Mission Matters Podcast Building the Software Defined Navy
Aug 12, 2025
Artem Sherbinin, CTO of the U.S. Surface Navy, integrates software, data, and AI into fleet ops. Justin Fanelli, CTO of the U.S. Department of the Navy, modernizes naval software and commercial tech adoption. They discuss software-defined platforms, maritime computer vision, generative AI for faster integration, resilient communications, modular hardware, and lessons from recent conflicts shaping naval tech urgency.
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Software-Defined Warfare Accelerates Adaptation
- Software-defined warfare means hardware gains new capabilities via rapid software updates in hours or days.
- Artem argues military platforms should improve overnight like consumer devices to maintain adaptation advantage.
Blend Networks To Build Resilient Comms
- Do pursue resilient communications by blending diverse inputs like space and 5G to reduce single points of failure.
- Justin recommends fostering cross-community collaboration to create new protocols and faster deployments.
Integration Is The Hard Problem — For Now
- Integration of legacy capital assets remains the hardest technical problem in the Navy.
- Justin sees generative AI and modern tooling as a potential golden age to dramatically lower integration complexity.