The Missing Power Layer of Modern Warfare
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Why is power such a critical need for modern soldiers on the battlefield?
All the things we want to do is really about the soldier. In the mud, cold, wet, tired, hungry, what makes their lives easier or better? Your average soldier today, they're drawing just by themselves 30 to 60 watts of power continuously during their operation. So that's basically a mid-tier laptop running all the time.
We were moving towards an increasingly electronic battlefield. There's really this missing power layer that is required to actually field all those systems. Chariot is building the tactical power layer for robotic warfare. So we had a lot of passive capabilities that were able to hide, kind of sense without kind of giving away position, but needed the ability to go active when we needed to make an interception. So that meant that we had to bring the 15 kilowatt generator. That was ninety nine percent of the time running at five hundred watts, creating this detectable signature both from the thermal and acoustic signature and then the resupply because it's using fuel so inefficiently. So there are all these things that create
a signature in environments where there shouldn't be signatures and that means that we can be targeted.
So someone will go plug in a copy pot and it'll take down the air defense radar.
Modern warfare runs on electrons. Dromes, sensors, electronic warfare systems, edge AI, every capability the army wants to field draws power. But the infrastructure delivering that power hasn't kept pace.
What is the “missing power layer” and why does the Army need it today?
For decades of counterinsurgency, diesel generators and fixed forward operating bases were enough. Today, the battlefield is distributed, decentralized, and contested. Every generator running at one percent capacity is a targetable thermal signature. Every fuel convoy supplying it is a liability. The question isn't how to power more things. It's what the right things are and how to make that power invisible to the enemy. Aaron Price Wright speaks with Adam Warmouth, founder and CEO of Chariot Defense, and Alex Miller, CGO of the U.S. Army.
We're here today with Adam Warmouth and Alex Miller. Adam is the founder and CEO of Chariot Defense, which builds next generation power systems for the battlefield. Before that, he led engineering at Andoral and product at Archer Aviation. And Alex is the CTO of the US Army where he runs all things technology. He's the driving force behind the Army's push, thank you, to get new tech into soldiers' hands fast. Adam Alex, welcome to the A sixteen Z show.
Yeah. Thanks for having me. Take beer.
Maybe just getting right into it. Adam, for listeners, in sixty seconds, what is chariot building? Who's the end user?
How does the Army’s CTO influence technology adoption and procurement?
And what does winning look like for you guys in the field?
It's a great question. Chariot is building the tactical power layer for robotic worker. The reason why chariot needs to exist in the world is we are moving towards an increasingly electronic battlefield at the same time that it's becoming more distributed, more decentralized. And we're building kind of these new systems or pushing these new systems down to these operational mobile forces that now need to sustain equipment, have organic capabilities around command and control, around county UAS, around air defense, EW, all of these electronic systems. And there's really this missing power layer that is required to actually field all those systems. So when I was leading County UAS at Androll, we were fielding all these new systems into expeditionary environments and constantly running into problems with the existing power solutions being insufficient for what they were being asked to do in that new environment.
So what we're doing is basically building integrated battery, power electronics, microcontroller systems that allow you to hybridize your systems. So we're not gonna replace diesel fuel, we're not gonna replace power generation. What we can do is be much more smart and be much more tactical about how we actually employ and distribute the balance.
Awesome. And now, Alex, for listeners, what does the CTO of the army actually mean in practice? What do you control versus influence?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why is power such a critical need for modern soldiers on the battlefield?
0:00–1:15
2
What is the “missing power layer” and why does the Army need it today?
1:15–2:28
3
How does the Army’s CTO influence technology adoption and procurement?
2:28–5:33
4
What does a modern tactical operations center look like and what power gaps does it have?
5:33–11:39
5
What is Chariot Defense’s first product (the M4‑24 system) and how does it differ from traditional generators?
11:39–18:53
6
Which field lessons taught Chariot to build hybrid, low‑signature power solutions?
18:53–26:30
7
How is the Army reforming procurement to get new hardware to soldiers faster?
26:30–36:44
8
What does success look like for tactical power modernization in the next 24 months?
36:44–50:20
Speakers
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