Inside Army Innovation: Conversations at the Army Demand Signal Forum | All About the Base

Greetings from the Washington DC campus of John Hopkins University here on Pennsylvania Avenue. We are very fortunate today to be here for the Army Demand Signal Forum. This is an opportunity for us to speak with companies, government, uh, as well as investors about the Army Demand signal for areas such as fires, power, and the like. So, we want to thank our partners for this event, the Army Fuse program, uh, as well as John's Hopkins University and Distinctive Edge, uh, for allowing us to, uh, record here today. So, I'm Jerry Mcinn and welcome to a special on location episode of All About the Bass. All right, welcome back. We're excited to have with us the founder and CEO of Chariot Defense, Mr. Adam Warmouth. So, great to be with you, uh, Adam. >> Yeah, thanks for having me and really enjoyed being on the panel with you earlier this afternoon. >> Yeah, we earlier we were talking about, um, energy dominance and, um, but today we're talk a little bit about u more about Chariot Defense. So, can we talk a little about your story? How did you start um and um um and where are you going? >> Yeah, so started Chariot just about two years ago. Um, and the inspiration for me to start this company was really based on the two different industries that I worked in before I started chariot. Um, one really informed the technology side of the business. Uh, so I started my career working on electric aircraft. >> Um, I worked at Kittyhawk when that was still in stealth mode. It was kind of a secret Larry Page flying car factory. Uh, worked at Uber Elevate, worked at Archer. uh that's where I got exposure to some incredible breakthroughs happening in the power technology space around batteries and power electronics uh that enable things like Tesla and Rivian and Lucid and then are being taken to that next level of performance uh in the aviation space. >> Um so I was working on those electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft both on the building side and then the commercial and defense side as well. Uh and so the defense piece is is is what brought me to Anderl. Uh so that's other half of my career. um spent four years at Anderoll leading the counter intrusion business and then the counter UAS business, air defense. Uh and the counter UAS business was really the thing that gave me exposure to the problem that inspired Chariot, which is that we had a bunch of really cool electronic systems around radars and uh long of infrared cameras and electronic warfare systems and interceptor drones uh and communication devices. Um that allowed us to do counter UAS at the edge uh in mobile environments supporting SOMO. So supporting those distributed expeditionary missions, the biggest problem we had fielding our systems was not our algorithms, it wasn't our sensors, right? It wasn't the compute, it was power. >> Um, and as we transitioned from a kind of a counterinsurgency static environment to a distributed decentralized large scale combat operations, you know, is what the army, you know, uh, for the Marine Corps Yabo for the for the Air Force ACE agile combat employment. All of these things require distributed decentralized capabilities. Um, and the missing layer uh behind all that was power. So saw the opportunity to use that firsthand access I had to the problem working with SOCOM fielding advanced counter drone systems you know pre Ukraine with with my background in the technology side uh as a mechanical engineer and working on those electric aircraft systems brought those two those two worlds together to to start chariot. >> That's great. I mean, uh, yeah, as we talked about earlier this morning, I mean, there's, um, a lot of emphasis on drones and on, um, uh, counter UAS and things that are more sexy or so on, but we don't get anywhere if we, you know, if you, there's no watt that's delivered to a soldier, right? So, we got to get power to the edge. >> Um, so, uh, so tell us a little bit about your story in terms of, um, I understand you all got an initial investment, uh, or a competitively awarded, uh, kind of contract and how did that help you grow? So talk a little bit about that. >> Yeah. So you know we from from within three months of the first check into the company from our from our seed investment. So before that it was just me and a slide deck trying to convince people that this was a problem. Got some initial funding uh to go develop against that. Three months from that first funding uh we were at our first exercise um at at Camp Roberts as a naval postgraduate school exercise. Uh we're able to translate that success into an invitation to JRTC for a transformation and contact exercise. Um, we're able to translate that into DIU inviting us up to Alaska, uh, with the 11th Airborne. Our first prototype we ever built is still up in Alaska with those soldiers because they liked it so much and they it was such an key enabler for their systems for their electronic warfare platoon that they wouldn't let us take it home. >> Uh, so our first prototype still up in Alaska with those guys. >> Um, that then kind of turned into an opportunity with DIU. Uh, it was really a drone competition. It was this project GI it was called. Um, it was an opportunity to field equipment directly with the 75th Ranger Regiment. um have them actually use it and operate it and and then tell DIU, hey, what do we like? What do we want to fund uh to to take kind of to the next level? Um we showed up with 19 drone companies, right? So it was us and 19 drone companies and and and the and the Ranger Regiment guys stackranked the technologies they wanted to to proceed with. Uh we were number one on that list >> um because they saw it as the core enabler, right? It's like, hey, all these drones are paper weights, right, if we can't actually power them. So that led to a competitively award contract. Um, and that demand signal, you know, we then used to go raise our next funding round. You know, turned a 500k contract into a $34 million series A investment. >> Um, and so we're here at the Army Demand Signal Forum, right? Talking about how the army showing that demand signal not just through words, right, and not just through R&D contracts, but through purchases can help provide that demand signal to private capital. Uh, which is the thing that we have, you know, uh, you know, think about American advantages in the global geopolitical landscape. our capital markets uh are one of those strongest advantages. Um and so that that early award led to that uh >> led to that investment and since then we we just announced a an $8 million contract with DIU um to continue to scale uh that's working directly with the Army program offices. >> Great. Great. Well, what are you hoping to get out of this uh demand signal forum um uh for kind of the next thing for your company? >> Yeah. Um really looking to engage with the uh with these innovation organizations, right? you know, start to tell the story around how do we transition this to the to the to the larger enterprise. Um, power is is this kind of it's it's everyone's problem and then it's no one's problem. >> Yeah, very fair. >> Um, and so, you know, engaging with these organizations that allow us to get our systems in the field. Um, you know, we try to get as far into our pitch as possible without talking about our product. >> We try to talk about the problems that we are solving, right? The missions we are enabling. um and and getting those real stories by getting into the field of soldiers, you know, working with organizations like AAL, with DIU, uh with with the pit um give us that demand signal, give us the proof points to then go take to the broader army enterprise to try to scale. So that's the big thing that we're here this year. Uh we've been to now three of these, right? So the first one in DC, Palo Alto, back here in DC now. Uh the early ones we were really just looking to get those, you know, those first opportunities to prototype and and experiment. Now we're really looking towards transition. Uh while also you know the benefit of being on the panel was being able to tell some of the lessons that I've you know learned over the past 18 months you know as a startup actually going through this process in this new kind of army modernization environment. >> Yeah. You you [clears throat] talk about transition. So um yeah one of the things that people are concerned about is kind of so much experimentation but where does it go to? um where are you seeing um uptake on you're having engagements with potential army customers other customers based on some of the work you've been doing with DIU and elsewhere >> exactly yeah so so we definitely see that same experimentation fatigue happening right um and that's where we've tried to from day one build a product that is very simple to use for the soldier right that is making their life better that is not us using them as a testing ground not us that you know using them as a you know opportunity for us to just kind of get that vignette but actually to give us product feedback to rapid incorporate that feedback and deliver them a product that solves their problems today. >> Um, and so, you know, we we were able to take advantage of some of those early experiments, get some of that direct feedback from the soldiers, take that, you know, take that lesson and say, hey, they need it to plug into this specific device or, you know, hey, they need this kind of amount of energy storage to get them through this kind of period of silent operations. All of that went directly into our product. >> But, you know, not saying, hey, we're going to go spend five years building the most complex product ever, right? based on that learning. It's like, no, we're going to run tight iteration cycles. We're going to build something that works, that solves a problem a day, and that's designed to work where that soldier who's never been trained on your equipment, right? >> Uh doesn't need two day two days of classroom training, right? Because that's not, you know, I like to say rule number one in new equipment training is the guy they send to the new equipment training is not the guy who's going to use it. >> He was just the guy that was available. Um, and so building a really simple product, you know, uh, taking those lessons from from the field, incorporating those into how do you build a product that works so that you're not just asking them to constantly just kind of test your new iteration and new iteration. >> You know, you get a couple of those, right? You get and Colonel Dian was talking about 24 months, right? >> You get some time to do the experimentation, >> but it has to then turn into a product that's actually fieldable that fits into how the army fights today. um not some future vision that that you know, hey, well, hey, once once the entire army is robots, then our systems really valuable. It's like, okay, well, you know, they're they're not going to let you come to experiments infinitely while you wait for that future to materialize. >> Adam, thanks so much for your time. It was really great to hear about Chariot Defense and all the great work you're doing. Good luck today, the rest of the forum and going forward. >> Thanks for having me. >> All right, great. >> Now, we're pleased to welcome Guy Philipelli, who's the managing partner for Squadro Ventures. So, really great to have you here, Guy. >> Thanks, J. Appreciate Right. Great to be here. >> So, um, tell us a little about Squadra and, uh, you know, what your role is here in you're on the investor side. So, and tell us a little bit about that. >> Uh, sure. We are an early stage venture capital fund. Um, investing in preede to series B companies. You can uh think everything from drones to counter drone lasers to uh kinetics, satellites, sensors. Um and and what we try to do uh in the venture capital ecosystem is we invest in a small number of companies and and we we try to be very helpful to them in two ways. we we just focus on being great active board members and partners and two um which kind of bleeds into why our relationship with Army is so important but we try to really be uh a connector for them to the defense the broader defense ecosystem. I always say if I can help an entrepreneur make better decisions and bring them customers I'm winning >> as an investor. >> If I can't do those two things I'm losing. So, uh, that's a little bit about, you know, we're we're about 10 people. We're based here in Washington DC and, uh, yeah, it's been a great journey so far. >> Great. Great. And so, what brings you here to the, uh, Army demands for him? >> We, we have a great relationship and we have built a great relationship with the Army. Um, I am I am super impressed and you and I had a little bit of a sidebar on this, but uh I think that the army's done an exceptional job over the last let's call it five years um 10 years even and I think it started with Ash Carter and and these movements to try to embrace Silicon Valley. But I think what's evolved and what this administration is taking to another level is there's this true desire to partner with this next generation of innovators and that includes both companies and includes both venture capital firms. And so what uh our relationship is really probably um twofold with the army. one, we have formed a great partnership with Army Pit, Army Fuse, and uh and they've just been awesome. Um we we I think we probably speak with them, somebody in that in that ecosystem almost every day about a company that we're looking at, about a company they're looking at, uh trying to be helpful to companies that we've invested in, trying to be helpful to companies that they're working with already. Um just trying to be good citizens in the ecosystem. And I think that pays long-term and short-term dividends and that's that's important. The second thing that we have also done is spent time with PAE. >> So, you know, you have PA fires here today. We were down in Huntsville >> um a few months ago and we met with the entire leadership group uh General Lozano's team down there. And so when it's a long answer, long way of saying like when they say, "Hey, we're going to put an event together in DC and we're going to bring companies founders, uh, investors, government people, acquisition people, and end users, put them all in the same room, uh, and allow them, you know, yes, there's value in the sessions. But I think the real value is just simply at the at the at the lunch table, you know, at the in the on the couches. and to just sit out there and I' I've talked to six companies already this morning. >> You know, I've talked to three other investors. I've talked to a few government people. I It's been awesome. >> That's great. So, >> and I got to see you again. >> Yeah. No, it's great to connect after after a few years. >> Few years. >> Uh what what are you um hoping to to get out of this going forward? Um, you know, one thing I always say about conferences in general or meet meetups, if you will, um, is they're just they're just one of the inflection points of a journey, right? So, um, the way I look at the way I look at something like this is I say if I end up walking away with three or four new friends, >> it could be pretty substantial. It could be it could be consequential in some cases. Um I also believe though it's fundamentally these events are fundamentally important to keeping already existing relationships warm and physical in a way in a world where we all live in zooms and this and that and >> uh it is awesome to give to shake somebody's hand once >> in fact even even between me and a founder I I I uh earlier this morning there's another West Point grad uh Mustafa Dani. I don't know if you've met him, but he's got a brand new startup. I've known him for six years. Uh he was he was at GM. He was in um and uh working on GM's military vehicles and this and that and and I've known him for six years. I've never met him, >> you know, and and he came up to me and he said, "Oh my god, I finally get to meet you in person." So So like just those little moments, it's why events like this are so important. and uh and it's it's it's great. >> Great. All right. Well, Guy, it was really great to reconnect after a few years and uh really excited to hear about the things you're up to and the companies you're investing in and thanks very much for your time. >> Thank you for what you do and uh pleasure to be here. Thanks. >> Great. All right. And now we have the opportunity to speak with Mr. Brennan Louu who's the CEO and founder of Hybrron. So Brennan, it's great to have you on the show. >> Great. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. Great. So tell us a little bit about Hibbron. Um why you started it and how's it going and uh the like. >> Yeah. So things have been going well. A little bit of background on why I co-founded Hibbron with my co-founder Aaron is actually starting with my family background. So my grandparents fought the Chinese Communist Party and had to flee for their lives. And I grew up in LA going to Los Angeles Air Force Base to get all my vaccine shots and shop at the commissary. My father's a veteran US Air Force colonel. So really uh inspired to be working to support the US military um as well as the defense industrial base because I can never give back to the US uh what the US has given and supported to me and my family. In terms of what we're building at Hybrron, so Hibbron we have a new way of mass-producing lightweight composits. Think carbon fiber. It's super strong, super light. Need it everywhere from fighter jets to missiles to satellites. The problem is the manufacturing process is too slow and too expensive. It takes hours and days to make a single component. and technicians layering layers bone by one. We make that process take 10 to 15 minutes. And we've proven that production cycle time after having made and tested over 4,000 parts, which makes us over 10 times as fast as traditional manufacturing processes. And so with this process, we are currently scaling production for multiple critical military applications for composite 155 millimeter artillery shells, which is our largest focus. We're delivering shells quicker with 40 times less capital investment to scale. and most importantly are making shells that are four times as lethal as standard steel artillery shells as well as solving other munition bottlenecks from solid rocket motor nozzles to drone and missile components and jet engine blades and veins for the US Air Force. >> Well, that's really exciting. So, um what brings you here today to the Army Demand Signal Forum? >> Yeah, so the Army Demand Signal Forum has I think unequivocally been the most important conference we've ever been to. Last year we were a team of less than 10 people. We went here, we smuggled in an artillery shell, showed it to the Army leadership, and within less than a month, we're briefing Army leadership at Pikatini Arsenal. Um, and since then, we're just competitively selected for fully obligated $7 million US Army contract. We have a CRDA with Army DevCom Arment Center. And with that technical support, we're able to successfully live fire artillery shells out of a 155mm gun. And so it's because of the army demanding a form last year that we've been able to gain a massive amount of traction with the army, then raise over $25 million. Um, and so this year we're coming back because we want to double down on the traction we've received and connect with more folks in the army as we look to scale munitions production across multiple domains with artillery shells and missiles. >> Wow, that's tremendous. Um, what would for you? What are you hoping to get out of this? you know, this forum's been quite successful for you. So, what are you looking to come out of this this uh this um this edition? >> So, looking to connect with three groups of folks. Number one is more contacts at the Army, especially those in PAE fires because we're doing and we're actually going to be pitching at the PAE fires breakout session soon. Um and we want to connect with more of them so we can help support solid rocket motor production. uh where there's a shortage of rayon and nozzles and other critical components that we can reduce cost and increase production scalability for. We also want to connect with uh potential investors. We even though we closed our over subscribe round in April um and we're not actively raising always like to connect with more investors to learn more about other companies and stay in contact for potential future raises. And then third is connect with companies we can partner with where we can help scale manufacturing for reduce costs and increase production scalability or increase performance. >> So customers, investors and partners, that sounds like a win-winwin. So super. Well, it sounds like you've got a a great plan and then the Army's demand signal forum has been great for you and uh best wishes going forward, Brandon. Great to have you. >> Thank you and thank you for hosting me. >> Excellent. Take care. >> Great to meet you. >> And now I'd like to welcome Mr. Aaron Dak who's the CEO and founder of Dmaterial to the show. So great. >> Thank you for having me. Yeah. Great. >> Yeah. >> So um tell us a little bit about Dmaterial kind of what how did you start it? What what's the what's your value proposition and how's how are things going? >> Yeah. Dematerial makes uh very strong inflatable structures including inflatable heavy lift drones as well as an inflatable uh litter stacking system uh for CVAC. So getting people off the battlefield, increasing the capacity of like an LMTV. So we're here uh promoting our heavy lift drone system that can lift 150 pounds of payload on a three pound frame and you can get 250 of them or more in a shipping container. So you can get them in quantity to the fight. You can get them in a mass producible way. Right? So we can scale the manufacturing. How we make it is very scalable. Um they're lightweight, packable, uh and they even float, which is a nice added benefit bonus. >> That's uh great to hear. Um so what uh what brings you to the Army Demand Signal Forum? Have you been here before? Um or is this your first time? >> This is our first time. You know, we can create lots of different products and we think the inflatable drone and the stacking system are two that are important. Uh the inflatable stacking system was at Project Convergence this year. Um so we do think there's signal there from the army on that and obviously uh heavy lift drones tritable drones is a signal that's been coming from the army for a long time. So our goal is to turn that signal into you know you know a contract or you know some kind of engagement with the army to show them what we're doing which we're doing through a few different routes. And so that's our hope is to kind of make those connections with people who can ultimately be the ones who, you know, either fund its continued development or actually even buy units because we're, you know, we are ready to start demonstrating units. So how does it how do how do your drones work in terms of the heavy lift drones? You have the um you know over pressurized kind of you know um um system I guess but is it like motors to help? How do how do they kind of create the lift and guidance and all that? >> Yeah. So, it's a traditional quadrotor uh drone just like you know any of the other kind of quad rotors. It has um we actually use CR systems uh single motor counterrotating uh uh motors which are very efficient and they work really well in our system. We were at the DARPA lift challenge so we actually um we actually flew our system with those motors and you know batteries and kind of everything you have on a traditional drone. The the advantage that we have is the frame itself is inflatable, right? It actually came in a small box this big with us, but is, you know, an 80in by 80 inch drone when it's inflated. And so that's one of the advantages. It's stowability. It's lighter weight than carbon fiber. It's easier to manufacture than carbon fiber. It can take a hard landing better than carbon fiber. So it has lots of natural and its radar cross-section is essentially transparent. So the drone itself obviously has motors and batteries, but overall it's harder uh it's harder to sense on the battlefield. And so I think there's a lot of unique attributes to it, but the one that really matters a lot from from the military, at least from what we've understood of it, is they want a lot of them. And they want them be able to be shipped to the fight. So we can ship 250 to a shipping container, but it also can't cost as much, right? And you know, a lot of these heavy lift drones are in the six figures. Ours is far less than that. And so I think I think that's the opportunity that we have and we're hoping that the the army and maybe even other other services would be interested in it. >> Okay, great. Um, so what what is your kind of vision or definition of success after this army demand form? What are you hoping to do and uh what do you >> I am hoping that we can get some form of contract. It does not have to be big. That says, "Hey, I want five units funded uh to get to soldiers, test it within 120 days or less, and then iterate on it, and then scale it, come come up with a design that everyone really wants, that is useful, that is functional for the the soldier, and then we can produce it at army scale." Um, and it just becomes getting from where we are today to that. And that's our goal is to kind of work our way towards that. >> Great. Crossing the proverbial valley of death, so to speak. Yes. But well, you sounds like you're in the right place. You're talking to customers here and so I'll let you get back to that. So, thanks very much for your time, Eric. It was great to speak with you. >> Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. >> Okay. Great. Now, I'd like to welcome Colonel Ryan Barnett, who's the CTO of the Third Armored Corps at Fort Hood, Texas. Great to have you with us, Colonel. >> Thank you. It's great to be here. Super. So tell us a little bit about yourself and your organization um that you uh and what you work on on. >> So I'm in the US Army, work for Third Armor Corps out of Fort Hood, Texas. And uh we're part of the innovation team we called Phantom X. >> And so basically Phantom X is is looking at innovation efforts across the broad portfolio of what it means to innovate for a armored core. Um, and that's not just tanks and Bradley's, that is all the enablers, signals, medical, artillery, >> um, fires, you name it. So, it has a very broad portfolio of of what we're looking to innovate. >> And so, our job is to take the problems at the tactical level as they arise, bring them up, and then work with government partners, uh, businesses, industry, and academia to find ways to to help solve that problem. And so we link into organizations like the pit and the army fuse army applications lab uh diu uh and we're that bottomup customer feedback from the war fighter that gets the requirements >> in the demand signal up to the army. >> Okay. Excellent. Excellent. So that how does that lead you here to the army demand signal form? What kind of makes this attractive to you? >> So a couple things. Uh number one, it it brings together three of those entities, right? The military, the government, um private industry, and also investors. And so bringing that group together specific to this forum was on power and energy was the panel that I was on >> um to discuss how we how we innovate and how we uh maximize opportunity of of the industry that's out there, helping them understand pathways to get into uh their foot in the door in the army system whether that's from the core level or whether that's through DIU or through the pit or other organizations to help them and also see what what industries out there what what is new on the street that we just don't know about >> uh that we could apply to the army. A lot of these companies are are working with the Air Force or the Navy >> or or even some of the Space Force, NASA >> and have capabilities that they may not know could apply to the to the army. And so >> dialoguing with the industry partners and finding out, hey, there is there is an army problem that this could potentially solve and let's uh let's link up and have a further discussion. So, how has it been today? And how are you thinking? What um is this your first uh demand signal forum? And um yeah, >> it it is my first demand signal forum and uh and today's been great. Uh was able to do the panel this morning and then uh immediately following that was able to kind of socialize out there in the in the four-way [snorts] there and and was able to meet uh five or six different companies. >> Great. uh got connections, got some business cards, but but I was also able to link up with my >> my army greater army community. Um you know, General Bourne from from DevCom was here, Colonel Davis from DIU was here. And so you may think the army all speaks with the same voice, but uh it's a very large organization and um sometimes one hand doesn't talk to the other. So just making our own internal connections >> uh helps speed things along. >> Great. Great. And how do you see this um let's say six months from now? What would be success in your view after the demand signal form? Uh so there's a couple of companies that uh that we're looking to work with and a couple of companies we already got on contract that was able to link up here >> uh and discuss uh kind of the way forward and so what they're what they're potentially going to do at Fort Hood and then in the third armor corps and then as well as u linking up with with some new industry uh partners and there's a there's a couple of um specific capabilities that that we're looking at now that we had the need before but didn't have an identified partner. Um so I'll be reaching out to those those industries right after this and uh and setting up more of a kind of a longer term brief. >> Great. So typically it it uh you do the meet and greet get a kind of two minute two-minute elevator spit pitch and then uh and then we set up a longer term discussion deep dive into their capabilities and if it is something that we we believe can help us we'll push that down to to a particular unit uh to test and experiment with we'll also try to bring in folks like the PAE uh the PMS um DI U if we need funding or DEVCOM or the PIT if we need to find funding solutions to help them out as well to look through those those venues and just make sure that we as an Army community are helping helping ourselves to solve our problem with this particular partner. >> Great. Well, it sounds like it's been a great day and look forward to we'll let you get back to uh finishing up, but uh thanks very much for your time and for all that you do. >> Thank you, Jerry. >> Okay, great. Thanks very much. >> Now, I'd like to welcome Mr. Michael from who's the CEO and co-founder of Aurelia Systems. So, Michael, it's great to have you on the show. >> Yeah, thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> Great. So, tell us a little about Aurelia Systems. Um, you know, where'd you start? Uh, what do you what kind of capabilities do you deliver and how's how are things going? >> Yeah, certainly. For sure. Um, so, you know, I'm from the Detroit metro area originally. worked in heavy industrials and then in laser systems uh as well as an engineer. Um I worked at a large laser company essentially building and in research development and then in sales building high power fiber systems and and selling them did a little bit of work in directed energy as well. Um I'd left that uh job and I had gone into my PhD in elect. And while I was there you know we started to get a lot of information back from uh from Ukraine on the stats of exactly what was killing what. It turns out you know like 80% of casualties in the field are from FPV drones. It's not from enemy aircraft carriers or ships or missiles or anything like that. It's from these small little things that are really cheap and you know uh you know right now that's fairly obvious but you know years ago it it wasn't necessarily so so widely obvious but we all know about it now. Um and so I dropped out of my PhD uh to essentially start Aurelius Systems which is a directed energy weapon systems company. We use high power fiber laser systems that are not uh you know super bespoke uh or very expensive large systems which is basically every directed energy program to date. We use industrial fiber laser systems that are used to cut steel, weld aluminum and eel glass and auto factories. And then we use massive advantages even in the last three years in AI and edge deployed compute and edge deployed power and and uh camera sensing and radar systems uh to get a super accurate lowcost fire controller for a laser that maybe isn't as high fluence or high power and we can get you know a system out into the field that's two orders of magnitude lower in swap C across the board than anything else that that you can get. And that's what our company exists to do. We've we've raised a little bit over $50 million uh in the last two years to date in in our company to essentially uh build and deliver these systems. We have uh an office in San Francisco and Detroit for both research development and scaled uh production as well. And a big focus for for us and part of why we're here is to talk about the industrial base and actually building up our capacity to produce fiber lasers uh and produce optics because you can't uh uh there aren't that many organizations anymore and not just in America but in the west uh overall that produce scaled optical supply uh there just aren't that many anymore. And so big focus for us is to vertically integrate and and uh and do that. And so we're one of a small amount of directed energy companies um that's um out there producing systems, going to demonstration, getting systems out in the field. >> Wow, that's exciting. >> Um [clears throat] the uh so what brings you specifically here to the Army Demand Signal Forum? Are you looking have you been engaged with Army customers uh investors here? So tell us a little bit about kind of your experience uh here at the demand signal forum and if this is your first one. So this is your first one. >> Oh, I believe so. And this is uh this is basically a reunion of all our customers and our investors. [laughter] And so we come we come here and and uh and we talk and you know like talk shop what we're doing in the demonstration. It's always good to get to get uh uh you know facetime but I think for us as a company like I have obviously I have access to end users and customers and demonstrators and I obviously have access to my investors. Um but you know I can sit down on a couch and be with like our board member and then also one of our one of our main customers and actually talk about what in these with these three stakeholders al together actually talk about like what is army interested in what do we you know you can't make promises but what do you reasonably think is going to come in the pipe for a requirement >> at the end of the day and that gives signal to capital allocators to actually deploy money into into companies and make up for R&D shortfall or delays like with the continuing resolutions that continue to happen. Um, and there's, you know, there's shortfalls in funding and and private capital, especially American >> um American like defense industrial based >> investors, you know, they could go and do software. They can invest in anything and and and they're they're they're in this space because they're very passionate about about what they do. And so they're interested in putting their own money to support uh support our country, right? And to and you know, at the end of the day, you have to make a return. You obviously have to. It's insane to think otherwise, but uh you know, everyone here basically everyone here have has options on the projects that they do and what they're going to do in their life, but getting them all together and everyone that is being here that is here is very passionate about this space and what we do today and what we can do to solve the industrial defense industrial base problems. >> So, it sounds like it's been a pretty valuable experience for you then. So where do you think uh how would you define success in like six to 12 months you know after after this demand signal >> form? [snorts] I would say the the touch points and opportunities to talk with um units that uh need counter UAS defense >> um acquisitions authorities that are starting to shape kind of what the requirements are are are going to be and are getting more information um out in the field. Moving into a cadence where we are, you know, continuing to deliver more systems to various army units, for example, as a result of this would be really great. >> Great day. >> Okay, super. Well, thanks very much for your time. So Michael and great to see you all. >> That was a tremendous set of discussions. I want to thank all of our guests and uh our sponsors for um for helping to enable this event. Uh and we look forward to monitoring the future army demand signal forums and similar events. My biggest takeaway from today's actu uh event is this really significant action happening for companies and for the government uh as opposed to just activity um and that is uh really positive to see. So thank you very much for watching and we hope to see you again soon and remember it's all about the base.