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Sea Change: How Autonomy and Acquisition Will Shape the Future Fleet | The Pair Program Ep78
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Sea Change: How Autonomy and Acquisition Will Shape the Future Fleet | The Pair Program Ep78
In this episode, hosts Tim Winkler and guest co-host Sean Leahy dive into the intersection of autonomy, AI, and defense acquisition with Austin Gray, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at Bluewater Autonomy, and Alex Campbell, former Chief of Staff at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). Together, they explore how startups, private capital, and the Pentagon’s acquisition system collide in the race to modernize maritime operations.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- How Bluewater Autonomy is designing mass-producible unmanned ships for the U.S. Navy
- The friction between defense acquisition culture and startup speed
- Why trust is the key to bridging government–industry collaboration
- The growing role of private capital in scaling defense innovation
- How new legislation like the Speed and Forge Acts could reshape acquisition
About Austin Gray: Austin is Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Blue Water Autonomy, a VC-backed company building autonomous ships. Austin started his career in the U.S. Navy as an intelligence officer, worked in a drone factory in Ukraine, and holds degrees from Davidson, Harvard, and MIT.
About Alex Campbell: Alex is an engineer at Applied Intuition and former Chief of Staff at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). At DIU, he led efforts to accelerate commercial technology into Navy and Marine Corps programs, including initiatives focused on autonomy and maritime innovation. A former U.S. Navy officer, Alex has extensive experience in defense acquisition and emerging tech integration.
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