Episode
How the Pentagon Is Buying Runway Time Like an Airline
- Published
- Jul 10, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 499
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Summary
The U.S. military used to own or lease test ranges for everything from fighter jets to drone swarms, paying for entire facilities year-round even when they sat idle. Now the Pentagon is shifting to a 'test-as-a-service' model, buying runway time, airspace access, and range instrumentation by the hour—like an airline buying gate slots or a cloud customer buying compute. Lucas and Luna break down the economics: how the Defense Innovation Unit brokered a deal with a commercial test range in Nevada, why this matters for small defense startups that couldn't afford their own testing infrastructure, and what the recent dip in Lockheed Martin stock—down more than 5 percent in a week—says about the broader shift toward modular, commercially-sourced defense capabilities. #Pentagon #TestAsAService #DefenseInnovationUnit #DIU #RangeModernization #CommercialTestRange #NevadaRange #LockheedMartin #StartupAccess #ModularDefense #RunwayTime #FighterJets #DroneTesting #Aerospace #MilitaryTech #BusinessAndTechnology #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo