Rafael Systems Global Sustainment’s Joe Anderson on the Power of Mentorship for Success in the DIB
Welcome to RADICL’s newsletter, DIB Innovators.
Every week, we interview an expert driving technological advancements in the Defense Industrial Base that's keeping our country safe, then write up a summary of the conversation.
In this edition, we dive into our interview with Joe Anderson, President and CEO of Rafael Systems Global Sustainment. Here are the top takeaways.
#1: Balance Business, Partnership, and Personal Well-being
“It is about partnering. It is about teaming agreements, it is about joint ventures, it is about how do you move business forward and how do you prioritize how you see all that? I think back to our military lives, how you balance, you can get very consumed out here in the business world, just like you got consumed in the military world. How do you find balance in your life?
Again, from whatever that means to you, from what religion means to you, what family means to you, whatever. How do you gain that equilibrium? So you're not going crazy in the business world trying to trip over yourself. This is a dog eat dog world, which is different than the military. We weren't worried about profit. We didn't care about profit and loss. We just, we cared about the mission and our people, and people matter here. But so does the, so does revenue.”
Actionable Takeaway: In the business world, it’s easy to get consumed by competition and profit. To maintain balance, prioritize partnerships and joint ventures while also focusing on personal well-being. Achieving equilibrium between work and personal values prevents burnout and helps businesses thrive without compromising the mission or people.
#2: Reduce Crew Load and Enhance Combat Power with AI
“The number one thing we're doing with AI here is trying to reduce crew loads because the services are having a problem with manning, and that allows you to keep less people in a crew and let more people go out of the back ramp, or whatever the case may be, to have more combat power. So we've got the brains of this system, and it's been demonstrated a couple times. It's principally designed to be a mission planning, mission rehearsal tool. It does help the crew. It's a route selection capability, and it's able to adjust the route on the move based on what you encounter from an enemy, from an obstacle, to whatever.
“It's also a target identifier, both persons of interest and targets of interest. And then it's also a weapon selector, and it tells you, based on the range to the target, the effects based on collateral damage, based on where you're trying to target, what the effects could be.
“Again, the human makes the choice, but it gives the crew a recommendation about which system round to use based on those two criteria so you don't get overkill, etc. So it's a pretty capable system, to help to reduce manpower, but also to reduce cognitive overload when you're trying to figure a million things out on the battlefield to help platform crews. The question now is how transferable does that become to robotics, etc.?”
Actionable Takeaway: AI is revolutionizing military operations by reducing crew loads and optimizing decision-making. From route selection to target identification, AI assists crews in mission planning and reduces cognitive overload. This technology offers significant potential for transferring capabilities to robotics and further enhancing combat effectiveness.
#3: Bridge Military and Civilian Careers Through Industry Internships
“You can basically go work, not an intern program, but you can go to be essentially an intern for 60 to 120 days or so with a company on the outside so you can start to learn the ropes. So you're still on DoD's dime, you're still on active duty, but you're working for industry, so you get exposure to all a lot of things. And of course, there's a career skills program for younger folks to do the same thing to get an idea. But you have to understand where you want to go, what you want to do, which may not be easy because you got to answer the whys of all of that. Do you want to move? Do you want to be an entrepreneur or do you want to go back for more education? What is it you think you want to do?”
Actionable Takeaway: Military personnel can gain valuable industry experience while on active duty through short-term internships. These programs allow individuals to explore civilian roles, understand career options, and bridge the gap between military and industry. Define your career goals to make the most of this transitional opportunity.
Listen on RADICL
Listen on Apple
Listen on Spotify
Watch on YouTube