DIB Innovators

The DIB Innovators podcast celebrates the brilliant minds behind innovation within the Defense Industrial Base. In each episode, host and co-founder of RADICL, David Graff will speak with DIB leaders who are driving technological advancements, championing our nation’s security, and shaping the future of defense technology.Brought to you by RADICL — Cybersecurity-as-a-Service purpose-built for small and mid-sized businesses in the Defense Industrial Base. Starting your CMMC journey? RADICL guides and accelerates your compliance—while reducing ransomware and other cyber risks—with a transparent, turn-key solution.www.radicl.com/cmmc_solved

DIB Innovators is a technology podcast hosted by RADICL, with 122 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

RADICL hosts DIB Innovators, a technology show with 122 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  DIB Innovators

  EP 122 — AEVEX's Manan Patel On The Modular Drone Strategy That Won Army Launched Effects-Short Range (LE-SR)

  Sep 24, 202641 min

  Manan Patel deployed to Iraq as a civilian engineer and mission commander on airborne ISR platforms, then left the government lab with no business plan to start Special Operations Solutions. A decade later, private equity merged his company with two others to form AEVEX , which went public on the NYSE and has delivered over 6,000 autonomous platforms. As CTO, Manan explains how AEVEX's CompassCore hardware-software stack runs across every platform size and domain, enabling mass production by design. He breaks down ForgeX, a 3D printing capability that lets operators build and fly drones in the field without AEVEX personnel. Topics discussed: - Deploying to Iraq as a civilian engineer on ISR platforms - Founding Special Operations Solutions and scaling to PE acquisition - Designing Atlas for the Army's launched effect short range program - Building CompassCore as a common stack across all platforms - Operating autonomous UAS in GPS denied and comms degraded environments - Forward-deployable drone manufacturing with ForgeX - Separating kinetic and surveillance payloads with modular nose cones - Scaling from prototype to full rate production Listen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTube Website

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  DIB Innovators

  EP 121 — Tidal Flight's Jude Augustine On Building The First Clean Sheet Seaplane In Decades

  Sep 17, 202636 min

  Seaplane design hasn't changed since the 1950s. Jude Augustine , Co-Founder and CEO of Tidal Flight , is building Polaris, a hybrid electric amphibious aircraft designed to turn a four-hour coastal trip into two hours door to door while giving the military runway independence in the Pacific. Polaris is the launchpad for Tidal to grow into a next-generation aircraft manufacturer with a vision for aircraft across categories. Before even raising a seed round, Jude and his Georgia Tech co-founders secured 10 letters of intent from seaplane and commuter airlines worldwide. Their dual use approach pairs commercial coastal mobility with contested logistics capability, backed by a supplier model that keeps capital needs low and risk focused on the novel systems that matter most. Topics discussed: - Why seaplane operating costs stayed high for decades and what changes now - Choosing a supplier model over vertical integration after seeing Beta Technologies - Securing 10 airline letters of intent before raising a seed round - Building a series hybrid powertrain using the DeltaHawk compression ignition engine - Flying three 1:6 scale prototypes to prove hull hydrodynamics - Dual use strategy pairing commercial coastal mobility with Pacific defense missions - Saying no to defense funding that pulls away from the core aircraft program - Designing for autonomy readiness without building an autonomy suite Listen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTube Website

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  DIB Innovators

  EP 120 — Crow Industries' James Crowell On Why The U.S. Army Is Betting On Smaller Ground Robots

  Sep 10, 202638 min

  James Crowell is an expert in extreme environment robotics who spent the first decade of his career developing and deploying polar, volcanic, and space systems at NASA, JPL, and research laboratories before founding Crow Industries in 2018. His team designs Fenris, a family of intelligent UGVs built for defense, mining, and eventually lunar and Martian surface operations, all from the premise that designing for environments with no GPS, limited comms, and no human access produces systems that outperform on the battlefield. James breaks down why the U.S. Army is shifting toward smaller, distributed ground platforms, how Operation Jailbreak pushed Crow Industries to open its interfaces for interoperability, and why underground operations remain the unsolved frontier in ground robotics. Topics discussed: - Why Group 2 UGVs outperform larger platforms in distributed warfare - Designing for zero GPS and limited comms from planetary constraints - Opening interfaces through Operation Jailbreak for C2 interoperability - Building America's robotic infantry through modular capability swapping - The forward line of robots concept for keeping humans out of harm's way - Underground operations as the unsolved frontier in ground robotics - Mining oxygen from lunar regolith to build space transportation infrastructure - Army acquisition overhauls accelerating procurement for small defense startups Listen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTube Website

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  DIB Innovators

  EP 119 — Baker Institute's Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes On Why Critical Minerals Are The Weakest Link In Western Defense Supply Chains

  Sep 3, 20261h 2m

  Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes drilled the first unconventional wells in Argentina for ExxonMobil, built a nickel mining company in Western Australia, then served as DOE Deputy Director for Batteries and Critical Materials. Today she advises on critical mineral policy as a Nonresident Fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute and invests across the critical supply chain through her family office, Smoketree Resources. Ashley lays out a three-step framework for breaking Western dependence on adversarial-controlled supply chains, starting with an allied definition of adversarial capital and ending with import controls on finished goods in defense and semiconductor applications. Topics discussed: How China weaponized copper smelting economics through zero TCRCs Why 99% of global crude gallium production sits in China A three-step framework for bifurcating critical mineral markets Why public markets are rewarding supply chain security stories The difference between critical minerals and rare earths Why government backstopping alone cannot scale to 60 minerals Reimagining smelter revenue models through capacity-based agreements Building a mining company from scratch in Western Australia Listen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTube Website

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  DIB Innovators

  EP 118 — CisLunar Industries' Gary Calnan On How a Space Furnace Accidentally Created a Power Electronics Company

  Aug 27, 202636 min

  Gary Calnan , CEO and Co-Founder of CisLunar Industries , built power electronics to melt metal in orbit. A research partner noticed the same hardware could reshape electric propulsion. That pivot turned a space debris recycling startup into a power electronics company with a test platform on a NASA mission and Lockheed Martin and Safran serving as subcontractors on its Space Force program. Gary tells Dave Graff how a finance career, nine weeks at the International Space University, and $4.7 million in total funding built a 20-person team now chasing dominance across the space power stack. Topics discussed: Pivoting from in-space metal processing to power electronics Building modular, scalable power processing units for diverse space applications Using SBIR contracts to bring primes in as subcontractors Why non-space backgrounds created an advantage in architecture design Capital efficiency with $4.7M raised and $8M in contracts Dual-use potential in directed energy and drone defense Recruiting from Maxar, Blue Origin, Blue Canyon, Tesla, and Lucid Preparing to scale manufacturing for an accelerating customer pipeline Listen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTube Website

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on DIB Innovators. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.