Galvion built a warfighter lab in Portsmouth, NH: a configurable shoot house with high-speed cameras, VR, 3D sound, and a double-PhD cognitive scientist on staff. Elite special operators ran the course with night vision and called their gear perfect, but the data showed they were slower, their muscles tighter, and compensating the entire time without knowing it. That gap between what a trained operator feels and what the science measures is where Galvion makes its design decisions.
Todd Stirtzinger also breaks down why open architecture is the reason they win programs, not just a feature. With over 2 million head systems installed across Europe and new US programs now in hand, Todd makes the case that information and decisiveness are becoming as critical as protection on the modern battlefield, and that NATO forces are already moving faster in that direction than North America.
Topics discussed:
- Building head systems as integrated platforms combining ballistic protection, wearable power delivery, and open architecture compute for dismounted warfighters
- Replacing operator self-reporting through a warfighter lab using high-speed cameras, VR, and cognitive science measurement
- Winning U.S. Marine Corps and FBI/DEA programs through user intimacy, iterative trials, and showing customers a clear upgrade path
- Avoiding vendor lock by building on open system architecture that integrates into existing ecosystems without ownership dependencies
- Managing intelligent power scavenging and prioritized recharging for digitally connected soldiers carrying increasingly power-hungry equipment
- Positioning Galvion's value at the decide-and-act layer of the OODA loop where battlefield data must become fast, actionable decisions
- Shifting warfighter doctrine from maximum ballistic protection toward information superiority, decisiveness, and keeping out of harm's way
- Accelerating human-machine teaming and robot-soldier integration as the defining capability gap on the future battlefield
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