E40 – Air Force Weapons Czar

Don’t miss our newsletter! That's where we drop weekly knowledge bombs to help you make sense of defense! Mike and Jake host Andrew Hunter, the US Air Force’s chief weapons buyer. As the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (ATL), he oversees Air Force research, development and acquisition activities totaling an annual budget in excess of $60 billion for more than 550 acquisition programs. He is the principal adviser to the Secretary of the Air Force and the Air Force Chief of Staff for research and development, test, production and modernization efforts within the Air Force. We talked about how he’s driving acquisition innovation and shaping the Air Force for great power competition. The discussion ranged from the good and bad on specific weapons programs—the B-21 bomber and Sentinel ICBM—negotiating the E-7 Wedgetail deal, workforce development, industry incentive alignment on price vs value, and a ton more. He even shared some new Collaborative Combat Aircraft insights that have not been made public before. This is an episode you don’t want to miss! For those interested in #military #nationaldefense #warfare #nationalsecurity #defense #nationaldefense #tech #technology #defensetech #army #navy #airforce #innovation Links • Sign up for our ⁠amazing newsletter⁠! • Support us on ⁠Patreon⁠! • Mike Benitez (LinkedIn) • Jake Chapman X (@vc) ---- Follow us on... • ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠ • Instagram⁠ • ⁠X⁠ • ⁠Facebook⁠ • ⁠Website⁠ ---- Show Notes 00:34 intro 01:07 why a civilian weapons buyer? 02:07 how to keep track of 500+ programs 02:42 PEOs 03:48 the aquisitions perfect storm 06:02 cost plus vs fixed price contracts 08:01 E-7 Wedgetail negotiations 09:46 phone-a-friend negotiator 12:23 B-21 bomber 14:13 B-21 active management 15:47 B-21's unique hybrid contract 19:41 commercial vs defense markets 20:18 maintaining competition in industry 21:15 competition and investing signals 22:32 structuring the market for industry 25:00 government architectures to lower switching costs 27:13 workforce development 29:58 Sentinel ICBM cost over-run 30:07 Nunn-Mccurdy Breach 31:01 too big for 1 company? 33:44 New 'Quickstart' authority 35:58 watching the CCA engineering 36:16 non-traditionals forced to traditional prime? 37:46 Elon Musk for Pentagon processes? 39:10 CCA landing gear development 40:19 what keeps you up at night? 40:36 the pacing challenge 41:17 outro