ATARC Federal IT Newscast

This episode features Wes Herche of Prologis unpacking how AI, energy, logistics, and space are converging, as exploding AI workloads shift cloud economics from mostly fixed costs to massive variable costs tied to power, compute, and cooling. He explores how these pressures, combined with growing nimbyism around data centers, are driving interest in space-based cloud/compute, distributed renewables (especially solar), battery storage, and other technologies as tools for energy security, resilience, and defense missions on Earth and in orbit.

In this episode, host Brian Fox sits down with Dr. James Kirsch from the DEVCOM Aviation & Missile Center to explore how the military is modernizing its approach to technology deployment. They discuss the strategic shift toward rapid procurement, embracing calculated risk, and getting essential capabilities into the hands of warfighters faster. Learn why prioritizing speed and adaptability over long-term perfection is becoming vital to staying ahead of evolving battlefield threats.

This episode of the Space and Defense Innovation Launch Pad features Gordon Fogg and Brandon Frisco from MTSI discussing how to accelerate testing and evaluation for hypersonic and other advanced defense systems through better data sharing, interoperability, and metadata/standards. They explore the technical, policy, and cultural hurdles to breaking down data stovepipes across government, industry, and academia, emphasizing the need for organized, observable data as the true prerequisite for effective AI and large-scale analytics.

Department of Energy CIO Dawn Zimmer joins Tech Transforms to share how she’s modernizing legacy IT, breaking down decades-old data silos, and securely harnessing AI through initiatives like the Quanta data platform and Joulix. She explains her “speed of need” philosophy, baking cybersecurity in from the start while moving fast to deliver real-time decision support, cost savings, and smarter operations across the DOE.

This episode of Tech Transforms features Dave Raley, Chief Digital Business Officer at Marine Corps Community Services, unpacking Operation Stormbreaker, the Marine Corps’ cloud-native software factory and platform as a service. He explains how it slashes deployment timelines from 18 months to about 15 minutes per build by combining shared infrastructure, DevSecOps pipelines, and continuous authorization, helping federal mission owners and vendors securely deliver new capabilities faster.

This episode features Brian Monheiser discussing the rapid growth of the geospatial ecosystem in St. Louis, catalyzed by NGA’s new facility and long-term investment in related tech sectors. He explores how local universities, K–12 programs, nonprofits, and economic development groups are aligning around workforce development to support geospatial, defense, and advanced manufacturing needs in the region.

In this episode of the Space and Defense Innovation Launchpad Podcast, host Brian Fox moderates a panel with John Dr. John Rhoads (Lockheed Martin Skunk Works), Dr. John Schmisseur (UTSI), and Dr. Jeff Komives (MTSI) on accelerating hypersonic capabilities for U.S. defense. They explore near-term wins and deeper challenges across affordability, scalable manufacturing, testing infrastructure, and supply chains, while emphasizing tight collaboration between government, industry, and academia and treating hypersonics as an attribute to be integrated broadly across future systems.

This episode of the Space and Defense Innovation Launchpad Podcast features Chris Crumbly, Director of the Institute of Digital Enterprise Advancement and its professional education arm, DigitalWERX, as well as an instructor at Calhoun Community College, exploring model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and its role in digital engineering and Industry 4.0. He traces MBSE’s early use at NASA, explains why adoption is now being driven more aggressively by the Department of Defense, and describes how IDEA, DigitalWERX, and partner schools are building programs to grow MBSE talent across industry, government, and transitioning service members.

This episode features a conversation with Ben Garcia of Weber State University’s MARS (Miller Advanced Research and Solutions Center) about how academia can more effectively support the aerospace and defense industry, particularly in high‑temperature composites and hypersonic materials. The discussion explores technology and manufacturing readiness, industry–university collaboration models, and how intellectual property, factory-like training environments, and digital manufacturing can accelerate innovation from lab concepts to fielded capabilities.

This episode features Alex Morgan, a materials scientist and fire safety expert, discussing how material flammability and fire hardening are engineered across civilian and military aircraft and spacecraft, from aging aluminum airframes to modern composite structures and unmanned systems. The conversation dives into challenges like lithium-ion battery fires, high-oxygen spacecraft environments, reentry heat shields, and evolving regulations, highlighting how fire science adapts to new aerospace technologies to protect people, payloads, and missions.