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Despite the IPO fiasco, FB has done a phenomenal job building a culture of disruptive innovation. How do we attract this demographic to focus on problems in defense?
And The First Facebook IPO Hackathon Photos Roll In | TechCrunch.
Posted in defense innovations
Tagged defense, defense industry, defense transformation, Facebook, Hack Defense
As many of you are aware, Mav6 received guidance from the Air Force to disassemble and store the Blue Devil Block II (BD2) / M1400 airship. Various reports in the media have cited “poor contractor performance” as the leading cause of this action. But the facts tell a very different story.
From the beginning, the Air Force acquisition corps was never vested in the M1400 airship and the unique “processing at the point of collection” technologies featured in the BD2 system. In fact, when the Air Force assumed responsibility for BD2 from the Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) back in early 2011, it’s first official act was to try to kill the BD2 effort in favor of a conventional fixed-wing UAV program. The Air Force Chief of Staff personally weighed in and signaled that the Air Force has “no interest in airships.” Had it not been for the intervention of supporters in Congress and OSD, the BD2 program would have died a quiet death 18-months ago. And so began a running gun battle between Mav6 (and BD2 supporters) and the Air Force, which has culminated in this most recent turn of events.
When the initial move to terminate the BD2 program failed, the Air Force proceeded to introduce wholesale changes to the BD2 development plan, which included imposing an unprecedented FAA flight certification requirement on the unmanned M1400 airship. Moreover, Mav6 was told that no new funds would be made available to support this expanded scope of work; we would have to find a way to accommodate the additional costs in the existing program funds.
But it has been the Air Force’s failure to fund Mav6′s BD2 contract in a timely manner that has represented the biggest impact to the program. It took almost a year for the Air Force to definitize Mav6′s contract – almost six months longer than the maximum time limit stipulated by the Federal Acquisition Regulations. During this period and despite that fact that Congress provided the Air Force with full funding for the BD2 program, Mav6′s ‘undefinitized’ contract was incrementally funded in small blocks. This constraint made it impossible for Mav6 to fully staff the BD2 development effort or fund subcontractors and vendors.
In summary, the BD2 development effort to date can best be characterized as follows:
The linked fact sheet (M1400 Airship Fact Sheet 25 May 12v2) provides additional context on the history and current status of the BD2 effort.
In spite of all of this, we are 90-95% complete with the M1400 development effort, having incurred only 12% cost growth to the overall BD2 program. To date, the U.S. taxpayers have invested $150 million (more if you include funds executed directly by the Air Force) in development of the BD2 capability. And Mav6 is within a couple of months and $3-5 million in additional costs of achieving first flight – as validated by a recent independent government review of the M1400 airship. And I should add that there is over $50 million in remaining FY12 BD2 funds to support completion of the M1400 airship and operational demonstration of the BD2 capability.
Is it in the best interests of the warfighter and the nation’s defense to stop the BD2 program now?
Mav6 is a different kind of defense company, and it’s because we are different that we are bound to rub some people the wrong way. Customers who are vested in old ways of doing business aren’t going to like what we have to sell. While we haven’t preformed flawlessly on the BD2 program, we have done a pretty remarkable job getting this far in the face of all of the unnecessary outside obstacles that have been put in our path (see Recapping the M1400 development effort).
I don’t want anyone to think that we have stopped fighting for BD2. We continue to have broad support in Congress and the Combatant Commands for continuation of the BD2 program, and our allies are mobilizing to ensure a future for the effort. We can’t predict exactly what this future will look like right now, but there are a number of options on the table. Stay tuned…
Posted in Blue Devil
Tagged Air Force, airship, Blue Devil, Blue Devil Block II, M1400 airship, Mav6
This is a cool idea – integrating disparate unmanned systems at the user level, but implementation is going to be a bear. I have a hard time imaging DoD mustering the political will to drive the defense industry giants towards a common unmanned system OS. The economics of creating a new OS for every platform are too attractive for the big boys to ignore.
DroneOS: How To Take Control Of The Country’s Growing Robot Army – Forbes.
Posted in defense innovations
Tagged defense innovation, defense industry, DreamHammer, drone, unmanned system
Well, if Ford can do it, DoD can do it…
How do we harness the ‘maker’ culture that already exists in DoD to create break through innovations that improve the soldier experience?
Ford + TechShop: Getting Employees to Tinker | Wired Design | Wired.com.
Posted in innovation
Tagged defense, defense innovation, Ford, Hack Defense, TechShop
On 10 May 2012, we successfully tested the M1400 airship tail fins – per the onsite FAA Designated Engineering Representative overseeing the test. The tail fin test represents the last major technical milestone prior to airship first flight.
As we near the end game for M1400 completion, I thought it would be instructive to review all of the other significant milestones that the M1400 development team has completed over the course of the effort.
Envelope and ballonet: Mav6 and its vendor TCOM have designed, engineered, and built the largest airship hull produced in the last 55 years, produced the largest airship hull in history constructed of synthetic materials, and developed the largest ballonet system (by 200%) ever installed in a traditional low-medium altitude airship, pioneering the use of the “tank-body” ballonet to control the large fluid volume (allowing flights at 20,000 feet). Dimensionally the M1400 is the world’s largest aircraft, airship, and UAV.
Pressurization System: Mav6 has implemented a hydraulic ballonet pressurization system that enables an unprecedented maximum climb and dive rate of 3,000 feet per minute, the most aggressive rates ever developed for an airship. This entailed development of the most powerful airship pressurization fan ever built, the largest custom valves and ports of their type in 55 years, the most sophisticated electronic ballonet contents measurement system ever built, and custom, purpose-developed actuators and controls for the contents measurement system.
Diesel propulsion system: Mav6 adapted a certified base diesel engine that was limited by a short-life gearbox with an incorrect gear ratio into a high-efficiency airship propulsion / power generation / hydraulic system, entailing development of custom designed and built transmission, i.e. the Propeller Speed Reduction Unit (“PSRU”). Mav6 also custom designed and built a variable propeller pitch control system without the use of a traditional propeller governor; a custom combination of existing propeller hubs and blades to produce a high-efficiency propeller for long-endurance flight; and a custom engine cooling and air induction system to allow for the propulsion system to run at full power and zero airspeed in conditions up to 135° F with no overheating.
Vertical Take Off and Landing (“VTOL”) propulsion system: In order to maximize the military utility of such a large vehicle, Mav6 developed a system to produce the world’s only VTOL airship, which entailed custom adaptation of an existing turboprop engine to be able to vector a near-180 degree range; design, development, and test of a custom vectoring system to mount and maneuver the engine through that range (while at nearly 5,000 lbs of thrust); development of a full electric/electronic engine control system (for an otherwise analog engine) to allow for the engine control under UAV operation; the creation of a completely original remote re-oil system allowing for the servicing of the distantly placed turbine engines from car servicing points; and delivery at a fraction of the cost of similar systems.
Fuel system: Mav6 developed a custom fuel system able to support six engines of three different types, widely dispersed around a massive aircraft.
Landing gear: After determining that no existing landing gear system would be available and adaptable within schedule, Mav6 proceeded to design, build, and test a custom landing gear system and strut, the largest such system for an airship in over 50 years.
Nose cone and battens: The M1400 airship features the world’s largest airship nose cone and battens.
Flight control and vehicle control systems: Mav6 and its vendor Rockwell Collins have developed a triple-redundant digital fly-by-wire flight control system and vehicle control system to manage, monitor, and control all systems on the airship. The system includes capability to operate in manned and unmanned configurations. Specifically, the scale of this program is five-to-seven times larger than typical flight controls programs in both engineering labor and number of items to be integrated and controlled.
Ground equipment: In order to support airship launch and recovery, Mav6 custom designed and built the world’s largest nose latch system, the world’s largest airship tripod mast (the largest mast built in over 50 years), the world’s largest airship expeditionary mast, uniquely configured to easily break down and be transported on its self-contained trailer, and the first ground auto-ballast system ever built for an airship, capable of transferring fuel on and off the airship automatically.
In addition Mav6 has accepted delivery of the C2 Ground Station for the airship, is ready to deliver an FPED Ground Station to the Government, and is approximately 90-95% complete on development and integration of the most robust airborne Mission Payload multi-INT architecture available today.
All of these accomplishments have led Mav6 to the completion stage of the first six-engine airship since the days of the massive Zeppelins. The M1400 is a VTOL aircraft with unmatched flexibility in payload capacity, and it has been developed at a fraction of the cost and schedule of most other aircraft developed today.
And one final note for our critics: we have done all of this in 18-months, despite significant external obstacles imposed on the Blue Devil Block II program that were wholly outside the control of Mav6 and our subcontractors and vendors. All things being equal, I am pretty damn proud of what the M1400 team has been able to accomplish.
Following are some of my favorite pics of the M1400 development effort to date:
That’s not a moon…
Step Down
Posted in MavShip
Tagged airship, Blue Devil, Blue Devil Block II, M1400 airship, Mav6
‘Hack’ graffiti at Facebook headquarters
At Mav6, we like to use the term “Hack Defense” to describe – at least in part – our fundamental attitude and approach to problem solving. I wrote several posts some months ago on what this concept entails, but a colleague recently sent me an excerpt from the Facebook SEC registration statement that does a brilliant job of capturing the mindset that we seek to express at Mav6.
In recognition of the historic Facebook IPO (and in the interests of re-affirming Mav6′s own commitment to this idea), I offer Mark Z’s manifesto to the hacker idea.
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The Hacker Way
As part of building a strong company, we work hard at making Facebook the best place for great people to have a big impact on the world and learn from other great people. We have cultivated a unique culture and management approach that we call the Hacker Way.
The word “hacker” has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers. In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done. Like most things, it can be used for good or bad, but the vast majority of hackers I’ve met tend to be idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world.
The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.
Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once. To support this, we have built a testing framework that at any given time can try out thousands of versions of Facebook. We have the words “Done is better than perfect” painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping.
Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: “Code wins arguments.”
Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people.
To encourage this approach, every few months we have a hackathon, where everyone builds prototypes for new ideas they have. At the end, the whole team gets together and looks at everything that has been built. Many of our most successful products came out of hackathons, including Timeline, chat, video, our mobile development framework and some of our most important infrastructure like the HipHop compiler.
To make sure all our engineers share this approach, we require all new engineers — even managers whose primary job will not be to write code — to go through a program called Bootcamp where they learn our codebase, our tools and our approach. There are a lot of folks in the industry who manage engineers and don’t want to code themselves, but the type of hands-on people we’re looking for are willing and able to go through Bootcamp.
Posted in Hack Defense
Tagged defense, defense industry, Facebook, Mav6, The Hacker Way
Mav6 CEO in the news… Solving the ISR big data problem means processing at the point of collection – an approach Mav6 has emphasized in the Blue Devil Block 2 development effort with our Service Oriented Horizontal Information Exchange (SOHIX) approach.
Gen Deptula noted that it will require revolutionary networking capabilities. These would include information processing and exploitation on the system before being sent to the user.
Air-Sea Battle Concept Offers Transformation Opportunity | AFCEA SIGNAL Scape.
