Private capital is playing an increasingly visible role in the defense industrial base, but its impact depends less on the amount of money flowing in than on how effectively government demand shapes investment decisions. The central question for policymakers is not whether capital is available, but whether the system converts that capital into deployable capability.

In this episode, host Dr. Arun Seraphin is joined by Sam Moyer, Research Fellow at NDIA’s Emerging Technologies Institute (ETI), to discuss ETI’s recent work on mobilizing private capital for defense. The conversation examines how different forms of private capital, including venture, private equity, and internal investment, interact with the Department of Defense acquisition system, and why investors ultimately respond to credible signals of future demand.

Moyer outlines a framework for understanding what drives investment into the defense sector: demand signaling, catalytic capital tools, and the broader business environment. He explains how mechanisms such as acquisition roadmaps, long-term purchase commitments, and communication between government and industry can reduce uncertainty and lower the cost of capital. The discussion also addresses newer policy tools, including federal equity investments and loan programs, and the governance and oversight challenges they introduce.

The episode highlights a key constraint on defense innovation: investment is already present, but its effectiveness depends on whether the system is legible and predictable to investors. Improving clarity and alignment, not simply increasing funding, will shape the next phase of growth in the defense industrial base.

Read ETI’s White Paper " Mobilizing Private Capital for Defense: Tactics and Recommendations": https://www.emergingtechnologiesinstitute.org/-/media/ndia-eti/reports/mobilizing-capital-for-defense/mobilizingcapitalreport_2026_final.pdf.

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2026 NDIA Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition
September 8-10, 2026, at the Walter E. Washington DC Convention Center: https://www.ndiatechexpo.org/

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#DefenseInnovation #PrivateCapital #Acquisition #NationalSecurity

You can detect radiation in seconds. Understanding what it does to the human body can take far longer. This gap defines a leading challenge of radiation biology, the field that studies how radiation interacts with living systems.

In this episode, Dr. Marc Mendonca, Associate Vice President of Research at the University of Central Florida, joins host Dr. Arun Seraphin to discuss what problems radiobiologists are attempting to solve, and how these problems shape the realities of warfighters, first responders, cancer patients, astronauts, and civilians. The conversation highlights persistent limits in assessing how much radiation an individual has actually absorbed, how their body will respond, and why so many sectors rely on better understanding these effects. It also examines the operational strain created by the “walking well” in mass exposure scenarios.

Mendonca outlines key research gaps in the field, including radiation’s influence on the immune system, the mechanisms behind radiation-induced cancer, the need for effective post-exposure mitigation, and the development of faster, field-ready diagnostic tools.

Watch ETI’s “Tech 101: Radiation Biology” seminar: https://www.ndia.org/events/2026/5/19/tech-101-radiation-biology

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NDIA Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition September 8-10, 2026, at the Walter E. Washington DC Convention Center: ndiatechexpo.org

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#RadiationBiology #EmergingTech #PublicHealth #EmergencyResponse

Two of WHOOP's first 100 paying customers were LeBron James and Michael Phelps. The device built to optimize elite athletic performance is now finding a second calling in national security — and the story of how it got there says as much about military institutions as it does about the technology. Todd Stiefler, VP of Enterprise and Public Sector at WHOOP, joins Dr. Arun Seraphin at Emerging Tech Horizons to explain how a consumer fitness wearable became a force readiness tool, and what's still standing in the way of adoption at scale.

Learn more about WHOOP here: https://www.whoop.com/us/en/

SAVE THE DATE: 2026 NDIA Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition September 8-10, 2026, at the Walter E. Washington DC Convention Center: ndiatechexpo.org/

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#ETI #EmergingTech #WearableTech

Hackathons are becoming an increasingly important tool in the defense innovation ecosystem. When designed intentionally, hackathons can work for everyone involved in defense innovation. In this episode of Emerging Tech Horizons, Dr. Arun Seraphin is joined by Nick Lanham, Chair of NDIA’s Data Analytics and Enterprise Platforms Division and Senior Data & AI Analyst at Kairos, and Charles Ott, Vice President and Solution Strategist at Maximus, to discuss NDIA’s hackathon model and what makes it effective.

The conversation offers a practical look at how this hackathon works: bringing together technologists, industry leaders, and government users for a focused, time‑boxed effort to tackle real defense problems. Rather than operating as a competition or a coding exercise, the hackathon is designed as a collaborative learning environment—one where participants share knowledge, test ideas, and better understand both user needs and institutional constraints. Lanham and Ott explain why this approach benefits everyone involved. Across the board, participants leave with a clearer picture of the problem space and stronger connections across the defense innovation community.

The episode looks back at NDIA’s inaugural hackathon, highlights what worked, and previews what’s planned for the upcoming event at the Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference. More broadly, it explains why thoughtfully designed hackathons are emerging as a valuable complement to traditional acquisition and innovation processes.

Learn more and get involved with this year’s NDIA Hackathon: https://hackathon.ndia.org/browse?status=upcoming

Read ETI’s brief on Hackathons as a defense acquisition tool: https://www.emergingtechnologiesinstitute.org/publications/brief-series/competing-for-capability

SAVE THE DATE: 2026 NDIA Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition September 8-10, 2026, at the Walter E. Washington DC Convention Center: ndiatechexpo.org/

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Facebook: https://bit.ly/47vlht8 And for more podcasts, articles, & publications all things emerging tech, check out our website at: ndiaeti.org

#DefenseHackathon #DefenseInnovation #EmergingTechnologies #NationalSecurity

After more than four years of conflict, the war in Ukraine has produced an unprecedented body of data on rapid innovation, emerging technology, and the evolving role of drone warfare and unmanned systems on the modern battlefield. The pressing question for U.S. defense planners is which of those lessons can be translated to the U.S. way of war, and which, if applied too directly, risk misdirecting future force development.

In this episode, host Dr. Arun Seraphin is joined by Anna Kim, Associate Research Fellow at the Emerging Technologies Institute (ETI), and Matt Dooley, President and CEO of Fidelium and Chair of the NDIA Robotics Division, to discuss their ETI white paper, "Beyond Attrition: Interpreting the Limits of Lessons from Ukraine for Future US Force Development." The paper examines what full integration of drone technologies, autonomous systems, and emerging military technologies into the U.S. Joint Force would actually require.

The conversation explores why Ukraine's battlefield innovation and drone-driven "iteration under fire" model cannot be copied wholesale into the U.S. statutory and industrial environment, the enduring importance of combined arms warfare, and why the future force depends on integrating attritable unmanned systems with legacy maneuver platforms rather than choosing between them. Kim and Dooley also discuss the Army's Transformation in Contact (TiC) and Human Machine Integrated Formation (HMIF) initiatives, Project Convergence, and the Pentagon's Drone Dominance program, along with the production, sustainment, and training challenges of fielding robotic, autonomous, and emerging technology-enabled warfare capabilities at the scale a future fight will demand.

Read ETI’s White Paper "Beyond Attrition: Interpreting the Limits of Lessons from Ukraine for Future US Force Development": https://www.emergingtechnologiesinstitute.org/publications/brief-series/beyond-attrition

Learn more about NDIA's Robotics Division: https://www.ndia.org/divisions/robotics

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SAVE THE DATE:

2026 NDIA Future Force Capabilities Conference & Exhibition, June 8–10, 2026, at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, NV — where Anna and Matt will continue the conversation: https://ndiaffc.org

2026 NDIA Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition

September 9-10, 2026, at the Walter E. Washington DC Convention Center: ndiatechexpo.org

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Military bases are no longer guaranteed sanctuaries. As cyberattacks, drones, long-range missiles, and space-based threats expand the battlefield, U.S. installations must be treated as operational assets, not just support infrastructure. In this episode, Brian Stites, ETI Visiting Fellow and Chair of NDIA’s Cyber Warfare Division, speaks with Brig. Gen. Guy Walsh, USAF (Ret.), Executive Vice President and COO of National Defense Industrial Association, and Daryl Haegley, Technical Director for Control Systems Cyber Resiliency for the Department of the Air Force, about what it means to “fight the base.”

The conversation examines how military infrastructure is moving beyond static compliance and audit reporting toward real-time resilience, operational readiness, and validated assessment under duress. The discussion also explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and emerging technology can help identify vulnerabilities, support resilience planning, and improve decision-making for installation commanders facing increasingly complex threats. Additionally, the episode highlights why vendors, operators, engineers, and cyber professionals must work together to maintain mission readiness when critical infrastructure is degraded.

Read ETI’s related White Paper “FIGHT THE BASE: UNIFIED CONSTRUCT FOR USAF INSTALLATIONS AS FORWARD OPERATING WEAPONS PLATFORMS”: https://www.emergingtechnologiesinstitute.org/publications/brief-series/fight-the-base

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SAVE THE DATE: 2026 NDIA Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition September 8-10, 2026, at the Walter E. Washington DC Convention Center: ndiatechexpo.org

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#EmergingTech #CyberResilience #CyberAttacks #CriticalInfrastructure #DefenseInnovation

The Department of War manages trillions of dollars in capabilities through an acquisition system that has not kept pace with the technologies it is meant to deliver. As readiness rates decline and supply chains grow more contested, modernizing how the defense enterprise uses data has become a national security imperative, and AI-enabled software is at the center of that effort.

In this episode, host Dr. Arun Seraphin sits down with Dr. Jen Gebhardt, Director of Research at Govini, to discuss how AI and advanced data analysis are transforming defense acquisition, sustainment, and contested logistics. Drawing on Govini's work with Project Convergence and Air Force sustainment programs, Gebhardt explains how the shift from a reactive to a proactive supply chain can compress resupply planning into under an hour and connect the factory to the fight in near real time.

The conversation also covers sub-tier supply chain visibility and the "illusion of diversity" in critical industrial bases like solid rocket motors, the role of AI in identifying financial fragility and foreign ownership risks, and how government access to technical data correlates directly with readiness. Gebhardt also previews her upcoming paper "Sustaining the Fight," to be presented at the Naval Postgraduate School's Acquisition Research Symposium.

Learn more about Govini: https://www.govini.com/

Read Govini's related framework piece, "From Factory to Fight: A Modern Framework for Defense Logistics": https://www.govini.com/blog/from-factory-to-fight-a-modern-framework-for-defense-logistics

SAVE THE DATE: 2026 NDIA Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition September 8-10, 2026, at the Walter E. Washington DC Convention Center: ndiatechexpo.org/

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And for more podcasts, articles, & publications all things emerging tech, check out our website at: ndiaeti.org

#EmergingTech #ArtificialIntelligence #DefenseAcquisition #SupplyChains #NationalSecurity

Start in Elementary School: Building America’s National Security STEM Pipeline YouTube Description: America’s next generation of emerging technology will not be built without the workforce to design, manufacture, operate, and sustain it. Jeremy Anderson, CEO of the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), argues that K–12 STEM education is a national security priority, and the pipeline has to begin long before college or career decisions.

Anderson explains NMSI’s “train the trainers” model, which equips teachers, school leaders, counselors, and media specialists to help students build confidence, rigor, and a stronger STEM identity. According to Anderson, students who have at least one NMSI-trained teacher are far more likely to pursue a STEM degree or credential in fields tied to emerging technology and innovation. Industry cannot rely only on late-stage internships or higher education programs. Companies can help grow the future workforce by supporting teacher externships, connecting classrooms to real jobs, and investing earlier in tomorrow’s STEM talent to strengthen America’s national security and leadership in emerging technology.

National Math & Science Initiative https://www.nms.org/

SAVE THE DATE: 2026 NDIA Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition September 8-10, 2026, at the Walter E. Washington DC Convention Center: ndiatechexpo.org/

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#emergingtech #STEM #NationalSecurity