00;00;00;06 - 00;00;02;20 Speaker 1 Technically speaking. 00;00;02;22 - 00;00;05;18 Speaker 2 Welcome to our technically UN technical Technology talk. 00;00;05;20 - 00;00;08;16 Speaker 1 A NIWC Atlantic production 00;00;08;18 - 00;00;14;24 Speaker 3 And an award winning podcast with your hosts, Chelsie Holloway and Alex Jackson. 00;00;14;26 - 00;00;23;03 Speaker 2 Award winning podcast. That's right, that's us. But unfortunately, Alex, this year we were not at the Golden Globes. We didn't win one of those awards. 00;00;23;10 - 00;00;25;20 Speaker 1 No we're not. Hopefully we'll get there next year though. 00;00;25;25 - 00;00;26;24 Speaker 4 Why weren't we? 00;00;26;24 - 00;00;27;18 Speaker 3 What the heck? 00;00;27;19 - 00;00;32;28 Speaker 2 I don't know, I guess we just don't have the same clout as Amy Poehler. Who won? 00;00;33;00 - 00;00;37;19 Speaker 1 We're just going to build on it, and we'll get there next year. Oh, Amy Poehler. 00;00;37;21 - 00;00;55;18 Speaker 2 She's got a pretty good podcast, honestly. But anyway, it's exciting. Podcasts are now winning Golden Globes. It's just up from here. There's going to be so many awards coming down the pike. So, you know, keep an eye on technically speaking because we got this. We got to go win another one of those awards. Maybe an Emmy. Who knows. 00;00;55;20 - 00;01;00;07 Speaker 1 Yeah we're going to go big. We're going to make it happen Oscar for Oscar. 00;01;00;10 - 00;01;01;16 Speaker 2 Right. 00;01;01;18 - 00;01;03;26 Speaker 1 So Chelsea, how was your holiday season? 00;01;03;28 - 00;01;26;06 Speaker 2 It was good. So earlier in the month of December, actually, my family and I took the train up from DC to New York City and did like, a whole 24 hour New York City experience. It was awesome. My three year old was loving it, and, we did. We did everything. We did ice skating in Central Park. We went to the famous toy store. 00;01;26;06 - 00;01;34;11 Speaker 2 We, what was the other big thing? Oh, we we were played on those pianos on the piano in that toy store. Have you ever seen the movie bag? Yes, yes. 00;01;34;12 - 00;01;35;21 Speaker 1 Yeah, that sounds really cool. 00;01;35;21 - 00;01;52;22 Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. It was. It was awesome. And, and for the finale, we actually got to go see the rockets at the Christmas spectacular, Radio City Music Hall. Amazing. 100% worth it if you ever get the chance to go to that show. It's amazing. So cool. 00;01;52;25 - 00;01;55;23 Speaker 1 What's most important is you had a bagel and had a cheese pizza. 00;01;55;24 - 00;01;56;16 Speaker 4 Yeah. 00;01;56;18 - 00;02;04;29 Speaker 2 No, no, my son was loving all the corn dogs. Every corn dog vendor. He was just like, I want to corn dog. So that that was our our food. 00;02;05;03 - 00;02;07;19 Speaker 1 Definitely got to check out the street food vendors. That's awesome. 00;02;07;22 - 00;02;10;13 Speaker 2 Yeah. How about you? How is your holiday season? 00;02;10;14 - 00;02;23;09 Speaker 1 My holiday was great. I went to visit family in Augusta, Georgia. My grandmother and aunts and cousins. There was a house full of folks, but it's always a great time with great food and all that. So glad I had a great time with everyone. 00;02;23;10 - 00;02;50;25 Speaker 2 Oh amazing. Amazing. It's a good time. Always seen family and getting together and having good food. So great. We ended 2025 on such a high note. That's awesome. Now we're jumping into 2026, a brand new series of podcast episodes coming your way, and we're going to start things off with a super exciting episode where we dive into Newark Atlantics work supporting the future of naval warfare and the future includes autonomous or unmanned vessels. 00;02;51;02 - 00;03;00;21 Speaker 2 And we've got a whole team who does a lot of work in that area for the United States Navy. They are the unmanned Naval Innovation Team or Unit. 00;03;00;22 - 00;03;19;19 Speaker 1 We chat with Mike Grace, who is the lead scientist and program manager for North Atlantic Unit then, and our military moment interview. I talk with Gunny, Sergeant Mark O'Hara, Marius about his career serving in the Marine Corps. So get comfy, turn up that volume and let's get started. 00;03;19;22 - 00;03;32;16 Speaker 2 Mike, thank you so much for coming on to the podcast. We're so excited to talk to you all about Unit. But let's start off, tell us what the goals are for this team and how many people are involved. Yeah. 00;03;32;18 - 00;04;04;25 Speaker 4 Unit is focused primarily on rapid prototyping, rapid capability, delivering robotic autonomous systems directly to our fleet customers. We work extensively with, integration, resilient communications, assured communications, data science, data analytics, all of the backdrop needed to push in autonomous maritime capabilities out to the fleet. When we kind of got out the gate, we knew right away that we did not want this to be a lab based project. 00;04;04;28 - 00;04;18;07 Speaker 4 We wanted to be on the water day one. And I think some of the work that we've done, really illustrates that. So in the end, we're looking to push robotic, autonomous systems very rapid to our end users. 00;04;18;07 - 00;04;20;08 Speaker 2 And who all is involved in this effort? 00;04;20;09 - 00;04;46;01 Speaker 4 We pull from a lot of expertise, within Navy Atlantic, from our engineering facilities, and competencies. So we have systems engineers, data science, data analytics. We have, scientists working in basic and applied research that's, providing novel machine learning and AI algorithms to support some of our, specific objectives. So we're very diverse. 00;04;46;08 - 00;04;49;05 Speaker 2 Yeah. And there's only about 36 of you doing all this, right? 00;04;49;08 - 00;04;57;16 Speaker 4 Yeah. That's right. Quite small. And we're we're fleet aligned. So each of our fleet customers has, direct access to our team here in Atlantic. 00;04;57;22 - 00;05;04;02 Speaker 1 You all have had a really successful several months, recently. Can you tell us how long the unit team has been around? 00;05;04;03 - 00;05;37;14 Speaker 4 Yeah, we were contacted by Task Force 59 in 2021. They had a lot of, unmanned data, and they really weren't sure exactly what to do with it. They came to New York Atlantic. We spoke with them and ultimately sent some of our data scientists and 7.0, engineers to Manama, Bahrain. We spent two weeks onsite with them with their data and learned, that we can actually make sense of disparate data sources and use that to influence, decision making at the, about a watch, captain. 00;05;37;18 - 00;05;51;28 Speaker 2 So after only a few years of really being this robust team of unit, you guys already accomplished a major milestone. This summer. Tell me about what you accomplished and how it felt to be able to achieve that. 00;05;52;03 - 00;06;22;20 Speaker 4 Yeah, that's right. The summer unit completed the fastest known fully autonomous transatlantic unmanned crossing. We launched from Charleston, South Carolina, and transited the Atlantic in 63 days, which was ten days faster than the previous known transatlantic crossing. After the 63rd day, we arrived off coast of Portugal. We actually station keep for an additional ten days and did some, in tenfold data collection before bringing it in for a report. 00;06;22;20 - 00;06;29;00 Speaker 2 And how did that feel? Was the team happy? Were you where you sat and tell me about it? 00;06;29;03 - 00;06;45;27 Speaker 4 You know, having not necessarily thought about that, it's kind of funny. It was a sense of relief that we actually had this moonshot, and we pulled it off at the same time, I no longer had a thing to watch, all morning and during the day. And the last thing that I checked at night, the see where we are and how fast are we going? 00;06;45;27 - 00;06;59;24 Speaker 4 Are you staying on course? Any issues? All the sensors are working so super happy that we were able to, to accomplish such a mission, with some sense of remorse that once we did it, I didn't, have a boat to monitor all the time. 00;06;59;29 - 00;07;05;22 Speaker 1 Well, it was such a successful event, but could you share a little bit about some of the challenges you all faced during the journey? 00;07;05;26 - 00;07;26;06 Speaker 4 Yeah. For sure. Right out of the gate, there was a tropical storm, so. Oh, man. So, intense. When some waves that we necessarily weren't anticipating, we applied a little bit more speed to the engine than we maybe would have, would have liked, and in doing so, burned half of our fuel that we had calculated for the entire mission. 00;07;26;11 - 00;07;48;01 Speaker 4 We burned through that in the first, first week. So the, the rest of the voyage became a lesson on, power consumption. How do you turn on and turn off sensors when needed to, to conserve that power? Because, frankly, we no longer had it. No. Everything else went mostly smooth, with the exception of one small cable break. 00;07;48;03 - 00;08;03;04 Speaker 4 During that storm, we had a lot of engineering, sessions. We, we met with, the company that that made the platform and decided, yeah. Let's go. We're we're all systems, so let's, let's let's do this crossing. 00;08;03;05 - 00;08;21;05 Speaker 2 You were obviously able to overcome these challenges, to keep it going. And how how were you able to do that? Through just having good communications because you guys weren't out at sea working on this during its transit even after the storm, correct? That's right. How did you how did you do that? 00;08;21;08 - 00;08;41;08 Speaker 4 We used to approach, I kind of refer to it as a, follow the Sun. As our engineers are not up 24 seven, we really utilize our mission partners and military partners. So at Fourth Fleet headquarters and Sixth Fleet headquarters. So we had some, eloquent handoff. So as one fleet was calling it a day, the other fleets waking up. 00;08;41;08 - 00;08;53;10 Speaker 4 So where it made sense and where we were able, we would do that command and control handoff. Not necessarily with just now cleantech engineers, but but without a watch captains and their support staff. 00;08;53;12 - 00;08;56;29 Speaker 2 What were some other breakthroughs that you achieved during this crossing? 00;08;57;01 - 00;09;19;23 Speaker 4 In addition to the speed and the follow the sun, the I think the coolest thing for me was that after the fall in the crossing, we didn't just land and come on port and call it a mission success. We actually stayed on the water as we were arriving. We were intent to participate in, a large experimentation event called a rep Messe, which was hosted in Australia. 00;09;19;26 - 00;09;22;26 Speaker 4 So we came in, topped off the fuel and right back out in the water. We went. 00;09;22;27 - 00;09;23;24 Speaker 2 You were ready to go? 00;09;23;26 - 00;09;25;04 Speaker 4 Yeah. That's right. 00;09;25;07 - 00;09;30;13 Speaker 1 What are you looking forward to for the next year, specifically about other projects that you all are working on? 00;09;30;13 - 00;10;04;02 Speaker 4 We're doing a lot of support further advancing maritime domain awareness and ISR capabilities across multiple fleets. You know, we're doing a lot of work now with fourth, fifth and sixth. There's a lot of contested waterways. And we want to demonstrate that unmanned has a place among our gray whole naval fleets to expand our force protection. To do that, we need to integrate more sensors such as electromagnetic warfare payloads, Non-kinetic payloads, to inform decision makers. 00;10;04;04 - 00;10;14;28 Speaker 4 So that's a thing for sure. We are doing a lot of work. Additionally, with interceptor platforms. So these are our fast boats. So much faster than, say, 63 days. 00;10;15;00 - 00;10;17;12 Speaker 1 Working on your next, record excursion. 00;10;17;12 - 00;10;39;10 Speaker 4 That's right. You know, we're looking at getting after what is the full mission stack, from subsurface surface aerial up to and including high altitude balloons. What do we do? What's the magic mix that we need to employ as an unmanned hybrid fleet to ensure that we do have that persistent, over specific waterways? 00;10;39;13 - 00;10;43;12 Speaker 1 Why is the speeds the capability important for the warfighter? 00;10;43;14 - 00;11;03;19 Speaker 4 Yeah, speed is important because the, the, the Navy has, near peer and adversarial threats on the water to day. We need to demonstrate how we can do manned and unmanned teaming with our unmanned assets, but in such a way that they complement and team with our traditional, naval hulls. 00;11;03;19 - 00;11;13;04 Speaker 2 So you kind of touched on this, but I'd like to expand more on why it's so important for an unmanned fleet to be a part of modern warfare. Nowadays. 00;11;13;04 - 00;11;37;27 Speaker 4 We've been able to demonstrate the speed of capability for robotic autonomous platforms and their effects that they have had in specific, armed conflict, taking in consideration specifically Black Sea and how the Ukrainians have been able to employ both kinetic and non-kinetic effectors using unmanned platforms. And we need to be able to demonstrate the same. 00;11;37;28 - 00;11;41;10 Speaker 2 It also reduces risk to sailors in some ways. Right? 00;11;41;10 - 00;12;07;19 Speaker 4 That's absolutely correct. So one of the beauties with immune systems, and we do call them unmanned, they're not necessarily unmanned, although there's there's no crew on board there. There is some, manpower that goes behind the operations and maintenance, sustainment and support of these platforms. But you make a very good point that and performing the duties zero. I mean, we're not risking sailors and Marines in contested environments. 00;12;07;19 - 00;12;21;20 Speaker 2 Yeah. And you can cover more water with less sailors and like, like faster timelines, those type of things. Right. And we need that to be competitive with any adversary moving forward when it comes to modern warfare. 00;12;21;20 - 00;12;44;25 Speaker 4 That's absolutely correct. We need to prove that we can truly perform long range endurance and autonomous operations over any oceanic distance. And I think the work that we've done to validate those global hand handoffs and demonstrate that the platforms that we have delivered are here today. They are mission ready today, and we're ready to employ them. 00;12;45;01 - 00;12;52;03 Speaker 1 Speaking of employing those critical assets, how is your team helping the warfighter complete its mission? 00;12;52;05 - 00;13;13;27 Speaker 4 Yeah. So our our efforts, directly supporting the unmanned fleet, you know, we are extending that maritime domain awareness. We're employing more sensors, providing more effectors that allow our naval partners to take on, risk with the with these machines that they may otherwise be, less likely to perform. And we can do that in those contested environments. 00;13;13;29 - 00;13;32;26 Speaker 4 This will help us, you know, cover more water with fewer people. I think it will help us to enable that persistent presence, faster sensing to shooting and new concepts, of operations that would otherwise be too costly and or too dangerous, with only manned assets. 00;13;32;26 - 00;13;45;23 Speaker 2 Can you elaborate more on how your team is using the data that you're collecting to kind of improve all of the work that you're doing with the warfighter, with everything going on with unmanned vessels? Yeah. 00;13;45;23 - 00;14;09;02 Speaker 4 Of course. You know, we've we've talked a lot about putting vessels in places where it matters, but we also have to take measures to put the data where it matters. So we have data coming from every sensor, on every platform that this could be telemetry positioning. It could be for motion video, still imagery, sonar, electromagnetic be radar. 00;14;09;05 - 00;14;32;18 Speaker 4 And all of this data has to get coalesced and placed where it matters, and in doing so enables the fight for the concept. So this data comes off these platforms and goes through a cloud based architecture. And is delivered to the appropriate classification and fleet watch floor where those decisions are being made. 00;14;32;20 - 00;14;40;07 Speaker 2 So it's helping decision making and in a very efficient way. And you're able to really move things quickly because of this data. 00;14;40;10 - 00;14;52;22 Speaker 4 Yeah, that's right. As we move data, machine speed and in near real time, we can provide the better watch, captain, the ability to use unmanned to make naval decisions. 00;14;52;22 - 00;14;59;03 Speaker 2 And does this make you in some ways faster than some of the ships that are out there at sea? 00;14;59;04 - 00;15;03;23 Speaker 4 Maybe not necessarily faster? However, at a lower cost. 00;15;03;27 - 00;15;05;25 Speaker 2 Gotcha. That's important too. 00;15;05;28 - 00;15;16;11 Speaker 4 Yeah. The these amends really, provide a, a force multiplication. Right. So, you can do a lot more mission sets with a lot less risk and at a much lower cost. 00;15;16;14 - 00;15;24;29 Speaker 1 Great. Well, thank you, Mike, for joining us on the podcast. It's really exciting to hear what the Unit team is doing and look forward to hearing more about your successes in the future. 00;15;25;01 - 00;15;33;13 Speaker 4 Yeah, thanks a lot for having me. I'm looking forward to doing a follow up with you. Talking about some of our our next emerging technologies. 00;15;33;13 - 00;15;52;26 Speaker 2 Absolutely. Great chat with Mike. Always fun chatting with him. And this team has definitely got their hands full. The Navy is currently investing hundreds of millions of dollars in unmanned vessels, and unit is in the thick of innovation and testing around the technology needed for those vessels. So super impressive stuff. 00;15;53;03 - 00;16;12;18 Speaker 1 Yes, it was really great to see some of the other things they've done, recently. And so I was really excited with what they've accomplished so far. Now let's jump into a military moment where I speak with Gunny, Sergeant Marco Harmonious, who is in Hampton Roads, Virginia, and supports the fleet for Marine Corps aviation. 00;16;12;20 - 00;16;33;01 Speaker 3 I'm Gunny, Sergeant Marco Jaramillo. I work and I work in Hampton Roads. I got there in 2022 and now I support the fleet for Marine Corps Aviation. That's my main job. Besides that, I also support the noise program and I also work with inform for testing. So that's what I do night week. 00;16;33;07 - 00;16;37;07 Speaker 1 Can you tell me a little bit about your background and how you became interested in joining the military? 00;16;37;09 - 00;17;02;06 Speaker 3 Yeah. So back in high school, 20 plus years ago, I saw a recruiter walking by. We talked a combat tension, but at the end took action at that moment until one of my friends, he depart for bootcamp with the Marines. He came back, we talked about it sounds a good challenge to a recruiter. I was a little bit heavy handed some way, but, talk to him. 00;17;02;08 - 00;17;18;25 Speaker 3 He sounds really interesting. I had a family already. I had a wife and a kid, so it looks pretty promising for my future with my family. So I decided to take the challenge and go straight to the Marines because I hear he's a busy branch, so I didn't look into any branches. I just went straight there. 00;17;18;25 - 00;17;22;12 Speaker 1 What has been the most rewarding for you in serving in the Marines? 00;17;22;12 - 00;17;42;10 Speaker 3 The most rewarding thing is all the the Brotherhood sisterhood that we go with the Marines, like being deploy your well for your family, you spouses, your kids. But that cohesion and the bond that we make over there, is that the best thing for me right now? Like, I got friends all over the place that we reach out to each other. 00;17;42;10 - 00;17;59;16 Speaker 3 And also, one of the reasons I joined two was travel. So an adventure. We got benefits and I like to go and explore different places, new places, new cultures and courses about enjoying life and go out there and not just stay in one city in one spot the whole time. So I love that. 00;17;59;18 - 00;18;05;00 Speaker 1 What has been your favorite, sort of location that you've been? Do the station that you worked. 00;18;05;00 - 00;18;26;18 Speaker 3 At as a duty station? No. Week has been the best one for me. I have learned a lot. It's a different environment, different flow of what I used to do with the fleet, with the other Marines. Use more and more technical learning, more things. And I like also, I got to spend more time with the family because I don't deploy. 00;18;26;20 - 00;18;30;22 Speaker 3 So I get to see my family every day. So that's a plus for me. 00;18;30;25 - 00;18;33;24 Speaker 1 That's really great. Well, thank you for your service and thanks for being on the podcast. 00;18;33;24 - 00;18;37;15 Speaker 3 Thanks. Appreciate it. 00;18;37;18 - 00;18;42;20 Speaker 1 It was great talking with him and hearing about his successes, and glad he's now able to spend time with his family. 00;18;42;21 - 00;19;01;23 Speaker 2 Yeah, and I thought it was really touching how important the relationships he's made in the military have been. He mentioned that feeling of brotherhood and that that was really great to hear that from him and how important that's been. In the military. So we've got teams with Unit, we've got Brotherhood. It's a group effort here at Network Atlantic that creates this success. 00;19;01;27 - 00;19;03;13 Speaker 2 I love it, Alex. I just love. 00;19;03;13 - 00;19;06;09 Speaker 1 It. Yeah. We've got one of the best teams here at Network Atlantic. 00;19;06;11 - 00;19;15;19 Speaker 2 And one of the best podcast teams that's going to win an award someday. Right, Joe, who? Another award. We've already won one. So yeah, you got to keep going. 00;19;15;19 - 00;19;16;10 Speaker 1 Got to move up from. 00;19;16;10 - 00;19;25;05 Speaker 2 Here, as always, to learn more about anything we've mentioned in the podcast, check out our social medias under Nap or our Navigate Clinic website. Links are in the description. 00;19;25;05 - 00;19;38;01 Speaker 1 This wraps up another great episode. As always, we thank you for listening. If you have a story that you think should be included in this podcast, please contact us at our Public Affairs email address which is listed in the description. 00;19;38;03 - 00;19;55;07 Speaker 2 Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic, also known as Violet, is the East Coast branch of the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command within the Department of the Navy, we develop a range of technologies that provide state of the art capabilities to the United States military.