{"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 Buying 3D-Printed Spare Parts Like a Supply Chain Startup","slug":"how-the-pentagon-is-buying-3d-printed-spare-parts-like-a-supply-chain-startup","published_at":"2026-07-19T08:10:03+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-buying-3d-printed-spare-parts-like-a-supply-chain-startup","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-0120.mp3","audio_url":"https://audio.fexingo.com/business/the-defense-tech-podcast/episode-0120.mp3","summary":"The Pentagon's logistics system — a $200-billion-a-year behemoth that stores everything from helicopter rotor blades to tank gaskets in warehouses across the globe — is finally embracing additive manufacturing. But instead of building its own 3D-printing factories, the Department of Defense is buying spare parts as digital files, printed on demand at the point of need. In this episode, we look at the Air Force's 'Digital Arsenal' initiative at Tinker Air Force Base, where mechanics now download F-15 canopy seals and C-130 ducting from a secure parts library rather than waiting months for a supplier shipment. We trace how the Army's 3D-printing expeditionary labs in Europe cut delivery times for a Bradley fighting vehicle bracket from 180 days to 48 hours. And we discuss why the five biggest defense primes — Lockheed, Northrop, Boeing, General Dynamics, and RTX — are all racing to build their own 'parts-as-software' businesses, even as the Pentagon pushes for open-source digital inventories. With defense stocks down broadly over the past week — including a 5.5% drop at Huntington Ingalls — the question is whether the Pentagon's supply-chain modernization can actually lower costs, or just create a new generation of proprietary digital lock-in. #AdditiveManufacturing #PentagonLogistics #DigitalArsenal #SupplyChain #3DPrinting #AirForce #Army #TinkerAirForceBase #BradleyFightingVehicle #F15 #C130 #SpareParts #PointOfNeed #DefenseTech #Business #Technology #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo","meta_description":"The Pentagon's logistics system — a $200-billion-a-year behemoth that stores everything from helicopter rotor blades to tank gaskets in warehouses across…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":431,"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-buying-3d-printed-spare-parts-like-a-supply-chain-startup/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-buying-3d-printed-spare-parts-like-a-supply-chain-startup.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}