Air Force weighs “right mix” of weapons as industry presses for faster software and supply chains

Senior Air Force officials and defence industry executives gathered this week to discuss how the U.S. military should rebuild and reshape its munitions stockpiles, with a panel at the Air and Space Cyber Conference signalling a shift in focus from simply replacing expended weapons to designing a portfolio suited to future conflicts.

Brig. Gen. Robert Lyons III told attendees the service is aiming for the “right mix” of weapons rather than just “replenishing what has been expended,” balancing capability, capacity, cost, and the ability to produce at the speed and scale future conflicts may demand. The remarks come amid public reporting on depleted U.S. inventories of long-range precision missiles following the recent war with Iran.

Software speed becomes a stockpile issue

Panelists argued that munitions inventories are only part of the equation — the software that operates weapons systems must also evolve quickly. Bryon Kroger, founder and CEO of software firm Rise8, said defence software development has historically lagged even hardware timelines, and drew an analogy to aerial refuelling: just as aircraft need refuelling infrastructure for long distances, the military needs a “refueling apparatus” for continuously delivering software updates to the field.

Kroger called for decoupling software release cycles from hardware cycles, enabling deployments of updates “multiple times a day” rather than on long, fixed schedules.

Ryan Hartman, chief executive of Ondas Sentinel — a unit of Ondas Holdings (ONDS) — said that while day-one inventory matters, the real test is whether that inventory can adapt as a conflict evolves. “In my 27 years in the industry, I haven’t seen an adversary comply with our acquisition system yet,” he said.

Shares of Ondas closed at $7.63 previously and were trading down 1.92% at $7.48 in recent action, giving the company a market capitalisation of roughly $4.28 billion.

Bottlenecks: calendars, supply chains, and testing

Asked how government and industry could ease stockpile constraints, both executives pointed to practical friction points. For Kroger, the largest obstacle is the Authorization to Operate (ATO) process — the security approval required before software can run on government networks. He said 80–85% of Rise8’s time can be spent waiting for a slot on an authorizing official’s calendar, and since issues often surface during test and evaluation, companies can face a repeat six-month wait — producing 12–18-month ATO cycles overall.

Hartman, meanwhile, ranked industry’s constraints simply: “The first is the supply chain, the second is the supply chain, the third is the supply chain and the fourth is testing.”

Kroger added that outcome-based contracting is broadening the defence market beyond incumbent players, rewarding firms offering scalable, solutions-based products.

Source: original release

What to watch

• Air Force budget requests and munitions procurement line items in upcoming appropriations cycles
• Any Air Force guidance on software acquisition reform or ATO process changes following the conference
• Ondas Holdings’ (ONDS) next quarterly earnings report and updates on its defence segment
• Contract awards tied to replenishment of long-range precision munitions inventories