At a moment of historic instability, Americans are looking to talk to thought leaders for answers to hard questions about morale, readiness, and the future of our armed forces.
Commander Phil Ehr, U.S. Navy (Ret.), now a partner at the U.S.-based energy technology company NeutronX, and Naval Academy graduate Lorna Ceaser, now the Chief Operating Officer at NeutronX, are among those thought leaders.
NeutronX possesses expertise in military operations, defense systems, energy infrastructure as national security, airport operations, and critical infrastructure – and knows the foibles of government contracting.
Rising from seaman to a commissioned officer and pilot during his 26 years in the United States Navy, Commander Ehr saw firsthand how the strength of the force ultimately rests at the deck-plate level. His operational record includes Cold War reconnaissance, combat support in Operation Desert Storm, and a senior command role in Operation Allied Force (Kosovo).
Ceaser’s background includes service as a Navy cryptologic warfare officer and as a senior national security executive specializing in defense technology, energy infrastructure, and financial strategy. In the Navy, she commanded over 140 of the most highly trained soldiers, sailors, airmen, and civilian specialists operating at the highest echelons of national security.
In a recent joint interview, Ehr and Ceaser agreed that America’s sailors, soldiers, airmen, Marines, and members of the National Guard remain extraordinarily capable. When ordered, they execute complex joint operations with precision and professionalism. The operational prowess of the U.S. military remains unmatched, as has been demonstrated across multiple theaters in recent months.
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But the readiness of those in military service is not just about courage and competence. It is about people, material, and operational tempo.
Recruitment numbers may fluctuate, and retention challenges are real. The tempo of deployments strains families and communities. Public controversy over U.S. operations, from the Caribbean to the Red Sea, and domestic political divisions inevitably filter into formations and squadrons.
These tensions are felt across the ranks. Yet the professionalism of the force endures.
The nation’s quest for continued material readiness, however, presents both challenges and opportunities in a time when the character of warfare is changing.
As Ehr and Ceaser note, distributed threats and distributed firepower, vividly illustrated in the war in Ukraine, demand distributed energy and logistics solutions. Single points of failure are vulnerabilities. Logistics hubs, fuel depots, and centralized power sources are strategic liabilities in contested environments such as the Indo-Pacific.
Energy security is thus national security.
Based on their experience, Ehr and Ceaser acknowledge that forward-deployed forces must be mobile, modular, and resilient. Expeditionary units operating ashore, Marine forces deploying from the sea, and land-based operations maneuvering in austere environments all require power that is adaptable and decentralized.
NeutronX’s AI-driven energy technologies and modular microgrid systems can fundamentally alter the operational calculus. Their ability to convert diverse fuel sources into electricity in mobile, ruggedized systems reduces dependency on vulnerable supply chains.
When paired with artificial intelligence for load balancing, predictive maintenance, and energy optimization, such systems enhance survivability and lethality simultaneously.
But technology alone is not enough. Acquisition reform must keep pace to put that technology to work for America.
For decades, the Pentagon has struggled to field emerging technologies at the speed required to deter near-peer competitors such as China. While progress has been made, especially in rapid prototyping and streamlined contracting authorities, bureaucratic inertia remains a persistent obstacle.
The battlefield is evolving in real time. Both Ehr and Ceaser suggested we must learn from Ukraine’s innovations in drone warfare and distributed command-and-control as carefully as we once studied Israeli operational doctrine.
Meanwhile, China’s rapid advances in AI-capable chips and integrated military-civil fusion demand constant vigilance.
The United States must preserve its qualitative edge — not episodically, but continuously.
This requires tighter integration across cyber, space, maritime, and energy domains. It requires embedding scientists, engineers, and private-sector innovators into the defense capability development process.
It also requires modernizing procurement pathways long been plagued by inefficiency and, at times, waste and abuse.
Recent federal initiatives to expand access to funding streams and connect small businesses with defense opportunities are steps in the right direction. The defense industrial base must become more agile, more competitive, and more inclusive of cutting-edge private-sector expertise.
National resilience depends on it.
The future of American power is not defined solely by platforms -- ships, aircraft, and armored vehicles -- but by adaptability. Naval forces, for example, are at their best when built with open architectures capable of integrating new technologies over time. The same principle applies across the Joint Force.
Adaptability also extends beyond combat. Disaster response, humanitarian relief, and infrastructure resilience are core missions of the U.S. military and its partners. Hurricanes such as Maria demonstrated how energy disruption can paralyze entire regions. Climate volatility and geopolitical instability will only increase the demand for rapid, deployable power solutions.
In South Florida, where military installations, spaceport development, and local industry intersect, there is a model established for how economic security and national security reinforce one another.
Strengthening local manufacturing ecosystems through solution providers such as NeutronX not only builds resilience at home but enhances America’s ability to respond abroad.
One can predict in the near term the rapid adoption of modular, AI-enabled energy systems across both defense and commercial sectors in America. In five to ten years, such technologies should be understood not as niche capabilities but as foundational infrastructure — supporting warfighters, first responders, and communities alike.
The nature of warfare does not change. The character of warfare does. Today, that character is distributed, networked, and increasingly intelligent.
To meet it, the United States must remain equally adaptive -- technologically, institutionally, and economically.
Our service members are ready. Our innovators are ready.
But will the U.S. military procure the energy systems our service members desperately need fast enough to enable them to prevail on all fronts? That remains to be seen.
Duggan Flanakin is a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow who writes on a wide variety of public policy issues.
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