{"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":"The Pentagon's New Hypersonic Test Bed Is a Modified Cargo Plane","slug":"the-pentagon-s-new-hypersonic-test-bed-is-a-modified-cargo-plane","published_at":"2026-06-12T11:48:42+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-defense-tech-podcast-with-fexingo-government-contracting-aerospace-and-military-tech-7871833/the-pentagon-s-new-hypersonic-test-bed-is-a-modified-cargo-plane","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-0046.mp3","audio_url":"https://audio.fexingo.com/business/the-defense-tech-podcast/episode-0046.mp3","summary":"Episode 46 of The Defense Tech Podcast: Lucas and Luna dive into the Pentagon's latest approach to hypersonic weapon testing — using a modified C-17 cargo plane as a mobile launch platform. They break down how the 'Hypersonic Test Bed' program, run by the Air Force Research Laboratory, aims to accelerate flight testing from years to months. The hosts discuss the economics: each conventional ground-based test campaign costs roughly $100 million and is booked years in advance, while the airborne approach could cut costs and cycle time by more than half. They also tie in the broader defense market context, noting Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman shares have rallied 4-5% in the past week as investors bet on near-term hypersonic milestones. The episode explores why speed of testing — not just speed of the weapon — has become the critical bottleneck, and what the C-17 test bed means for small satellite and missile startups hoping to break into the sector. #HypersonicWeapons #HypersonicTestBed #C17 #AirForceResearchLab #AFRL #Pentagon #MissileTesting #LockheedMartin #NorthropGrumman #LMT #NOC #DefenseTech #MilitaryAircraft #FlightTesting #Startups #Business #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo","meta_description":"Episode 46 of The Defense Tech Podcast: Lucas and Luna dive into the Pentagon's latest approach to hypersonic weapon testing — using a modified C-17 cargo…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":477,"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/the-pentagon-s-new-hypersonic-test-bed-is-a-modified-cargo-plane/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/the-pentagon-s-new-hypersonic-test-bed-is-a-modified-cargo-plane.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}