✈️ Top of mind: The Air Force’s ‘reoptimization’ & the speed of iteration in competition
Defense One | China claims breakthroughs in autonomous vehicles
“The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Microsystems and Information Technology (SIMIT) claims to have made two new breakthroughs toward overcoming one of the most crucial speedbumps: autonomous vehicles’ ability to perceive their surrounding environment and track movements.” (Defense One)
In this Defense One story, Thomas Corbett and Peter W. Singer hit the nail on the head – “If Chinese companies succeed in solidifying their dominance of the autonomous vehicle and LiDAR markets, the security implications are profound.”
There’s no question that the Chinese speed of adaptation, development, and iteration are impressive. This was highlighted earlier this year at the Beijing International Auto Show, which also put into perspective just how complex it is to develop autonomous vehicles.
What China has showcased in terms of speed and adaptation should stand as a loud warning for Great Power Competition. China has, in short order, fixed lots of critical failure points to showcase tremendous speed in adapting cross domain applicable technology from its commercial sector to military applications. Dating back to 2017, the U.S. Department of State released a series of works focused on how “the CCP is systematically reorganizing the Chinese science and technology enterprise to ensure that new innovations simultaneously advance economic and military development. PRC President and CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping personally oversees the strategy’s implementation.”
The development, sustainment, and modernization of autonomous systems is a highly technologically complex process and is explicitly identified as enabling technology for the United States’ strategy of deterrence. Collectively, we have a lot of work to do to enable this reality for the Department of Defense. This is a combined government and defense industrial base effort and we are far behind. Deterrence only works if it deters. Now is the time to invest, now is the time to move fast, now is the time to win.
“One of the most extensive recalibrations” in the history of the Air Force
That’s how senior Air Force leaders in February characterized plans to restructure the service to better posture itself through a mix of near-term and long-term initiatives.
As part of that reorganization, Air Force Materiel Command was directed to stand up an Integrated Development Office (IDO) responsible for, in part, “defining and overseeing early systems acquisition prototyping, experimentation, and mission engineering” and an Air Force Information Dominance Systems Center to “consolidate and increase focus on information dominance capabilities,” according to an Air Force press release. The service also opened a new Integrated Capabilities Office (ICO) in July to lead capability development and drive modernization investments.
“These changes are all driven by the need to do new product definition, development, and support as an integrated and continuously improving whole in a much more intentional way to stand up to the intensity of our peer competition challenge,” said Andrew Hunter, assistant secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics and Service Acquisition Executive. (Air Force)
Speaking at the Defense News Conference on Wednesday, Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. James Slife said the reorganization is a “flip in the way we think about capabilities development.”
While these changes are relatively new and any real effects remain to be seen, we have also yet to hear from the Hill. Right now, it seems that Congress may want more information on why the Air Force is making these sweeping changes. According to reporting from Breaking Defense, House appropriators in their fiscal 2025 defense spending bill are “skeptical of how the Air Force is pursuing a modern force” and instructed the service to keep the committee updated on “any reorganizations.”
Still, we applaud the Air Force for initiating this transformation and showcasing a bias for action. While there are undoubtedly proponents and opponents of this move, the way to fight the next war is not the way we fought the last one.
Critically, the way we procured for the last conflict cannot be the same way we procure for the next. The ICO has the opportunity to modernize acquisition, driven not by policy, but by driving more efficient communication and collaboration. As the department will rely more heavily on the speed of adaptation and iteration of inter-connected software, independent of hardware, to quickly combat adversary capabilities it will necessitate a much closer relationship between requirements owners, program managers, and capability providers.
We are excited to see the speed of change accelerate for the Air Force and are confident it will help to enable the service to fight and win on the battlefield of tomorrow.
That’s all for today’s newsletter. See you next time!