Defense & Aerospace Report Defense & Aerospace Air Power Podcast [Oct 09, 25] Season 3 E38: New Wine, New Bottle
Oct 9, 2025
Church Hutton, Chief Growth Officer at AV, brings a wealth of experience from Capitol Hill to defense business development. He shares insights on AV's rebranding and its focus on small UAS and loitering munitions. Church discusses lessons learned from Ukraine, emphasizing the importance of rapid feedback loops and adapting to shorter combat timescales. He highlights the shift towards cost-effective systems and the role of software-defined capabilities in future innovations. Hutton also addresses the impact of budget uncertainty on defense strategies.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
AV’s Transformation And Storytelling
- AV has evolved from lightweight experimental aircraft to a broad defense tech firm after acquisitions and rebranding.
- Church Hutton emphasizes telling the new-company story to different stakeholder generations.
Fielding Beats Prototype
- Prototyping is only 10% of the challenge; fielding and production are the hard 90%.
- AV leverages its legacy to carry prototypes across acquisition and production valleys.
Embed Engineers Near The Fight
- Place staff close to theaters to shorten the feedback loop and speed updates.
- Expose engineers and partners to operational feedback for faster product iteration.