Welcome to Defense Disrupted, a podcast exploring how technology is transforming the future of defense operations. As the CEO of TurbineOne, I’m excited to bring together defense leaders, innovators, and practitioners who are leveraging cutting-edge solutions on the frontlines. Through conversations with military professionals, technology experts, and implementation specialists, we’ll explore practical insights about deploying machine learning at the edge, emerging trends in field operations, and success stories from those accelerating threat recognition. Thank you for joining us as we explore the intersection of technology and national security!
Defense Disrupted
Claim This Podcastby DefenseDisrupted
5.0(16 reviews)
19 episodes
Updated Daily
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33
Podcast Authority
BetaPoorBased on show quality, social media presence, reviews, charts, and more
Quality13
Social0
YouTube82
Engagement51
Podcast Overview
Welcome to Defense Disrupted, a podcast exploring how technology is transforming the future of defense operations. As the CEO of TurbineOne, I’m excited to bring together defense leaders, innovators, and practitioners who are leveraging cutting-edge solutions on the frontlines. Through conversations with military professionals, technology experts, and implementation specialists, we’ll explore practical insights about deploying machine learning at the edge, emerging trends in field operations, and success stories from those accelerating threat recognition. Thank you for joining us as we explore the intersection of technology and national security!
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
5/5/2025
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Recent Episodes
March 18, 2026
Retired BG Ed Barker on Underwriting Risk So Acquisition Teams Will Move
<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-barker2025/"><u>Ed Barker</u></a>, Brigadier General (ret.), spent 34 years inside the Army acquisition system, including special operations units where mission failure wasn't an option and "no" was the beginning of the conversation, not the end. That environment forced him to know the rulebook well enough to seek waivers and reclamas through proper channels, and it shaped a career-long instinct for pushing acquisition teams past self-protection and toward what the warfighter actually needs, even when that meant telling senior leaders to stop active programs.</p><p>Barker breaks down why OTA-enabled iteration (soldier feedback, live demonstrations, hands-on kit evaluation before any final buy decision) consistently outperformed major capability acquisition pathways locked to requirements documents seven or more years old. He explains how he underwrote risk personally to give teams the cover to move, and how Ukraine exposed programs that would not have survived contact</p><p><strong>Resources:</strong> </p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.cmu.edu/online/ai/?utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=paid-combined&utm_content=brand&adgroup=&campaign_id=21362676943&utm_term=cmu%20ai%20course&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21362676943&gbraid=0AAAAApzEFWO3daXwuanAptCUj7d7DP0QD&gclid=Cj0KCQiA8KTNBhD_ARIsAOvp6DImdaBwgStVe3kVAzgAyfcbKELCFvnklAY9BJxzmey8_0Ec3r7nul4aAt-QEALw_wcB"><u>Carnegie Mellon</u></a> AI courses</p></li><li><p><a href="https://online.lifelonglearning.jhu.edu/jhu-online-applied-ai-course?utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=JHU_Applied_AI_Search_brand_exact_phrase_US_jhu&campaign_id=23291397820&adgroup_id=189353823815&ad_id=785069988678&utm_target=kwd-2388920906550&Keyword=jhu%20ai%20course&placement=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23291397820&gbraid=0AAAAACoiIDrevHfz2BhgwGK5OSFFYproP&gclid=Cj0KCQiA8KTNBhD_ARIsAOvp6DIPg02rJPxbMjnpU4tGHkPEG085M0f5Vonbxqm0L89MNkooTIp7thAaAvBoEALw_wcB"><u>Johns Hopkins</u></a> AI courses</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.nro.gov/"><u>National Reconnaissance Office</u></a> (NRO)</p></li></ul><p><strong>Topics Discussed:</strong></p><ul><li><p>Navigating a 34-year Army career across enlisted artillery, infantry, military intelligence, and acquisition leadership roles</p></li><li><p>Running special operations contracting where mission stakes demanded knowing the rulebook well enough to waive it</p></li><li><p>Using OTAs and iterative soldier feedback loops to outperform legacy major capability acquisition pathways</p></li><li><p>Challenging requirements documents and telling senior leaders to stop active programs mid-track</p></li><li><p>Building acquisition cultures that treat waivers and reclamas as standard tools rather than last resorts</p></li><li><p>Managing billion-dollar procurement decisions under conditions of organizational agility amid constantly shifting requirements and tech</p></li><li><p>Assessing military AI education gaps and what separates leaders who apply it operationally from those who attend for optics</p></li><li><p>Drawing lessons from Ukraine on survivability gaps in programs built to outdated requirements</p></li></ul>
March 3, 2026
Insight Partners’ Nick Sinai on People Flow, Procurement, and What Real Change Requires
<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicksinai/"><u>Nick Sinai</u></a>, Managing Director at <a href="https://www.insightpartners.com/"><u>Insight Partners</u></a>, spent nearly 6 years inside the Obama administration, helping stand up the Presidential Innovation Fellows program, and keeping notes on why high-profile tech talent from major firms kept failing to change government from the inside. His core observation from that period is that people consistently treated things as fixed constraints that were not actually fixed, and that misread is where most reform efforts die.</p><p>Nick works through what change at scale inside defense institutions actually requires, including the old line that says if you are not fixing procurement or hiring, you are not fixing government. He and Ian get into how DoD has historically traded acquisition risk for operational risk, why that calculus is shifting now, and what "people flow" looks like as a deliberate insertion model rather than a one-time hire. Nick also addresses the false signal problem directly for defense tech entrepreneurs: SBIR funding and R&D contracts are not end-user validation, and the gap between the two is where companies stall. </p><p><strong>Resources:</strong> </p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.hackyourbureaucracy.com/">Hack Your Bureaucracy</a> by Nick Sinai and Marina Nitze</p></li><li><p><a href="https://presidentialinnovationfellows.gov/"><u>Presidential Innovation Fellows</u></a> program</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.usds.gov/"><u>U.S. Digital Service</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://digitalcorps.gsa.gov/"><u>U.S. Digital Corps</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/programs/intelligence-project/qlab"><u>Harvard Kennedy School Qlab</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.insightpartners.com/"><u>Insight Partners</u></a></p></li></ul><p><strong>Topics Discussed:</strong></p><ul><li><p>Writing Hack Your Bureaucracy to document why technologists succeed and fail driving change inside government institutions</p></li><li><p>Using the Presidential Innovation Fellows program as a people flow model for inserting mid-career technical talent into federal agencies</p></li><li><p>Why fixing procurement and hiring remain the only two structural levers for meaningful progress inside government at scale</p></li><li><p>How DOD has historically traded acquisition risk for operational risk and why that posture is now shifting toward speed</p></li><li><p>Applying an incremental insertion model versus a decapitation approach to reform inside large defense bureaucracies</p></li><li><p>Distinguishing SBIR and R&D funding from genuine end-user validation and why false signal stalls defense tech companies</p></li><li><p>Building customer bases across MODs and international partners to reduce single-buyer dependency on US government contracts</p></li><li><p>Why the most defensible defense tech companies prioritize direct warfighter iteration over alignment with centralized program office requirements</p></li></ul>
February 17, 2026
TurbineOne’s Court Vanzant on Education, Discomfort, & Veteran Paths To Defense Entrepreneurship
<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtvanzant/"><u>Court Vanzant</u></a>, Chief Growth Officer at <a href="https://www.turbineone.com/"><u>TurbineOne</u></a>, offers a veteran entrepreneur framework that rejects the comfort trap: get a formal education to build hard skills, then deliberately seek discomfort as the growth indicator. His metric for knowing you're in the right space is sustained imposter syndrome: if you feel comfortable and competent, you've stopped learning. </p><p>For hardware startups, he challenges the VC orthodoxy on domestic manufacturing, arguing 40 years of offshoring created strategic vulnerabilities that demand US-based production despite higher costs. His counter-UAS market thesis targets $5 billion in military portables from the $35 billion global C-UAS budget.</p><p><strong>Topics Discussed:</strong></p><ul><li><p>Why RF detection fails against fiber optic command wire and autonomous flight while radar cannot overcome terrain masking</p></li><li><p>Addressing weaponized racing drones functioning as precision munitions against unprotected individual soldiers</p></li><li><p>Capturing $5 billion military portables segment within $35 billion global counter-UAS market using US-first manufacturing approach</p></li><li><p>Transitioning from consulting careers to defense startups through formal MBA education</p></li><li><p>Applying Lean Six Sigma manufacturing principles from early career to current domestic hardware production strategy</p></li><li><p>Challenging VC orthodoxy on hardware costs by arguing 40 years of offshoring created strategic vulnerabilities requiring US-based capacity</p></li></ul><p><strong>Resources:</strong> </p><ul><li><p><a href="https://leansixsigmainstitute.org/"><u>Lean Six Sigma</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.army.mil/article/271773/military_decision_making_process_organizing_and_conducting_planning"><u>Military Decision Making Process (MDMP)</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://milvet.org/"><u>MilVet</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.sba.gov/local-assistance/resource-partners/veterans-business-outreach-centers-vboc"><u>Veterans Business Outreach Centers (VBOC)</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://business.defense.gov/Resources/Veterans-Resources/"><u>Office of Small Business Programs: Veterans Resources</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.citadel.edu/business/sc-vboc/"><u>The South Carolina Veterans Business Outreach Center (SC VBOC)</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.honor.org/"><u>The Honor Foundation</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://skillbridge.osd.mil/"><u>DoW SkillBridge</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/veteran-rankings"><u>Best Online MBA Programs</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://militarymba.net/schools-and-programs/best-value-mba-programs.html"><u>Military MBA: Best Value MBA Programs for Vets Using Post-9/11 GI Bill</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://upstatewarriorsolution.org/"><u>Upstate Warrior Solution</u></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.ncvetbiz.org/"><u>North Carolina Veterans Business Association</u></a> </p></li></ul><p><br></p>
19 total episodes available
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