What are the key takeaways from this a16z Podcast episode?

Key insights include: **Soldier power baseline:** Individual soldiers today draw 30–60 watts continuously across radios, end-user devices, and drone batteries. Over a 72-hour operation, that equals 1.5–2 kilowatt-hours per soldier before accounting for squad, platoon, or command post loads. Planners must build power budgets starting at the individual level before scaling to unit requirements.; **Signature management over raw output:** A 15-kilowatt diesel generator running at 500 watts to meet peak demand creates a persistent thermal and acoustic signature that exposes position. Hybrid battery-generator systems eliminate this by running generation only at efficient load levels, then switching to silent battery mode, cutting detectable signatures without sacrificing operational capability.; **Software-defined power routing:** Plugging a coffee maker into a tactical command post can crash an air defense radar due to unmanaged load spikes. A software power management layer that staggers high-draw loads by 3-second intervals can reduce peak demand by a factor of three, directly cutting required system size and weight with zero operational impact.

What did Adam Warmoth and Alex Miller discuss on a16z Podcast?

Adam Warmoth, founder of Chariot Defense, and Alex Miller, CTO of the US Army, examine the critical power infrastructure gap in modern warfare. Individual soldiers draw 30–60 watts continuously, distributed units require silent operation, and legacy diesel generators create targetable thermal and acoustic signatures that undermine every electronic system the army fields. Key topics include: **Soldier power baseline:** Individual soldiers today draw 30–60 watts continuously across radios, end-user devices, and drone batteries. Over a 72-hour operation, that equals 1.5–2 kilowatt-hours per soldier before accounting for squad, platoon, or command post loads. Planners must build power budgets starting at the individual level before scaling to unit requirements.; **Signature management over raw output:** A 15-kilowatt diesel generator running at 500 watts to meet peak demand creates a persistent thermal and acoustic signature that exposes position. Hybrid battery-generator systems eliminate this by running generation only at efficient load levels, then switching to silent battery mode, cutting detectable signatures without sacrificing operational capability..

How long is this episode of a16z Podcast?

This episode is 50 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

a16z Podcast

The Missing Power Layer of Modern Warfare

March 24, 2026

50 min episode · 2 min read

Adam Warmoth,Alex Miller

Episode

50 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Remote Work, Investing, Startups

AI-Generated Summary

Published Mar 24, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓Soldier power baseline: Individual soldiers today draw 30–60 watts continuously across radios, end-user devices, and drone batteries. Over a 72-hour operation, that equals 1.5–2 kilowatt-hours per soldier before accounting for squad, platoon, or command post loads. Planners must build power budgets starting at the individual level before scaling to unit requirements.
✓Signature management over raw output: A 15-kilowatt diesel generator running at 500 watts to meet peak demand creates a persistent thermal and acoustic signature that exposes position. Hybrid battery-generator systems eliminate this by running generation only at efficient load levels, then switching to silent battery mode, cutting detectable signatures without sacrificing operational capability.
✓Software-defined power routing: Plugging a coffee maker into a tactical command post can crash an air defense radar due to unmanaged load spikes. A software power management layer that staggers high-draw loads by 3-second intervals can reduce peak demand by a factor of three, directly cutting required system size and weight with zero operational impact.
✓Army acquisition restructuring: The US Army consolidated 13 program executive offices into 6 portfolio acquisition executives, each now controlling contracting, labs, and requirements generation under one authority. This structure enables portfolio-level trade-offs — accepting an 80% solution available in 30 days over a 100% solution requiring years of development — accelerating fielding timelines measurably.
✓Domestic battery supply chain strategy: China leads in battery cell production, creating supply chain risk down to soldiers buying Chinese-connected power banks at Home Depot. The Army and Department of Energy are directing roughly $500 million combined toward onshoring battery cell manufacturing. Defense companies can accelerate this by committing to purchase first production runs, helping suppliers descend the cost curve.

What It Covers

Adam Warmoth, founder of Chariot Defense, and Alex Miller, CTO of the US Army, examine the critical power infrastructure gap in modern warfare. Individual soldiers draw 30–60 watts continuously, distributed units require silent operation, and legacy diesel generators create targetable thermal and acoustic signatures that undermine every electronic system the army fields.

Key Questions Answered

•Soldier power baseline: Individual soldiers today draw 30–60 watts continuously across radios, end-user devices, and drone batteries. Over a 72-hour operation, that equals 1.5–2 kilowatt-hours per soldier before accounting for squad, platoon, or command post loads. Planners must build power budgets starting at the individual level before scaling to unit requirements.
•Signature management over raw output: A 15-kilowatt diesel generator running at 500 watts to meet peak demand creates a persistent thermal and acoustic signature that exposes position. Hybrid battery-generator systems eliminate this by running generation only at efficient load levels, then switching to silent battery mode, cutting detectable signatures without sacrificing operational capability.
•Software-defined power routing: Plugging a coffee maker into a tactical command post can crash an air defense radar due to unmanaged load spikes. A software power management layer that staggers high-draw loads by 3-second intervals can reduce peak demand by a factor of three, directly cutting required system size and weight with zero operational impact.
•Army acquisition restructuring: The US Army consolidated 13 program executive offices into 6 portfolio acquisition executives, each now controlling contracting, labs, and requirements generation under one authority. This structure enables portfolio-level trade-offs — accepting an 80% solution available in 30 days over a 100% solution requiring years of development — accelerating fielding timelines measurably.
•Domestic battery supply chain strategy: China leads in battery cell production, creating supply chain risk down to soldiers buying Chinese-connected power banks at Home Depot. The Army and Department of Energy are directing roughly $500 million combined toward onshoring battery cell manufacturing. Defense companies can accelerate this by committing to purchase first production runs, helping suppliers descend the cost curve.

Notable Moment

During an Arctic rotation with the 11th Airborne at negative 40 degrees, soldiers discovered that wrapping drone batteries in space blankets retained enough heat to maintain flight capability — a zero-cost field solution that outperformed purpose-built equipment and directly informed formal cold-weather power management development priorities.

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Episode Transcript

All the things we wanna 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 We are 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 Mhmm. That was 99% of the time running at 500 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 copypot, and it'll take down the air defense radar. Modern warfare runs on electrons. Drones, 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. 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 1% 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 Warmoth, founder and CEO of Chariot Defense, and Alex Miller, CTO of the US Army. We're here today with Adam Warmoth 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 Anduril 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 c show. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Take care. Maybe just getting right into it. Adam, for listeners, in sixty seconds, what is Chariot building? Who's the end user? 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 warfare. 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 …

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