The noise we've made, and the headlines we've hijacked.
Operators + Innovation > Everything
We hosted the first Pacific Operator Training Day in partnership with Parsons in Hawaii, bringing together over 100 operators from PACAF, the 613th AOC, the Army, and INDOPACOM to accelerate AI adoption across the Indo-Pacific. Lt. Gen. Laura Lenderman set the tone early: “The command can never be too busy to innovate.” The event combined AI education, hands-on demos, and real operational workflows designed to help operators immediately apply data and AI tools in mission environments.
During NGC2's Lightning Surge 3 at Balikatan 2026, Raft Data Platform provided the data integration layer for the full kill chain. Five nodes spanning the Philippines and Hawaii moved 20M+ messages across PACAF and Army systems and held through daily DDIL disruption. It enabled rapid integration of a new maritime UAS in 48 hours and powered everything from seeing, sensing, to HIMARS launch.
Adversaries cracked it: flood with $500 drones, force $2M intercepts. The Pentagon’s answer: 244x budget jump, $55B for drone swarms. The DAWG is here.
$1.5 trillion. With a T. The largest defense budget request in American history. The line items include 18 new battleships, a missile shield called Golden Dome, $55 billion in drone swarms, and fleet expansion. History moves fast. Somewhere, an adversary's finance minister is staring at a spreadsheet and quietly updating their résumé.
For years, tech companies called it "the cloud"... weightless, borderless, untouchable. Then Iran hit Amazon's data centers in the Gulf with drones that cost less than a used Honda Civic. Banking apps went dark. Payments froze. Somewhere, an AWS product manager had a very bad afternoon. Iran also published a list of tech companies it considers legitimate military targets. Nobody's investor deck had that slide.
