The Elara Edge

The Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) has launched a new financing program, National Security Fund Finance (NSFF), which is designed to leverage private capital to enhance the critical mineral supply chain. The initiative arrives as the Government Accountability Office has found that China provides the vast majority of critical minerals to the world, up to 70% of supply and 90% of processing, respectively. This overwhelming dependence on a potential adversary creates a distinct vulnerability for the United States military, which relies on those very same critical minerals that underpin key space and aerospace technologies.  In this month’s episode of “The Elara Edge,” Financial Advisory Solutions President and Managing Director Jim Sullivan and Executive Partner Jim Zukin explain where NSFF fits in the government’s broader financing landscape and how it serves as the latest example of the government proactively engaging the capital markets to combine government funding with private capital to streamline the acquisition of military capabilities.  "The Elara Edge" is hosted and produced by Scott King of Elara Nova. The full story can be found on Elara Nova's Insights page here. Music was produced by Patrick Watkins of PW Audio.

For over 75 years, the United States Air Force has been able to deploy and sustain forces at a time and place of its choosing, but a series of converging challenges have undermined that ability. Key mobility platforms like the C-5 and C-17 are aging, parts are harder to come by and the long legs required to cover the Pacific theater consume flight hours faster, shortening the time between maintenance cycles. Meanwhile, integrating new capabilities to outpace an accelerating threat demands additional downtime the fleet can ill afford. In response, the Air Force has initiated two efforts set against ambitious timelines. In June, the Air Force published a Request for Information to acquire a Next-Generation Airlift (or NGAL) platform to replace both the C-5 and C-17. At the same time, the Air Force is putting funds toward a new research and development program, Large Aircraft Survivability Systems (or LASS) to equip airlifters and aerial refuelers with their own defensive weapon systems. In this episode of “The Elara Edge," Elara Nova Senior Principal Advisor Gen (Ret) Jackie Van Ovost is joined by Executive Partners Lt Gen (Ret) Rick Moore and Lt Gen (Ret) Ty Thomas to analyze the Air Force’s recent RFI for a Next-Generation Airlift platform to replace the C-5 and C-17, as well as a government-funded study to develop Large Aircraft Survivability Systems to defend airlifts and tankers from the evolving threat. "The Elara Edge" is hosted and produced by Scott King of Elara Nova. The full story can be found on Elara Nova's Insights page here. Music was produced by Patrick Watkins of PW Audio.

Earlier this year, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced a reorganization effort that restores its “mission directorates” in a way that agency leaders hope will position itself for an ambitious future. The moves, whose influence can be traced back to a December 2025 executive order, will streamline workforce priorities toward five new objectives recently unveiled by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.  Taken in tandem, the reorganization steps and the new agency objectives aim to ignite a commercial orbital economy that advances scientific exploration, but NASA can only get there by scaling the safety and cybersecurity discipline that the agency has forged over the years. In this episode of “The Elara Edge," Elara Nova Partner Renee Wynn, former Chief Information Officer at NASA, sheds light on these changes any NASA's commercial industry partners should be paying attention to them."The Elara Edge" is hosted and produced by Scott King of Elara Nova. The full story can be found on Elara Nova's Insights page here. Music was produced by Patrick Watkins of PW Audio.

The race to artificial intelligence supremacy appears to be getting tighter. Earlier this summer, a Chinese AI model was found to match Anthropic's Mythos at discovering cybersecurity vulnerabilities despite trailing U.S. models on other tasks. The development carries real national security implications as the cyber domain increasingly operates at machine speed, while heightening the imperative for the U.S. government and commercial industry to partner together to streamline development and adoption of secure and reliable AI tools.  In this month's episode of "The Elara Edge," Maj Gen (Ret) Kim Crider, Lt Gen (Ret) Bob Skinner, and Mike Robbins break down the challenges and opportunities to effectively adopting and integrating artificial intelligence in a rapidly-evolving cybersecurity environment. Maj Gen (Ret) Kim Crider is a Founding Partner at Elara Nova and the first Chief Technology and Innovation Officer with the United States Space ForceLt Gen (Ret) Bob Skinner is an Executive Partner at Elara Nova, and the former director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and former commander of the Joint Force Headquarters, Department of Defense Information Network (DODIN)Mike Robbins is a retired colonel with the United States Air Force and the former Director of the USSPACECOM Joint Cyber Center and Joint Ops Center"The Elara Edge" is hosted and produced by Scott King of Elara Nova. The full story can be found on Elara Nova's Insights page here. Music was produced by Patrick Watkins of PW Audio.

Heads of State and Government from 32 nations will gather at this month’s NATO Summit in Ankara, Türkiye, looking to accelerate progress toward the goals agreed at The Hague Summit last year. The declaration pledged to strengthen collective defense by committing member nations to spend 5% of annual GDP on defense by 2035, deepen transatlantic defense industrial cooperation and reaffirmed support for Ukraine. But now, several factors are also heightening the stakes of the Ankara Summit: Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, recent conflicts in the Middle East and “NATO 3.0,” or the increased pressure on and intention of allies to take on greater defense investment and burden-sharing responsibilities. In response, there is growing momentum as NATO nations increasingly invest in defense capabilities, which presents an unprecedented call-to-action for the defense industrial base to respond in kind. In this month's episode of "The Elara Edge," Gen (Ret) James “Scorch” Hecker, Brig Gen (Ret) Chad Raduege, Tom Goffus and Brad Head preview the expectations, challenges, and broader context surrounding the upcoming NATO Summit in Ankara, Türkiye, on July 7-8th. Gen (Ret) Hecker previously served as the Commander of Allied Air Command at NATO and is a Senior Principal Advisor at Elara Nova. Brig Gen (Ret) Raduege is the former Chief Information Officer at Headquarters, U.S. European Command and is now the President of Elara Nova's Cyber, Data & Communications sector. Goffus recently left his post as Assistant Secretary General for Operations at NATO and now serves as an Executive Partner, Global Security at Elara Nova. Head is the former Chief of Defense Planning at the U.S. Mission to NATO and is now an Executive Partner, Global Growth at Elara Nova."The Elara Edge" is hosted and produced by Scott King of Elara Nova. The full story can be found on Elara Nova's Insights page here. Music was produced by Patrick Watkins of PW Audio.

Welcome back to another episode of "The Elara Epilogues," a special edition series by "The Elara Edge" podcast, where the space industry’s leading journalists and authors join Elara Nova partners to discuss their published work covering today’s ever-evolving space environment.In today's episode, Founding Partner Mike Dickey, former Chief Architect of the United States Space Force, is once again joined by Christian Davenport, the former staff writer for The Washington Post and current CBS News Contributor. Together, they'll discuss Christian's 2025 book Rocket Dreams: Musk, Bezos, and the Inside Story of the New, Trillion-Dollar Space Race. The book catalogues the commercial dynamics and geopolitical tensions underpinning the modern day space race to return to the moon. Christian was previously on the show to discuss his 2018 book The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos, which explored the foundation of today's commercial space industry through the lens of the billionaires who founded - and funded - their own space companies at its outset. You can listen to that conversation, held in April 2024, here."The Elara Edge" is hosted and produced by Scott King of Elara Nova. The full story can be found on Elara Nova's Insights page here. Music was produced by Patrick Watkins of PW Audio.

This past spring the United States Space Force published two highly anticipated, forward-looking documents: Future Operating Environment 2040 and Objective Force 2040. When Chief of Space Operations General B. Chance Saltzman unveiled these documents at this year’s Space Symposium, he declared the service’s intention was for them to “drive questions, not provide answers.” As such, Guardians, the Joint Force and the Space Force’s international and industry partners were encouraged to engage, debate and provide feedback in a ‘campaign of learning’ to evaluate what the future space domain might look like and define the Space Force’s future force design requirements.  In this month's episode of "The Elara Edge,” Founding Partner Mike Dickey and Executive Partner Lt Gen (Ret) Bill Liquori share their key takeaways from the Future Operating Environment 2040 and Objective Force 2040 documents released by the Space Force earlier this year at Space Symposium. Mike is the former Chief Architect of the United States Space Force and Bill is the first Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Strategy, Plans, Programs and Analysis for the Space Force. "The Elara Edge" is hosted and produced by Scott King of Elara Nova. The full story can be found on Elara Nova's Insights page here. Music was produced by Patrick Watkins of PW Audio.

As emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly adopted to streamline and enhance command and control, the Department of War is expected to announce a new program office that will coalesce and coordinate information and communication pipelines that will empower commanders to make more timely and effective decisions. While an official announcement is still forthcoming, DefenseScoop reported that the new Enterprise Command and Control (C2) Program Office will oversee current AI and data platforms like Maven Smart System and Edge Data Mesh as part of a pending program of record for Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2). Collectively, this “Enterprise C2 Suite” will provide the latest iteration of technologies and tools available to commanders for command and control.  In this month's episode of "The Elara Edge,” Executive Partner Mark Chappell, retired Air Vice Marshall with the United Kingdom Armed Forces and former Senior British Military Advisor to U.S. Central Command, provides perspective on the forthcoming Enterprise C2 Program Office that will oversee the emerging technologies and procedures for command and control in a modern warfighting environment. "The Elara Edge" is hosted and produced by Scott King of Elara Nova. The full story can be found on Elara Nova's Insights page here. Music was produced by Patrick Watkins of PW Audio.

When a foreign partner seeks military technology from the U.S. defense industrial base, there’s two ways for them to acquire that capability: Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) and Foreign Military Sales (FMS). In DCS, the foreign country negotiates directly with the contractor. But in the FMS process, the United States government manages the sale and transfer of that technology with additional training and sustainment support in a way that strengthens international cooperation and the collective security of the United States and its allies. But a recent surge in demand for military technologies from allies and partners is challenging the current FMS process to keep up, resulting in two recent executive orders and a series of organizational changes to reform and modernize the Foreign Military Sales program.  In this month's episode of "The Elara Edge," Brad Head, Managing Director of International Partnerships at Elara Nova, and Heidi Grant, Executive Partner at Elara Nova, break down the series of changes coming to the Foreign Military Sales program and how these efforts will help streamline and strengthen international engagements with the U.S. government and its defense industrial base. Brad is a retired Colonel with the United States Air Force and is the former Chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation in Brussels. Heidi is the former Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency and the Defense Technology Security Administration."The Elara Edge" is hosted and produced by Scott King of Elara Nova. The full story can be found on Elara Nova's Insights page here. Music was produced by Patrick Watkins of PW Audio.

The Department of War (DOW) kick-started the year with a series of steps to enhance the resiliency and reliability of the digital infrastructure underpinning military operations. In early January, the United States Space Force announced it will be overhauling computer networks at all 14 of its bases under the Base Infrastructure Modernization program. Then the National Security Agency released the first two products of its Zero Trust Implementation Guidelines, while the DOW launched its Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Strategy. Altogether, these actions demonstrate the growing imperative to prepare the DOW’s digital infrastructure to take advantage of emerging technologies and counter evolving threats. In this month's episode of "The Elara Edge," General (Ret) Tim Haugh explains how the ongoing digital infrastructure modernization at the Department of War will lay the foundation for zero trust and artificial intelligence implementation. Prior to joining Elara Nova as a Senior Principal Advisor, Gen (Ret) Haugh served as the  Commander of U.S. Cyber Command, Director of the National Security Agency, and Chief of the Central Security Service. "The Elara Edge" is hosted and produced by Scott King of Elara Nova. The full story can be found on Elara Nova's Insights page here. Music was produced by Patrick Watkins of PW Audio.