“They’re Underwater!” - MIT Drone CEO on WW3, China Spy Drones & Submersive UFOs | Jesse Hamel • 385
Julian Dorey · 17 Feb 2026 · 2h 45m
Guest: Jesse Hamel · Host: Joey Def, Julian Dorey
This conversation with a retired Air Force officer turned drone-tech CEO traces the arc of military drone warfare from Predator-era Afghanistan operations through the cheap, 3D-printed FPV drones that defined Ukraine's defense against Russia, and into what the guest sees as the coming era of mass-produced autonomous swarms. He explains why GPS dependency is a critical vulnerability for nearly every modern drone, aircraft, and even banking system, and describes his company's approach to giving machines a GPS-independent sense of position modeled on the human inner ear. Much of the discussion focuses on the acquisition and procurement dysfunction inside the Pentagon, revolving-door incentives between government and defense primes, and how Chinese drone manufacturers like DJI came to dominate the US commercial market with alleged spyware risk, including a failed state bill meant to address it. The guest also discusses balloon-launched hypersonic drone concepts, fiber-optic drones in Ukraine, and the strategic importance of underwater drone warfare as the least understood military domain. The conversation closes with an extended, personal discussion of faith, combat experience, cultural decline, birth rates, and housing affordability, moving well outside the technical material into the guest's broader worldview.
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What comes up
Timestamps link into the episode on YouTube.
- Origins of military drone warfare
- Predator drones and early lethal engagement
- Airspace deconfliction and drone accidents
- Ukraine, cheap FPV drones, and asymmetric warfare
- Drone swarms as the future of national security
- GPS vulnerability and jamming
- Military career, MIT, and founding Victus
- Pentagon procurement dysfunction and defense contracting incentives
- Building a GPS-independent 'inner ear' for drones
- Chinese drone dominance, DJI spyware, and underwater drones
- Faith, combat experience, and cultural decline
Said on this episode
Quoted from the auto-generated transcript, which mishears names and technical terms. podcite.com reports what a show said; it does not endorse or fact-check it.
“drones are trending towards bullets”
“we assume right now that GPS is basically non-existent anywhere in the battle space.”
“we have a problem within US military. And that problem is kind of victims of our own success at a tactical level.”
“Our own rules have gotten so cumbersome that the other way is now the primary way.”