Micro Journeys: The Pulse of What’s Next

In this episode of Micro Journeys, host Daniel Marrujo sits down with Lieutenant Colonel Jim Lawson, product manager for the Long Range Precision Munition program, live at African Lion 2026. Lawson walks through the medium-range lethal variant of the Army's launched effects ecosystem, a tube-launched, rocket-boosted munition designed to fold into a compact form factor before deploying sweeping wings and telescoping flight surfaces mid-launch. The conversation covers the system's live-fire success at the exercise, its sensor and warhead payload, and how it fits into the Army's broader vision for networked, collaborative strike capability.The discussion goes deeper into how the munition operates as part of a "wolf pack" of autonomous and semi-autonomous payloads working together to penetrate contested airspace and strike strategic targets such as integrated air defense systems. Lawson explains the targeting process in detail — how an operator assigns an image with metadata to designate a target, and how that target can be tracked and even changed mid-flight. He also addresses the practical realities of fielding the system, from vehicle integration options to the direct feedback loop between soldiers using the controls and the engineers refining the program.The episode frames the Long Range Precision Munition as a flexible, networkable answer to modern strike challenges — a system built to launch from multiple platforms, retarget in real time, and incorporate battlefield feedback directly into its ongoing development.What You'll Discover in This Episode:The medium-range lethal variant was fired five times during African Lion 2026, with a user on the loop successfully engaging the target each time (00:46)The munition ships folded into a tube — wings, rear stabilizers, and propellers collapsed — then sweeps forward and telescopes out to full wingspan after launch (01:53)The system is designed to operate as part of a "wolf pack" of payloads that autonomously or semi-autonomously collaborate against strategic targets like integrated air defense systems (02:44)Targeting works by assigning the weapon an image with location and azimuth metadata rather than relying on AI, and operators can redirect the munition to a new target mid-flight (04:55, 05:29)The launch tube is designed for flexible integration — helicopters, ground stations, or other vehicle platforms — rather than being man-portable (01:23, 03:25)User feedback from African Lion 2026 is being fed directly back into the program, from system-level capabilities down to the user interface (03:45)Let’s ConnectDaniel MarrujoTSS Website

Daniel Marrujo sits down with Tyler Griffin, Lockheed Martin's Counter-UAS Director, at African Lion 2026 to explore the Sanctum Counter-UAS system — a layered, multi-vendor defense platform built to detect, identify, and neutralize small drones, one-way attack munitions, and drone swarms. The conversation moves through a live equipment walkthrough on the exercise floor, covering low-cost radar detection, RF signal analysis, a crossbow laser weapon system, and a net-capturing drone hunter, all unified under a single operator control interface.The episode centers on the core challenge facing counter-drone operations: distinguishing a genuine threat from harmless air traffic, then neutralizing it with minimal risk to the surrounding environment. Griffin breaks down how Sanctum layers three independent sensor types, radar, RF detection, and dual camera (daytime and thermal), to build operator confidence before any action is taken, and how the system's laser and net-capture tools offer different response options depending on the situation and collateral risk.Sanctum solves this by aggregating partner sensors and effectors from companies including IPG Photonics and Fordham Technologies into one battle management system, giving operators verified, real-time targeting data and multiple engagement options.What You'll Discover in This Episode01:43 — Tyler Griffin introduces the Sanctum Counter-UAS system and Lockheed Martin's role in aggregating partner sensor and effector technology for African Lion 2026.02:36 — The three-layer detection stack is explained: low-cost radar, RF detection, and dual daytime/thermal cameras working together to confirm a threat.04:00 — The laser weapon system's origins in commercial cutting and welding technology, developed with IPG Photonics, are revealed alongside its multi-kilometer engagement range.07:58 — A net-launching interceptor drone captures rather than destroys adversary drones, preserving the hardware for intelligence gathering and reverse engineering.09:08 — The Fordham Technologies Drone Hunter's operational range and how it integrates with Sanctum's radar cueing for extended intercept reach.11:48 — Griffin details how the entire Sanctum system went from concept to fielded minimum viable product in just twelve months, with software updates driven by weekly soldier feedback at African Lion.Let’s ConnectDaniel MarrujoTyler GriffinTSS Website

In this episode of Micro Journeys Inside Access, host Daniel Marrujo sits down with Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Leonguerrero, U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa | Advanced Capabilities Directorate at African Lion 2026 in Morocco, to unpack the command and control technology powering the largest exercise AFRICOM hosts on the African continent. The conversation traces how a multilanguage translation tool, moving fluidly between English, Arabic, and French, has compressed a twenty-second communication delay down to just three or four seconds, giving soldiers from more than 40 partner nations the ability to coordinate almost instantly at the tactical edge.The discussion moves beyond the hardware to the structure behind it: a "three pillars" model of military, industry, and academia working in tandem, and a network-first, platform-agnostic approach the Lieutenant Colonel compares to NASCAR, prioritizing the driver over the car. That structure, paired with a top-down culture change from senior leadership, has cut fielding timelines for new capabilities from months or years down to hours or days. But faster fielding and wider international connectivity also raise the stakes on the security side, since more allies sharing data means more surface area for adversaries to target.The solution the Lieutenant Colonel describes is layered: AI-driven cyber protection tools that monitor, block, and learn from threats in real time, combined with a deliberate effort to keep academia and industry out of the lab and in direct contact with soldiers on the battlefield, so lessons learned translate immediately into usable technology.What You'll Discover in This Episode:[00:56] African Lion 2026 is the largest exercise AFRICOM runs on the continent, built around merging emergent technology with current warfighter capabilities.[01:35] A multilanguage translation tool moves communication between English, Arabic, and French, cutting through the coordination challenge of a 40-country exercise.[03:41] The "network as driver, platform as car" analogy explains why the team stays agnostic about hardware and focused on connectivity.[04:17] The three pillars of innovation: military, industry, and academia[07:29] Defense-in-depth security measures, including AI-driven cyber protection, are addressed as the tradeoff that comes with faster, wider-reaching innovation.Let’s ConnectDaniel MarrujoLieutenant Colonel. Ramon LeonguerreroTSS Website

In this episode of Micro Journeys, host Daniel Marrujo sits down with Captain Ronan Sefton at the African Forces Summit to discuss the rapid evolution of unmanned systems on the modern battlefield. A military intelligence officer by trade, Sefton has spent the last several years focused almost entirely on drone warfare, drawing lessons directly from the Russo-Ukrainian conflict as part of a Ukrainian lessons-learned task force under U.S. Army Europe and Africa. The conversation traces his path from hobbyist drone builder and Russian-Ukrainian linguist to one of the U.S. military's leading voices on unmanned systems integration.The discussion digs into what actually makes a drone program effective — and it isn't the hardware. Sefton explains that early efforts to teach American soldiers hands-on skills like soldering and drone assembly, modeled on Ukraine's wartime necessity, missed the bigger picture. Ukraine's most effective drone units succeed not because of advanced AI, but because of superior pilot expertise, tight data architecture, and a reconnaissance-to-strike pipeline that gets accurate targeting information to a crew in seconds. Sefton also pushes back on the growing "obsession with autonomy," arguing that human judgment remains essential even as automation advances.The solution, according to Sefton, lies in investing in the ecosystem around the technology — data flow, reconnaissance integration, and pilot expertise — rather than chasing autonomy for its own sake, much like a driver still needs a license even when the car can drive itself.What You'll Discover in This Episode(01:31) Unmanned systems extend well beyond aerial drones, covering vehicles that fly, drive, and swim, with room for entirely new categories still to emerge.(02:54) Sefton's path from hobbyist drone builder and military linguist to Ukraine lessons-learned officer, shaped by direct conversations with Ukrainian soldiers on the front line.(05:49) Why the U.S. military's early push to teach soldiers hands-on drone-building skills wasn't the right long-term approach, and what mattered more instead.(07:31) The concept of data architecture and why a drone crew's effectiveness depends on the reconnaissance and intelligence ecosystem feeding it, not just the aircraft itself.(09:36) How fiber-optic drones eliminate the risk of jamming by removing the need for a radio receiver or transceiver entirely.(11:55) Why Ukraine's most effective drone units deliberately avoid using AI for targeting, and the case for keeping a human in the loop as autonomy matures.Let’s ConnectDaniel MarrujoCaptain Ronan SeftonTSS Website

Lieutenant Colonel Nick Dubaz, U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa| Advanced Capabilities Directorate, leads the Advanced Capabilities Directorate at the United States Army Southern European Task Force, the Army's headquarters for Africa. In this conversation, he walks through how his team identifies capability gaps across a continent of 54 countries and more than two billion people with a fraction of the resources available elsewhere in the Army, and how emerging technology, from AI-enabled sensors to autonomous vehicles, is being used to close those gaps faster than traditional defense procurement typically allows.Two of the biggest constraints Dubaz's team faces are speed and survival: promising technologies from small startups often die in the "valley of death" between early development and a fielded capability, a process that has historically taken 10 to 20 years through federal acquisition regulation-based contracting. At the same time, threats ranging from hybrid adversaries to emerging pathogens like H5N1 require the Army to detect and respond to changes faster than legacy systems allow.To address both problems, Dubaz's directorate partners with the Army's Global Technology Acquisition Directorate to fast-track promising startups into live testing environments like the African Lion exercise, compressing fielding timelines from decades into months while using AI-driven biosurveillance tools to flag disease and security threats before they escalate.What You'll Discover in This Episode00:37 — LTC Nick Dubaz introduces the Advanced Capabilities Directorate and its role combining innovation, science and technology, and operational data under one command05:59 — LTC Nick Dubaz explains how the Army is helping African partner nations "leapfrog" technological development stages rather than repeat the slow evolution the U.S. and Ukraine went through07:50 — A mosquito trap capable of analyzing pathogens internally and remotely transmitting disease trend data is discussed as part of the Army's biosurveillance strategy10:05 — Dubaz describes the "valley of death" facing defense startups and how new acquisition authorities are compressing fielding timelines from decades to months14:42 — Dubaz breaks down the three combat-realistic scenarios inside African Lion 2026, including a counterattack vignette involving autonomous vehicles breaching minefieldsLet’s ConnectDaniel MarrujoLTC Nick DubazTSS Website

In this episode of Micro Journeys Inside Access, host Daniel Marrujo gets hands-on with Overland AI's Ultra platform at African Lion 2026 in Tantan, Morocco, walking through the autonomous ground vehicle that soldiers in the field have nicknamed "Mufasa" and "Simba." Built on a commercial Polaris Razor chassis and outfitted with LiDAR, cameras, GNSS receivers, and onboard compute, the vehicle maps its own environment and calculates thousands of potential routes per second, all without needing a constant communications link back to base.The conversation goes deep on the engineer variant demonstrated at the event: a terrain-shaping configuration that can deploy up to four XM204 top-attack mines and launch APOBS dismounted breaching charges, removing soldiers from what is normally one of the most dangerous jobs on the battlefield. Overland AI's team also details the platform's modularity, swappable payloads ranging from counter-UAS systems and remote weapon stations to ISR camera packages, plus its growing footprint with the Army, Marine Corps, and SOCOM as the company transitions from R&D into procurement.Overland AI's approach is a case study in keeping the "human in the loop, but out of the danger zone," using commercial off-the-shelf hardware and a flexible autonomy stack to get capability into soldiers' hands faster than traditional defense acquisition typically allows.What You'll Discover in This Episode:[01:50] Overland AI's origin story: spun out of the University of Washington Robotics Lab, now fielding vehicles with the Army, Marine Corps, and SOCOM[02:25] Inside Ultra: the sensor suite (LiDAR, cameras, GNSS, wheel encoders) that lets the vehicle build its own map and navigate without a constant comms link[03:05] How the engineer variant terrain-shapes a minefield with XM204 top-attack mines, and pinpoints each drop location for later resupply[03:40] How APOBS launchers turn a high-risk, two-person dismounted task into a fully autonomous operation[07:35] SATCOM, Starlink, tactical radios, and cellular combine to push the vehicle beyond line of sight[10:46] Moving from one-to-one operation toward a single soldier controlling and coordinating multiple autonomous vehicles at onceLet's ConnectDaniel MarrujoOverland AITSS Website

Daniel Marrujo continues his tour of Brookhaven National Laboratory with a stop at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), where interim director Kevin Yager breaks down the science of building materials at the nanometer scale, from carbon nanotubes to self-assembling DNA structures. Yager also outlines CFN's vision for an "exocortex," a network of AI agents designed to accelerate scientific discovery by handling literature reviews, running instruments, and troubleshooting experiments alongside human researchers. The conversation then shifts to the Quantum Material Press, where Dr. Suji Park demonstrates how twisting stacked two-dimensional materials at precise angles can unlock entirely new properties, including superconductivity.Scientists working at the frontier of nanoscience face a growing bottleneck: the sheer number of tools, datasets, and processes required to push research forward outpaces what any one person can manage alone. Yager describes this burden directly, explaining how researchers are pulled in every direction, reading publications, writing software, running physical instruments, even as the value of their work depends on deep, sustained focus. Meanwhile, at the QPress, Park's team faces a parallel challenge: identifying which combinations of ultra-thin materials, stacked at which angles, will produce useful new properties out of a nearly infinite set of possibilities.CFN's answer is a layered system of specialized AI agents that take on individual pieces of the research process, from surfacing relevant publications to operating lab instruments via natural language, freeing scientists to focus on higher-level problems, while the QPress solves its own challenge by giving researchers a rapid, physical way to prototype and test new material combinations without waiting on large-scale production.What You'll Discover in This Episode00:53 — Kevin Yager introduces the Center for Functional Nanomaterials and its dual mission as both a research center and a user facility open to outside scientists.05:36 — Yager describes CFN's "exocortex" vision, a network of AI agents designed to expand what human scientists can accomplish in a day.08:56 — AI models are doubling in capability roughly every four to seven months, a pace CFN is working to apply directly to materials science.11:40 — Synthetic DNA sequences self-assemble into designed nanostructures simply by mixing them in water and adding heat.17:07 — Dr. Suji Park introduces the Quantum Material Press, a one-of-a-kind facility built to accelerate research into two-dimensional quantum materials.18:29 — Stacking two sheets of graphene at a precise twist angle can transform the material into a superconductor.Let’s ConnectDaniel MarrujoKevin YagerSuji ParkTSS Website

In this episode of Micro Journeys Inside Access, host Daniel Marrujo sits down with Mvemba Dizolele, Managing Director, Dizolele Advisory at the African Land Forces Summit to explore a continent often misunderstood by the outside world. Dizolele, a professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, former senior fellow and director of the Africa Program at CSIS, and host of his own Africa Program podcast, brings decades of expertise to a wide-ranging conversation covering cybersecurity, mobile money innovation, drone technology, and the geopolitics of critical minerals. The discussion moves fluidly between grassroots stories of African youth using technology to organize and connect, and high-level analysis of how global powers are competing for access to the continent's resources.At the center of the conversation is a tension between extraction and partnership. Dizolele traces a throughline from the colonial-era rubber trade in Congo to today's race for rare earth minerals, cobalt, and lithium, resources critical to modern technology and clean energy. He points to historical examples, including the little-known fact that uranium used in the Manhattan Project came from Congo, to illustrate how the continent has long fueled global progress without receiving proportional benefit. The episode raises a pressing question: as the U.S. and other powers seek access to Africa's critical minerals, will history repeat itself, or can a new model of mutual benefit emerge?Dizolele points to a different model already proven elsewhere: the kind of technology transfer and capability-building the U.S. provided to South Korea and Taiwan, as a blueprint for how partnership, rather than pure extraction, can help African nations build their own industrial base while still meeting global demand.What You'll Discover in This Episode:(04:07) How Africa's youth are leveraging mobile technology and platforms like Kenya's M-Pesa to leapfrog traditional infrastructure gaps(14:39) The geopolitical race for critical minerals in Africa and how the U.S. is responding to Chinese dominance in the supply chain(17:22) Why the "silicon shield" model from Taiwan's semiconductor industry could offer a blueprint for an African "rare earth shield"(20:02) The little-known history of Congolese uranium and its role in the Manhattan Project(24:02) A conversation with Ben Affleck that reframes the assumptions behind foreign aid and development work in the DRC(27:33) Dizolele's personal mission to bridge the gap between global perceptions of Africa and its lived realityLet’s Connect:Daniel MarrujoMvemba Phezo DizoleleMvemba’s WebsiteMvemba’s PodcastTSS Website