The Merge

Interviews and anecdotes on military technology, defense policy, and aerospace AI summary

The Merge Visit website › Government · EN · 70 episodes · latest 2026-11-08

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What it is about

Military technology, trends, and national security...presented with unique insights, salt, and wit from combat aviator veterans and industry experts. Fence in for interviews and anecdotes about the ins, outs, and happenings at the intersection of technology, industry, strategy, and policy of aerospace and national defense. Brought to you by The Merge newsletter.

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The Merge

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Latest episodes

E65 – Breaking the Propulsion Duopoly

2026-11-08 · 32 min · Episode 65

America’s solid rocket motor industry consolidated from six manufacturers to two. Firehawk wants to be number three.Mike sits down with Will Edwards, Co-Founder and CEO of Firehawk, to talk about breaking a thirty-year…
E64 – Autonomy Is a Software Problem

2026-11-01 · 39 min

The Pentagon wants thousands of autonomous systems. The question is who builds them and how fast.Joey Arora sits down with Paul Lwin, Co-Founder and CEO of Havoc, to talk about collaborative autonomy and why the path to…
E63 – The Merge Origin Story

2026-10-25 · 18 min

It started with an email to 300 fighter pilots. Joey Arora turns the tables on Mike "Pako" Benitez to get the full origin story of The Merge. Mike spent 25 years on active duty between the Marine Corps and Air Force,…
E62 – Rethinking Aircraft Maintenance with Perfect Point EDM

2026-10-04 · 27 min

Buying a fighter jet is the cheap part.Mike sits down with Jim Becker, President and CEO of Perfect Point EDM, to talk about the biggest line in any defense program: keeping the fleet flying.Perfect Point builds the…
E61 – Rebuilding the Test Playbook with Nominal

2026-08-30 · 37 min

Test is where new military hardware goes to wait.Mike sits down with Jenn Wilson, Head of Federal at Nominal, to talk about test and evaluation, the least glamorous gate between a program and the warfighter.Nominal…
E60 – GPS-Free Navigation

2026-07-12 · 44 min

How do systems operate when GPS disappears?Mike sits down with Kara Kramer, Vice President ofRaptor Sales at Vantor (formerly Maxar Intelligence), to discuss one of the most important challenges facing modern autonomous…
E59 – Business Breakdown: Anduril

2026-06-04 · 43 min

Anduril Industries raised $5 billion at a reported $61billion valuation—putting a nine-year-old defense tech company in the same conversation as legacy primes that have been building weapons for generations.How did they…
E58 – Dcode the Pentagon Buying Machine

2026-04-26 · 51 min

What does it actually take to get new technology into thehands of warfighters—and why is it still so hard?In this episode, Mike sits down with the co-founders ofDcode, Meagan Metzger and Meg Vorland, to unpack the…
E57 – The War on Bad Software (Defense Unicorns)

2026-03-28 · 42 min

All modern hardware depends on good software, but in theU.S. military, most software sucks.Rob Slaughter, co-founder and CEO of Defense Unicorns, joins the show to unpack why this is happening and what they are doing to…
E56 – The Fury Origin Story

2026-02-01 · 54 min

This is the untold origin story of the Fury CollaborativeCombat Aircraft (CCA), as told by those who lived it.Scott Bledsoe and Joe Murray join Mike to talk about Fury’s very beginning—way back to 2016.Now known as…

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Publisher details

Oldest episode in feed: 11/2022 · over 3 years
Typical length: 49 min
Format: Episodic Newest first, episodes stand alone

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