Cogs of War

War on the Rocks

A new show and vertical focused on defense tech and the defense industrial base, created and produced by WAR ON THE ROCKS and supported by BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON.

  1. 24 FEB

    Agentic AI and the Pentagon's Integration Challenge

    Agentic AI is quickly moving from demo to deployment inside the Department of Defense. But what does it actually mean to give AI "agency" — and what does it take to make those systems work on real military networks? In this episode, Ryan sits down with Ben Van Roo, co-founder and CEO of Legion Intelligence, Jags Kandasamy, co-founder and CEO of Latent AI, and Aaron Brown, co-founder and CEO of Lumbra AI, to discuss why the real challenge is not just building smart models but getting AI agents to run on military networks and inside operational workflows. They cover deploying agents in denied environments, compressing models for the edge, orchestrating them across stovepiped systems, and the Pentagon's struggle to scale and buy these tools fast enough to matter.

    55 min

  2. 4 FEB

    SkyFoundry and the Future of American Drone Production at Scale

    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 SkyFoundry Act to change this, and it got rolled into the latest National Defense Authorization Act.  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 production facility, how vendors would plug into the system, and the failures in military strategy and production that brought us here.

    38 min

  3. 09/12/2025

    Building an Academic Arsenal

    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.

    35 min

  4. 06/11/2025

    The Tech and Tradecraft Behind Open Source Intelligence

    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.

    46 min

  5. 23/10/2025

    Missiles and the Math of Modern Warfare

    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?

    49 min

  6. 06/10/2025

    What it Takes for Dual-Use Tech Companies to Truly Succeed

    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.

    19 min

  7. 24/09/2025

    Rockets, Politics, and Power: A Conversation with Tory Bruno of ULA

    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.

    52 min

  8. 25/08/2025

    Moving at the Speed of War: A Conversation with Horacio Rozanski of Booz Allen

    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, and how his personal journey — from immigrant to Booz Allen intern to CEO  —  shapes how he sees change.

    49 min
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About

A new show and vertical focused on defense tech and the defense industrial base, created and produced by WAR ON THE ROCKS and supported by BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON.

Information

  • Creator
    War on the Rocks
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025
  • Show Website
    Cogs of War

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