E5 - Military Tech Spending is Broken

Merge Podcast Episode 5: Mike, Jake, and Tim pick apart some op-eds about military spending for research and development spending, innovation, and why the military sucks at getting tech to the warfighter. They also catch up on the news about grounded airplanes with NOTAM crash, ponder the legalisms of having secrets in a garage, and end with a discussion on some AI tools—and a surprise.

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Links

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* Op-Ed 1: https://warontherocks.com/2023/01/leveraging-u-s-capital-markets-to-support-the-future-industrial-network/

* Op-Ed 2: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/federal-contracting/why-dod-should-get-out-of-the-r-d-business-mislav-tolusic

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Show Notes

(1:00) intro

(2:03) op-ed 1 – $$

(13:39) lab to field challenges

(15:55) IP

(17:10) cemented culture

(18:56) misaligned incentives

(20:11) op-ed 2 - defund R&D

(22:37) innovation time horizons

(23:36) proportion investing in R&D vs procurement

(25:07) Mike’s spicy take on R&D spending

(29:30) Tim on transitioning tech

(32:50) Congress spending cuts

(37:42) cut the Pentagon

(40:20) – how a bill becomes a law

(41:37) the deficit is a national security challenge

(42:39) NOTAMs down!

(47:34) Mike goes down a NOTAM rabbit hole

(47:55) military NOTAM website

(50:40) classified papers by a corvette

(59:01) ChatGPT or other AI news

(1:13:28) a rap song

(1:15:48) outro