As Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, John Hyten streamline the military requisition processspeeds up the process.
Now, more than a year out of retirement, he works to help commercial companies enter the defense sector.
“It’s frustrating when a commercial company understands how to do business. [with the Pentagon]But if we can’t win the artificial intelligence race or the quantum race, we’re going to be in trouble as a country,” Hyten said in an interview.
Since retiring in November 2021, Hyten has preferred to work with “more non-traditional companies – companies that are developing rapidly.”
“I chose someone who understands the need to go fast [and] We understand the need for national security, but we also have a commercial focus,” he said.
Hyten recently joined Pallas Advisors, consulting company Founded by Sally Donnelly and Tony DeMartino, an aide to former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, he represents a number of defense startups and also does venture capital work.
He also advises Blue Origin. running The company’s STEM initiative. In addition to his roles at the Space Foundation and a small Colorado charity, he is also an advisor to his C3.ai and his United Launch Alliance.
One of Hyten’s biggest complaints while wearing the uniform was the inability to purchase merchandise.
“We’re looking to buy commercials and don’t know how to get out of our own acquisition process. [products] It’s the same way you buy defense,” he said.
Towards the end of his career, Hiten openly expressed dissatisfaction About how the Pentagon bureaucracy slowed the modernization efforts of the military.
“I was very frustrated with the pace of development within the national security apparatus.[out] My whole career,” Hyten said. “But every time I got older, I kept thinking that now I could go through the process faster, and I could never go through the process, so as I got older, it became more and more frustrating. .”
Hyten lamented that it took years to get funding for the initiative.
“I work with a lot of commercial companies right now. If they find a problem, the meeting is like Friday night, and if you have a $10 million problem, you have a $10 million problem on Monday morning. The dollars are in someone’s account and work begins,” he said.
At the Pentagon, it takes about five years to fund a proposed budget, and it often takes longer for Congress to approve it, he said.
“In those days, in today’s world, the whole world has changed in terms of technology,” he said. “We have to figure out how to introduce disruptive and emerging technologies into our business today, in less than five years.”
He also said that existing federal acquisition regulations, the so-called FAR, already allow for faster acquisitions, but “we only teach one way through the process.
“It doesn’t have to be,” he said.
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Six major defense companies All report 2022 earnings. The top 6 companies ranked are shown below. It’s important to remember that this list is total revenue for both defense and commercial.
- Raytheon Technologies: $67.1 billion
- Boeing: $66.6 billion
- Lockheed Martin: $66 billion
- General Dynamics: $39.4 billion
- Northrop Grumman: $36.6
- L3 Harris Technologies: $17.2 billion
L3Harris Technologies has defended its proposed acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne. It’s the first time an executive has spoken out. since the deal was announced Mid December. “This is a critical national asset for future warfare, providing leadership in propulsion and adding exposure to new growth markets such as munitions, space exploration and hypersonics,” said his CEO. says Chris Kubasik. “It brings a nearly $7 billion backlog and tailwind, driven by global demand.”
But not everyone is in favor of the acquisition. “This deal between Aerojet and L3Harris will bring competition to new lows in the shrinking defense industry. I encourage the FTC to oppose this risky deal. .” letter To Federal Trade Commission Chairman Rina Khan. Senators who have been widely critical of M&A have argued that Aerojet should remain independent. She has urged Northrop Grumman to cancel its acquisition of Orbital ATK, saying, “It’s hurting competition and innovation in the solid rocket motor market, and it’s pushing other companies like Aerojet to merge and acquire rather than innovate.” It shows that we need to focus,” he said. The Biden administration filed a lawsuit last year to block Lockheed Martin’s acquisition of Aerojet. Instead of going to court, Lockheed eventually walked away from the deal.
There were 379 mergers and acquisitions in 2022 The announcement was made in the aerospace and defense sector, according to investment bank Canaccord Genuity. Of those, 11 deals were worth over $1 billion each.
US conducted $51.9 billion in arms sales to foreign countries Nearly 50% YoY increase in FY22, According to the State Department.
Earlier this month, Lockheed Martin’s concept for a hypersonic air-breathing weapon, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said the missile “flyed over 60,000 feet and over 300 nautical miles at speeds in excess of Mach 5.” statementThe DARPA project has developed and tested two versions of an air-breathing hypersonic weapon manufactured by Lockheed and Raytheon Technologies. “The country’s hypersonic portfolio has two viable hypersonic air-breathing missile designs (Lockheed Martin and Raytheon) to improve and mature in the future,” DARPA said. The data collected during weapon testing “provides important data that informs the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) commitment to hypersonic technology maturity,” DARPA said.
The US Air Force placed orders for 42.3 billion late last week 15 KC-46 tanker Boeing and.To this day, the Air Force I ordered 68 of the 128 tankers have been delivered and are currently in service around the world.
make a move
Northrop Grumman is named Stephen O’Brien O’Bryan, who worked at L3Harris Technologies and Lockheed Martin, David Perry I am retiring on March 31st.
HII is named Eric TuningFormer chief of staff to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, he was the Pentagon’s chief of industrial policy and held the position of executive vice president of strategy and development.
the name Reidos Mike Chagnon Group Vice President of the company’s defense group. The company also Tim Freeman Responsible for Airborne Solutions business.