Hello and welcome to the show.

My name is Vincent Aiello, call sign Jello.

I am the founder and host of the fighter pilot podcast.

And I'm Mike Benitez, call sign Paco.

I'm the founder and host of the merge.

And to become that effective, Paco, whether in the U.S. Air Force F-15E strike Eagle,

you flew, or in the Navy, the FAA18

Hornet and Super Hornet that I did, well, that takes quite a bit of effort.

Yeah, I mean, at the minimum, you're going to need to get gas.

You're going to have an aircraft that works at maintenance.

You have to have a proficient aircrew, just for starters.

Not to mention permissive environmental conditions and agreeable rules of engagement, among other factors.

But even so, there is still one more thing every fighting aircraft needs to be lethal in combat.

That's right.

And that's going to be the armament, the missiles and the bombs.

The things that go boom.

And while the military specifies weapon requirements, generally speaking, the Department of Defense is not in the business of developing and producing the ordinance we employ.

That's right. We leave that up to our industry partners, of which Raytheon is perhaps the largest and most capable out there.

And joining us today is Mr. John Norman, call sign Stormon, Vice President of Requirements and Capabilities at Raytheon, a business of RTX.

Jill, Paco, great to meet you.

Hey, welcome to Stormin.

Hey, so I'm guessing to end up in a position like you're storming.

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