Defense Business Brief: End-of-fiscal-year advice for founders; Navy drone boats; Powerus to go public

Defense Business Brief

WASHINGTON— The Pentagon’s comptroller has a bit of advice for tech makers and founders who want to do business with the military: Make tech that troops like, find out who can buy it for them, and hire someone who knows how things work. .

“Having the users like your products is incredibly necessary. That's a given. But it's the program offices and the [portfolio acquisition executives, or] PAEs who really have the power to make you successful,” Jules Hurst , the Defense Department’s chief financial officer, said at Y Combinator ’s Startup Industrial Base event Wednesday. “You have to provide the solution to them. Again, they’ve made their budget. They made it a year and a half ago. They've made a plan to execute that budget. So anything you're bringing in is, at times, disruptive to them if they have an established program. So you've got to figure out how you can fit in.”

Fitting in could mean being a subcontractor for an existing program or helping program managers “shape requirements for a future capability,” but it has to be more than just a good idea, he said.

“You've got to fit into the cycle—and I know that's not what a lot of you want to hear. And we're working on changing that by doing acquisition reform, but it's still the case in a lot of programs across the department,” Hurst said.

Hiring someone familiar with doing business with the government “will help you immensely,” he said, as will finding the right Defense Department program offices.

“Shop for the program offices and program managers that are really interested in change, and you align yourself with that person and you start to help try to solve their problems with your team. If you find the right program office or program manager, they can do immense good for you. They can open up lots of opportunities across the department. They can introduce you to people, even if you're not a good fit for their program. So part of it is also personality shopping and finding somebody who really wants to make change and isn’t fixated on just compliance.”

And once in the door, companies must be able to make the tech in large quantities.

“The best thing is to show that you can make stuff. A lot of startups right now, sometimes they're paper deep—and that's kind of a risky bet for the government. Not that we shouldn't take it, right? Because sometimes our alternative is a company that does manufacture things, but doesn't produce in the timetable we want, or the capabilities we need, or the cost schedule we want,” Hurst said.

“So again, my best advice to you is: show that you can manufacture things. And if you are not manufacturing things, hire people who have experience manufacturing things, so you can show the government that you're bringing on the talent necessary to scale your product and capability if they decide to buy it.”

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USVs wading in. The Navy will buy 30 medium-sized unmanned surface vessels at about $40 million each from three companies: Galliano Marine Services, HII, and Saronic. Each company will build 10, the first of which are expected to be delivered in the last quarter of 2027.

A little more: Six out of seven companies successfully completed sea trials for phase one of the Navy’s MUSV program. The three that didn’t get production contracts but had successful trials—Leidos, PacMar Technologies, and Sea Machines—“will automatically transfer into the marketplace and be eligible as part of phase two,” which will have broader requirements, Christopher Miller , the Navy’s acting direct reporting portfolio manager for robotic and autonomous systems, told reporters. Birdon participated in the trials and did not meet the program requirements but has a “viable path” to joining the drone marketplace in the future, he said.

Pulling up: The MUSV program has been through a lot of changes in the last year (including a lawsuit .) But the more interesting part for me is what could come out of phase two, where other services, like the Army, can share requirements they have. This could have big implications for the Indo-Pacom region, and is something USARPAC commander Gen. Ronald Clark highlighted earlier this year. “The Army has a mission, and they actually operate a number of ships. And I think there's a great opportunity here…and we're just trying to make sure everybody sees the state of the market in terms of the capability, what the performance is. And then we'll obviously work closely on the requirements,” Miller told reporters. “But I'm excited about that because I do think there's opportunity for a close collaboration and partnering with the other services as they think about their future programs.” Phase 2 is expected to start testing evaluations as early as Nov. 16 and continue over the next five years.

“The Army has a mission, and they actually operate a number of ships. And I think there's a great opportunity here…and we're just trying to make sure everybody sees the state of the market in terms of the capability, what the performance is. And then we'll obviously work closely on the requirements,” Miller told reporters. “But I'm excited about that because I do think there's opportunity for a close collaboration and partnering with the other services as they think about their future programs.”

Phase 2 is expected to start testing evaluations as early as Nov. 16 and continue over the next five years.

Related tangent: Defense tech darling Saronic broke ground on its much-anticipated Port Alpha facility in Brownsville, Texas, today . Vice President JD Vance attended the event. Also, earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the company’s Austin facility , praising the company’s USVs for aiding in the rescue of downed Apache pilots.

Making moves + other news

Michael Brasseur joined Booz Allen Hamilton as an executive vice president. Brasseur was previously Saab, Inc.’s chief strategy officer and led the Navy’s Task Force 59 .

Dronemaker Powerus is expected to go public Oct. 1 as it finalizes its merger with Aureus Greenway Holdings, a publicly traded company on NASDAQ. The new company name will be Powerus Corporation.

The FBI shut down an investigation into defense contractors’ alleged bribes to lawmakers, ProPublica reports.

Time is the real constraint the defense industrial base has to contend with, Seurat Technologies’ CEO James Demuth writes in Defense One .

Boeing snags a multibillion-dollar deal to build the Navy’s next generation fighter, F/A-XX.

The Navy partially accepted the future USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier.

SpaceX launched a really big rocket and ended the flight test early.

One last thing: Happy New Fiscal Year’s Eve to all who celebrate! Out with the old and in with the new—err, continuing resolution.

NEXT STORY: Army awards counterdrone contracts worth more than $4B

国防商业简报

华盛顿——五角大楼审计长给那些想与军方做生意的科技公司和创始人提出了一些建议：开发士兵喜欢的技术，找到能为他们购买这些技术的公司，并雇佣了解相关运作方式的人。

“用户喜欢你的产品至关重要，这是毋庸置疑的。但真正能决定你成败的是项目办公室和项目组合采购主管（PAE）。”国防部首席财务官朱尔斯·赫斯特周三在Y Combinator的创业产业基地活动上表示，“你必须为他们提供解决方案。再说一遍，他们的预算已经制定好了，而且是在一年半前制定的。他们也制定了执行预算的计划。因此，如果你引入的任何东西，如果他们已经有了既定的项目，有时都会对他们造成干扰。所以你必须想办法融入其中。”

他说，融入其中可能意味着成为现有项目的分包商，或者帮助项目经理“制定未来能力的需求”，但这不能仅仅是一个好主意。

“你们必须适应这个周期——我知道这不是你们很多人想听到的。我们正在通过采购改革来改变这种情况，但这种情况在部门内的许多项目中仍然存在，”赫斯特说。

他说，聘请一位熟悉与政府打交道的人“将对你大有帮助”，找到合适的国防部项目办公室也是如此。

“寻找那些真正对变革感兴趣的项目办公室和项目经理，与他们建立联系，然后带领你的团队尝试解决他们的问题。如果你找到了合适的项目办公室或项目经理，他们能为你带来巨大的好处。他们可以为你打开部门内的许多机会。即使你并不适合他们的项目，他们也能为你引荐人脉。所以，这其中也包含着寻找合适的人选，找到那些真正想要做出改变，而不是只关注合规的人。”

一旦掌握了这项技术，公司就必须能够大规模生产。

“最好的办法是证明你能把东西做出来。现在很多初创公司，有时只是纸上谈兵——这对政府来说有点冒险。当然，我们不应该放弃，对吧？因为有时我们的另一个选择是，一家公司虽然能生产东西，但却无法按照我们想要的时间表、能力或成本进度进行生产，”赫斯特说。

“所以，我再次强调，我给你们的最好建议是：证明你们有生产能力。如果你们自己不生产，那就雇佣有生产经验的人，这样你们就能向政府证明，如果政府决定购买，你们已经拥有了扩大产品规模和提升生产能力所需的人才。”

欢迎来到《国防商业简报》，在这里我们将深入探讨五角大楼的采购内容、采购供应商以及采购原因。欢迎将您的建议、反馈和歌曲推荐发送至 lwilliams@defenseone.com。点击此处查看《国防商业简报》往期内容，并邀请您的朋友订阅！

无人水面艇（USV）正在进港。美国海军将从三家公司——加利亚诺海事服务公司（Galliano Marine Services）、HII公司和萨罗尼克公司（Saronic）——采购30艘中型无人水面艇，每艘价格约为4000万美元。每家公司将建造10艘，首批预计将于2027年第四季度交付。

补充一点：海军MUSV项目第一阶段的七家公司中有六家成功完成了海上试验。海军机器人和自主系统代理直接报告项目经理克里斯托弗·米勒告诉记者，其余三家——Leidos、PacMar Technologies和Sea Machines——虽然试验成功但未获得生产合同，“将自动进入市场，并有资格参与第二阶段”，第二阶段的要求将更加广泛。米勒表示，Birdon公司也参与了试验，虽然未能达到项目要求，但未来仍有“可行的途径”进入无人机市场。

最新进展：MUSV项目在过去一年经历了诸多变化（包括一场诉讼）。但对我来说，更有趣的是第二阶段的成果，届时其他军种，例如陆军，可以分享他们的需求。这可能对印太地区产生重大影响，美国陆军太平洋司令部司令罗纳德·克拉克将军今年早些时候也强调了这一点。“陆军肩负着一项使命，他们实际上运营着许多舰艇。我认为这里蕴藏着巨大的机遇……我们只是想确保每个人都能了解市场现状，包括能力和性能。然后，我们显然会就需求进行密切合作，”米勒告诉记者。“但我对此感到兴奋，因为我确实认为有机会与其他军种密切合作，共同规划他们未来的项目。”第二阶段预计最早于11月16日开始测试评估，并将持续五年。

“陆军肩负着使命，而且他们实际上运营着许多舰艇。我认为这里蕴藏着巨大的机遇……我们只是想确保每个人都能了解市场现状，包括其能力和性能。之后，我们显然会密切合作，共同制定需求，”米勒告诉记者。“但我对此感到兴奋，因为我确实认为，在其他军种考虑未来项目时，我们有机会与他们密切合作，建立伙伴关系。”

第二阶段预计最早于 11 月 16 日开始测试评估，并将持续五年。

相关消息：备受瞩目的国防科技公司萨罗尼克（Saronic）今天在德克萨斯州布朗斯维尔为其备受期待的阿尔法港（Port Alpha）工厂举行了奠基仪式。副总统约翰·万斯（JD Vance）出席了仪式。此外，本月初，国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯（Pete Hegseth）也参观了该公司位于奥斯汀的工厂，并赞扬了该公司生产的无人水面艇（USV）在营救被击落的阿帕奇直升机飞行员方面所发挥的作用。

最新动态 + 其他新闻

迈克尔·布拉瑟尔加入博思艾伦咨询公司，担任执行副总裁。布拉瑟尔此前曾任萨博公司首席战略官，并领导过海军第59特遣部队。

无人机制造商Powerus预计将于10月1日上市，届时该公司将完成与纳斯达克上市公司Aureus Greenway Holdings的合并。新公司名称将为Powerus Corporation。

据 ProPublica 报道，联邦调查局已停止对国防承包商涉嫌贿赂立法者的调查。

Seurat Technologies 首席执行官 James Demuth 在《Defense One》杂志上撰文指出，时间是国防工业基础必须应对的真正制约因素。

波音公司获得数十亿美元的合同，为海军建造下一代战斗机 F/A-XX。

海军部分接收了未来的“约翰·F·肯尼迪”号航空母舰。

SpaceX发射了一枚非常大的火箭，并提前结束了飞行测试。

最后还有一件事：祝所有庆祝新年的朋友们新年快乐！辞旧迎新——呃，我是说，祝大家新年伊始的新年愿望继续实现！

下一篇报道：陆军授予价值超过40亿美元的反无人机合同