{"podcast":{"title":"The Defense Tech Podcast with Fexingo: Government Contracting, Aerospace, and Military Tech","slug":"the-defense-tech-podcast-with-fexingo-government-contracting-aerospace-and-military-tech-7871833","podcast_index_feed_id":7871833,"rss_url":"https://feeds.fexingo.com/business/the-defense-tech-podcast.xml","website_url":"https://www.fexingo.com/","image_url":"https://audio.fexingo.com/business/the-defense-tech-podcast/cover.png","author":"Fexingo","episode_count":120,"summary":"Defense contracting isn't just F-35s and carrier groups. Lucas and Luna break down the actual economics of military tech: how aerospace primes like Lockheed, RTX, and Northrop Grumman manage multi-year fixed-price development contracts, what the DoD’s new CMMC cybersecurity rules mean for small subcontractors, and why the Navy’s Columbia-class submarine program is a case study in industrial-base risk. Each episode starts with a real number — a contract award value, a quarterly P&L line from a defense prime, a Pentagon budget line item — and builds a conversation around it. Lucas, a former defense correspondent, brings the policy and accounting; Luna, a tech-market analyst, connects the programs to publicly traded supply chains and venture-backed startups trying to break into classified markets. No classified information, no defense-blog speculation — just the business logic behind the weapons systems you read about in the news. Why does a missile cost $4 million? How does a shipbuilder hedge against steel tariffs? And what happens when a startup wins a Small Business Innovation Research grant for a prototype that the Air Force actually wants to buy? This is the business of nationa…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-19T08:17:05.344517+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-defense-tech-podcast-with-fexingo-government-contracting-aerospace-and-military-tech-7871833"},"episode":{"title":"How the Pentagon Is Betting on Reusable Hypersonic Drones","slug":"how-the-pentagon-is-betting-on-reusable-hypersonic-drones","published_at":"2026-06-18T07:59:55+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-defense-tech-podcast-with-fexingo-government-contracting-aerospace-and-military-tech-7871833/how-the-pentagon-is-betting-on-reusable-hypersonic-drones","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-defense-tech-podcast-with-fexingo-government-contracting-aerospace-and-military-tech-7871833","url":"https://audio.fexingo.com/business/the-defense-tech-podcast/episode-0058.mp3","audio_url":"https://audio.fexingo.com/business/the-defense-tech-podcast/episode-0058.mp3","summary":"Episode 58 of The Defense Tech Podcast explores the Pentagon's quiet shift toward reusable hypersonic flight vehicles. Lucas and Luna break down the DARPA and Air Force programs pushing for recovery and reflight of hypersonic testbeds, the cost implications versus expendable missiles, and what this means for the industrial base. They reference real market data: Northrop Grumman's stock is flat, while L3Harris and RTX show recent gains. The hosts discuss a specific May 2026 Flight Demonstration Systems contract award to Leidos and why the Defense Innovation Unit is betting on low-cost, reusable rockets for hypersonic experiments. The conversation draws a line between the commercial space reuse model and military applications, and touches on how this changes the timeline for operational hypersonic surveillance drones. #DefenseTech #Hypersonics #ReusableDrones #DARPA #AirForce #Pentagon #DefenseInnovation #Leidos #DIU #FlightDemonstration #ExpendableMissiles #Reusability #L3Harris #NorthropGrumman #RTX #DefenseContracting #Business #FexingoBusiness Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo","meta_description":"Episode 58 of The Defense Tech Podcast explores the Pentagon's quiet shift toward reusable hypersonic flight vehicles. Lucas and Luna break down the DARPA…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":521,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-defense-tech-podcast-with-fexingo-government-contracting-aerospace-and-military-tech-7871833/episodes/how-the-pentagon-is-betting-on-reusable-hypersonic-drones/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-defense-tech-podcast-with-fexingo-government-contracting-aerospace-and-military-tech-7871833/how-the-pentagon-is-betting-on-reusable-hypersonic-drones.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}