Phil Duong, CEO and Co-Founder of NODA AI, is building the mission command layer for autonomous forces that nobody else is focused on. His company orchestrates multi-vendor platforms into coordinated effects the way a JTAC pairs aircraft with targets.
A Marine Corps naval aviator and JTAC turned defense tech founder, Phil earned NODA AI a $100 million Department of War award to scale mission command for autonomous forces after years refining a thesis on software-defined effects.
Topics discussed:
- Building a mission command orchestrator for multi-vendor autonomous forces
- Flying drones point to point as table stakes
- Software-defined effects and working backward from desired end states
- Adaptive recomposition when assets go down mid-mission
- Operating autonomous systems in disconnected, denied environments
- Navigating the triad of warfighter, Pentagon, and Capitol Hill
- Why software will overtake hardware in future conflict
- Finding investors who truly back founders at the earliest stage
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