A new watercraft shifts the tides of battle: Weapons and Warfare

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Weapons and Warfare

For Straight Arrow News, I'm your host, Ryan Robertson. Just ahead on this week's episode, we're getting nautical

Meet Minerva, the latest creation from the folks at Ghostworks Marine. Built with cutting-edge carbon-fiber composite technology

see why this could be the next go-to craft for amphibious assaults and special operations

And we go one-on-one with the folks from QIntel, see why this civilian-run intel agency could be just what the DoD leadership is looking for in our Weapon of the Week

But first, some headlines you may have missed. Concerns are growing among some NATO members about the potential pullback of U.S. security support on NATO's eastern front under the Trump administration

In Poland, which sits very near NATO's border with Russia, there's footage from UK broadcaster Sky News showcasing a nearly empty beach with little to offer in terms of protection

But just a few hours away is the US Navy's base at Red Zikowo, a key part of the collaboration between NATO and the US

Captain Michael Dwan, who commands a task force there, says the base is ready to respond to any threats from Russia

You can see that these missiles are moved to enable. We are on mission

These missiles are ready to go. Dwan added there haven't been any recent changes

to the task force's responsibilities with the new administration. From one border to another, President Trump authorized

the U.S. military to take control of federal lands along the southern border to support his

immigration agenda. POTUS issued a memo directing key cabinet secretaries to facilitate this transfer

so military activities can occur on designated national defense areas. One area mentioned is the

Roosevelt Reservation, a narrow strip of land along the U.S.-Mexico border in California, Arizona

and New Mexico. In the memo, Trump said there is still an invasion at the border. U.S. Customs and

Border Protection reports only 7,200 migrant encounters in March. Over the last four years

though, the monthly average was 155,000 encounters. CBP also says daily southwest

border apprehensions fell to around 230 per day, a 95% drop from the previous administration's

four-year daily average of 5,100 apprehensions. General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems is announcing a partnership with Israel's

Rafale Advanced Defense Systems to produce a long-range precision-guided strike missile called Bullseye. General Atomics will serve as the prime contractor in the U.S. to build the

Bullseye, ensuring the missile meets U.S. military specs for launch from air, ground, and sea

at an affordable price. Scott Forney, president of GAEMS, expressed his excitement about the collaboration

saying, We're thrilled to work with Rafale to bring Bullseye to life

This missile will be made in the U.S. for our military customers, supporting a variety of important precision fire missions

for the Department of Defense and our coalition partners. Forney added, By leveraging Rafale's extensive experience in missile design and testing

they can lower risks and development costs while still delivering a highly capable missile at a reduced price point

In a press release, General Atomics says the Bullseye will comply with U.S. military standards

and be manufactured at their facility in Tupelo, Mississippi. There's a history of military innovation making its way to civilian life

Think GPS, EpiPens, and night vision technology. Do you want to see something really cool

Of course. Turn off the lights. Industrial strength night vision goggles. Holy thing from the Fantastic Four shit

All right, settle down, boys. What's not talked about as often is civilian tech being adapted by the military

But for a few years now, a Michigan-based company with a proven track record in elite boat racing

has been working to bring their innovations to American warfighters. And that's the subject of this week's debrief

It was a picture-perfect day on the Potomac when we set out with the crew from Ghostworks Marine

So we driving around right now on the Minerva maneuvering on the Minerva as it were pulling a hard right turn right now going about 37 30 knots on that turn right there uh very tight very maneuverable the the speed that this craft is able to maintain

through those different maneuvers without putting a lot of uh strain on the operator's body or

whoever's in the cab their body means that you can run this boat for hours on end you can you

can do high fast-paced maneuvers and at the end of the ride you're not going to be drained so when

get to shore and potentially have to perform your real mission, you're going to be up for the task

At a little more than 46 feet long, the newest M-Hull vessel from the Holland, Michigan firm

cuts an impressive figure on the water, but it's what the M40 can do on the job

that really gets your attention. So this boat carries 750 gallons of fuel

about a 700-mile range at a pretty healthy cruising speed and fully customizable. But

but she's got a 15-foot beam. So for the length, she carries substantially more than any other boat

She's around 16,000 pounds with fuel, and full displacement with gear, she's almost 30,000 pounds

So you've got 13,000 pounds of payload capacity with range, which is pretty remarkable

Also remarkable, it's carbon fiber construction, something GhostWorks CEO Brooke Kirschbommer says sparks

plenty of conversations about cost and ease of maintenance. The simple answer to that is

well, it is easy to maintain. It's actually really easy to repair. And it's even more

sustainable than every other thing that we're using right now in the maritime space. So carbon

has a really long shelf life. It's thermoresistant, so it doesn't expand and contract the same way

that metal does. So that makes it a little bit easier when you're putting it through its paces

and it's experiencing swift temperature changes. Ghostworks says the Minerva was manufactured at unprecedented speed

going from design to completed sea trials in just six months. We come from the high-performance racing space

You know, we're, as you've already asked me, we're misfits and mavericks

So we come from that world that's been using carbon in maritime for over 40 years

And what that's allowed us to do is really push the envelope. You might think a bunch of engineers pushing the envelope would be something military types are comfortable with

It turns out they need some convincing. We get asked all the time, what happens if the boat cracks

What happens if you get a hole? We send every craft out with a vacuum-sealed pack that actually you can just put on the boat, wet or dry

It'll make it safe so that you can bring it back in. And then we just carve out, put a new piece in, reinstate it just the same way that we would do with metal

It's just a different process. A process we got to see firsthand thanks to a quick demonstration with Ian Faber

You can tune resins into different speeds. You can get them down to 20 minutes

That's more of a polyester, vinylester product. What we use is epoxy, so you have a couple hours before it's set

And again, there are different formulas to achieve different manufacturing rates. So we know the boat has good bones, but it's really out on the water where the Minerva makes its best case as a potential option for sailors, Marines, special operators, basically any squad that needs to get in and out quickly while also distributing freedom to adversaries

Well, just the fact that you can maintain your line of sight and you're parallel to the horizon the whole time throughout the turn

means that when you come off, when you list to the side, it doesn't take your gun line up and into the air

It allows you to maintain, if you were engaging a threat, it allows you to maintain eyes on that threat

so that you can responsibly and actively and effectively engage that threat, protect the force

And the Minerva helps protect its occupants' knees, back, and joints. When you're on the water in the craft, you can't help but notice just how smooth the ride is

The pilot and crew aren't subject to many of the forces endured by operators of monohull craft

It's something Kirschbommer sees as a major selling point. The thing that is the most interesting that we hear from everybody when they get off

you don't feel like you're going fast when you're on her. You feel incredibly safe

And when she turns, she'll turn on a dime. She will hug

You know, there's the old line from Pretty Woman, this corner's like it's on rails. That's exactly what she does

So she makes you feel so strong in everything that you're doing

You never lose line of sight. So you can see 360 degrees around you, regardless of what type of maneuvers you're making

As for what's next for the M40, a Ghostworks executive tells Weapons and Warfare they received

lots of positive feedback about the ride quality, low slamming, flat turns, and the versatility of

the modular platform adding they have interest from several naval forces the Coast Guard some border patrol units as well as some commercial applications All these potential customers say they are very excited about how easily Ghostworks can tailor the vessel to their needs

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And get straight facts anytime at SAN.com. To attend a defense exhibition is to be subjected to a lot of companies looking to land some DOD business

It is, for lack of a better term, a battle of eye candy

And at the recently wrapped Navy League Sea Airspace 2025, one company's display definitely caught our attention

Because, well, it was awesome. Meet Q-Intel, our Weapon of the Week

As far as conversation starters go, Booth 1747, home to the team from Q-Intel, was a pretty good one

With bright, bold colors and characters seemingly cut straight from a Frank Miller graphic novel, we had to stop and find out what their story is

That's how we met Keith Malarski, a former FBI agent and now QIntel's global ambassador

Our goal is really to track adversaries, and we do that through collections in cyberspace

We collect, you know, communications, IP addresses, things like that. But really, our goal is to track adversaries

So APT or nation state actors, criminal hackers, terrorists, that is our bread and butter

And when you talk about, you know, gathering the intel on the IP addresses, are you like searching your Facebook pages

You know what I mean? Can you kind of talk about the process of what information you're looking to gather

Yeah, so what we do is it's all OSINT that we collect

So it could be breach data that is being sold on the cyber underground

It could be scraping a cyber underground forum or getting these communications from the bad guys

or looking at forensic copies of servers and seeing what the adversaries are doing

So those type of collections. A quick look at Qintel's equally eye-catching website reveals a glimpse into their ethos

to deliver government-grade cyber intelligence on the most critical threats to our future

To this point, Malarski says most of the work is with elite law enforcement agencies all over the world

But they are working towards building bridges with U.S. government intel gatherers as well

We want to enable them. We want to provide them with as much intelligence that's out there that can be collected into open source

and then allow them to use their other sensitive techniques to really take it to that next level

So, you know, from like a DOD standpoint, being able to get you up to a trigger point

for then you to use your techniques to then take it across to that next level

One thing Q&TL might have going for it is not only their track record

but the recent change in American leadership. You know, the Secretary of Defense just said, you know, that they want to use some

instead of developing platforms, use off-the-shelf things. And we think that we're really uniquely positioned to do that

because we have that platform already built. And also really expanding into the commercial sector too

for network defense, for Fortune 500 companies that are out there as well

Well, Qintel did not have any major news to share in the wake of Sea Airspace

The Pittsburgh-based startup did say their presence there sparked a lot of positive conversations

as they looked to build those inroads with government agencies. Time now for Comps Check

and this week we're revisiting a familiar face in an unfamiliar place

Lumina, the good folks behind the Mind Gym not to be confused with Lumen

the shady folks behind Apple TV's smash hit Severance Welcome to Lumen

We're so happy you're here spent the last few years working with more than a dozen Air Force bases

to bring their expertise in augmenting mental fitness to the troops Well, now they have their sights set on a different branch

Spend enough time covering the defense exhibition circuit, and you're bound to start running into some of the same folks you ran into at the previous conference or symposium

And that was the case when we ran into Brandon Murphy and Team Lumina at the Navy League's Sea Airspace 2025

a first for the mental health-centric startup out of Denver, Colorado. The Mind Gym was forged in the Air Force innovation program so we built this with service members in mind and we are so excited that because of the investment that the Air Force has made we now have the ability to grow and scale into the

Navy. For those unfamiliar, a journey into the mind gem might resemble a scene from the 1982 classic

Tron. The reality is it's the result of years of dedicated effort aimed at assisting service

members in high stress, high turnover roles. The goal is to enhance their mental resilience

through a blend of isolation, reflection, light, and sound, creating an immersive cognitive training environment

Murphy, Lumina's CRO, says this approach helps regulate stress, enhances focus, and fosters resilience

So what we're doing here is we're meeting with senior leadership across different commands, trying to understand what they see in our product, how to operationalize it

showing it to them personally, gathering their feedback, and making sure that it really matches the mission here

and hopefully makes a big impact with their people. Rivalries between the branches is, of course, nothing new

but so too is the spirit of collaboration when the situation calls for it

That's one reason why Murphy thinks the Mind Gym can find a home

with our nation's maritime forces. What we do is try to teach people skills to interact with that system

to make them better operators, better people, better spouses, better employees, better whatever you are

And I think that that translates all over the place. Murphy tells us one area of interest for the Navy could be in their submariner ranks

He said feedback from Navy leadership at Sea Airspace indicated submarine training bases

where sailors are under a lot of pressure and optimal performance is the expectation

Those places might be able to use what the Mind Gym offers. And the numbers back that up

According to an October 2024 report by Stars and Stripes, in 2020, the submarine community boasted an impressive 64% retention rate, outpacing the Navy's average of 54.3%

Fast forward just four years, and the gap between the two narrowed, with the submarine community's retention rate dropping nearly six points

We have a lot of data that supports the case that we make a big impact at the Air Force, and hopefully that that is seen here in the Navy

And I know that the warrior toughness is a big mission here, and I think we can support that in a huge way

All opinions expressed in this segment are solely the opinions of the contributors

Okay, we've come to the end of the line on this week's show. Hope you learned a lot, or at least a little

Either way, though, you should like and subscribe to all of our social media feeds

to make sure you stay up to date on all the latest from weapons and warfare. For my wrap this week, I'm going to say a little about the cost of doing nothing

So if you go all the way back to episode one of our show, in that wrap, I talked about one of the motivating factors for the show

was the fact that the U.S. spends almost a trillion dollars a year on national defense

And we want to help explain why and where that money goes

So, why does the US spend more on its military than the next 10 countries combined

Well, yes, there are some bloated budgets and waste involved in the accounting, but defense just costs more than offense

For instance, the cost of me throwing a rock at you is the amount of time and energy it takes for me to find a rock and then throw it

To defend against my rock, you'll need to know when, where, and how I'll be throwing that rock

and maybe you create a shield so my rock won't hurt you

Either way, you are spending more on your defense than I'm spending on my offense

See how this works? So, when the U.S. military spends millions per missile to down a drone that only costs a few thousand dollars

it's of course not an ideal situation. But what's the cost of the alternative

What would be the cost of letting the cheap drones hit their targets

What's the cost of doing nothing? When a single drone was able to slip through Tower 22's defenses in Jordan

three U.S. service members were killed and dozens more were wounded. Now, I can tell you with absolute certainty

the DoD and its industry partners are working to bring down that cost per engagement

But in the meantime, if defending American lives means spending millions, then that's a cost we have to pay

Don't take this as an endorsement for more war, though. No rational person wants warfare

But rationally speaking, I know there are times when doing nothing could cost you everything

For senior producer Brett Baker, video editor Brian Spencer, and graphics artist Dakota Patio

I'm Ryan Robertson with Straight Arrow News, signing off