Aaron Price-Wright speaks with Adam Wormuth, founder and CEO of Chariot Defense, and Alex Miller, CTO of the U.S. Army. Adam previously led engineering at Anduril and product at Archer Aviation, while Alex drives the Army's technology modernization efforts and rapid deployment of new capabilities to soldiers.

The conversation explores how modern warfare's shift toward electronic systems has created critical power infrastructure gaps. As the Army transitions from fixed forward operating bases to distributed, mobile operations, traditional diesel generators running at 1% capacity create targetable signatures while failing to meet power demands.

The discussion covers Chariot's hybrid battery systems that integrate with existing Army vehicles, the Army's procurement transformation through initiatives like Transformation in Contact, and the strategic challenge of reshoring battery supply chains currently dominated by China.

The Electronic Battlefield Power Crisis

Modern soldiers require 30-60 watts of continuous power during operations, equivalent to running a mid-tier laptop constantly, before adding team and squad-level equipment needs.

Traditional counter-UAS operations required bringing 15-kilowatt generators that ran at only 500 watts 99% of the time, creating inefficient fuel usage and detectable thermal and acoustic signatures.

"Someone will go plug in a coffee pot and it'll take down the air defense radar" - Adam, highlighting how unmanaged power loads can crash critical systems.

The shift from fixed forward operating bases to distributed mobile operations has disrupted every link in the traditional power and communications chain.

Chariot's Hybrid Power Solution

The M424 system provides 4 kilowatts and 4 kilowatt-hours of energy storage, enabling a reconnaissance company to operate 36 hours without detectable signatures while powering radios, EW equipment, and drones.

The system integrates with NATO ports on every Army tactical vehicle, providing bidirectional charging and acting as a converter buffer to prevent power surges from affecting sensitive equipment.

"We went from version one to shipping version 5.2 today" - Adam, describing rapid iteration based on field deployment feedback over just one year.

Commercial EV and electric aircraft breakthroughs in high-voltage batteries and silicon carbide power electronics enable hybrid systems to win on size, cost, and weight compared to traditional combustion engines.

Army Procurement Revolution

The Army restructured from 13 program executive offices to 6 portfolio acquisition executives, with contracting officials and labs now reporting directly to portfolio managers.

Transformation in Contact exercises saturate units with technology to discover what works, rather than following traditional requirements-writing and 5-7 year fielding cycles.

"We did not exist when that planning kicked off" - Adam, describing how Chariot went from founding to field deployment in six months through the Army's new outcome-focused approach.

The approach focuses on commercial solutions for the 80% case, allowing taxpayer dollars to concentrate on the 20% of edge cases unique to military requirements.

Arctic Operations and Extreme Environment Challenges

"Everything breaks at negative 40. GP8 freezes at negative 53" - Alex, describing Arctic warfare challenges where radio batteries die before reaching soldiers.

Soldiers developed innovative solutions like wrapping drone batteries in space blankets to generate enough heat for operation, while DevCom provided battery heaters drawing 10% power to maintain functionality.

Cold soaking destroys battery chemistry permanently, requiring thermal management solutions for extended operations in extreme environments.

Supply Chain Security and Domestic Manufacturing

Battery supply chain reshoring involves nearly $300 million in combined Department of Energy and industrial base policy investments, plus additional hundreds of millions from the Department of Defense.

Drawing from Freedom's Forge, the approach emphasizes government as customer rather than investor, using demand signals to help domestic manufacturers get down initial cost curves.

Supply chain risks extend beyond raw materials to end items, where soldiers purchasing Chinese battery banks from Home Depot creates potential backdoor vulnerabilities and remotely triggerable security threats.

The Army's 23 depots, arsenals, and factories built during World War II serve as strategic manufacturing reserves for ammunition, vehicle repair, and emerging battery production capabilities.

Vision for Tactical Power Standardization

Success means creating a tactical microgrid standard where power interfaces become as standardized as software APIs, eliminating the need for soldiers to be power management experts.

"Actually, nobody talks about power because it just works" - Adam, describing the goal of making power infrastructure transparent so operational bandwidth focuses on mission objectives rather than charging logistics.

The vision includes dismounted solid-state batteries, tactical microgrid-compliant generators, and vehicle-based power systems that eliminate current problems like rebuilding 3KW generators by hand in forward positions.