If it feels like investors everywhere have some curiosity about the defense tech landscape, then it’s because more of them both want to increase their knowledge and sometimes involvement in the ecosystem.

Steve Brotman, founder and managing partner of the growth equity investment firm Alpha Partners, fits into that category as an observer and participant that works with venture capital firms to be involved in promising tech companies.

Steve joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to answer the questions laid out in the title, namely how it became cool again for investors to get involved with defense tech companies and markers that indicate how long this boom of interest could last.

SpaceX’s initial public offering and corporate VC funds feature in the chat too. Also listen out for Steve’s tips and suggested homework for business leaders to do before venturing out into VC networks.

US investors warm to Ukrainian defense startups—but export laws slow cooperation

Budget would cut Pentagon research by one-third. Can industry compensate?

Meet the startups trying to build military-specific AI

Venture investing is part of the M&A conversation too

The defense tech ecosystem gives investors many opportunities

Public offerings put GovCon in a new spotlight as SpaceX's listing looms

SpaceX's S-1 lays out its government work and market ambitions

SpaceX’s governance structure is built for one person: Elon Musk

SpaceX’s biggest risk factor might be Elon Musk

Lockheed boosts its venture investment fund to $1B

Booz Allen commits $400M to Andreessen Horowitz's late-stage fund

Booz Allen gives big boost to its venture arm

WT 360: For Lockheed's ventures team, its investments are merely step one

WT 360: RTX Ventures casts its net wide and far across an expanding tech ecosystem

WT 360: Booz Allen’s roadmap for collaborating with startups after an investment

WT 360: SAIC Ventures’ methods for investing in and working with tech startups

The window for government contractors, especially those in defense and space technology, to go public is open again as several listings over the past 12 months show and SpaceX’s own offering this year will illustrate.

Dave Khalsa, head of mid-cap defense and government technology investment banking at J.P. Morgan, works on transactions of many different types and observes all of them to help companies in the market figure it all out.

In starting out this episode, Dave explains what all companies can take away from the handful of initial public offerings over the past 12 months and SpaceX’s listing. This is true of whether they plan to go down the IPO path or not.

The rest of the conversation between Dave and our Ross Wilkers focuses on how government priorities shape merger-and-acquisition activities by companies under different ownership models, including private equity and venture capital.

Public offerings put GovCon in a new spotlight as SpaceX's listing looms

HawkEye 360's public offering hauls in $416M

AEVEX fetches $320M in IPO proceeds

Firefly captures $868M in IPO proceeds

York Space Systems raises $629M in public offering

Merlin Labs’ public offering collects $200M to build an AI autopilot for any aircraft

L3Harris to spin off its rocket motor business with the Pentagon as an anchor investor

AeroVironment's tech and business blueprints with BlueHalo now in the fold

Veritas Capital's ninth fund grows to $15.3B

OceanSound Partners hauls in $3.4B for third fund

Arlington Capital fetches $6B for its seventh fund

Government equity investments open a new frontier for industry

Venture investing is part of the M&A conversation too

Anduril hauls in $5B for Series H round

Shield AI closes $1.5B Series G round and moves on acquisition

Saronic wraps up $600M Series C round

Sierra Space and Vast detail their Series C investment rounds

The federal government’s lead agency for domestic cybersecurity and infrastructure protection matters has only completed its first week of being fully back up and running after not being funded for 11 weeks.

David DiMolfetta, cyber reporter at NextGov/FCW, has covered how the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has operated through a period that followed losses of nearly one-third of its workforce under this Trump administration.

David joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to lay out CISA’s path forward with funding in place, plus what the agency’s stakeholders in the private and public sectors should watch out for amid the catchup.

David then breaks down NextGov/FCW’s recent reporting on two major storylines on artificial intelligence policy coming out of the White House that has direct implications for industry.

The second half of their conversation is all about a deep dive article David put together on where industry fits, or may not fit, into the government’s offensive cyber approach.

CISA resources ‘more limited than I would like’ amid shutdown, top official says

IBM security executive emerges as possible contender to lead CISA

Plankey withdraws nomination to lead CISA

Trump admin floats policy language limiting contractor say on agency uses of technology

White House is drafting plans to permit federal Anthropic use

Operational technology providers are feeling ‘annoyance’ at exclusion from Anthropic’s Mythos rollout, sources say

Anthropic’s Glasswing initiative raises questions for US cyber operations

US push to counter hackers draws industry deeper into offensive cyber debate

US lists offensive cyberattacks in counterterrorism strategy

Trump admin will push for ‘long-term’ reauthorization of key cyber data-sharing law

Once again, the U.S. government is accusing China of being among several foreign entities that are looking to steal proprietary information on artificial intelligence models from American companies.

Edward Graham, managing editor and Veterans Affairs Department reporter at NextGov/FCW, discovered a memo the White House sent to federal agencies that warns of distillation campaigns seeking to help create knockoff versions of AI models.

Ed joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to explain how those campaigns work and, more importantly, how they help illuminate the competition between the U.S. and China to lead the world in AI and robotics tech development.

Ed also provides an update on where things stand with VA’s rollout of a new electronic health record, which has had many fits and starts over the years to say the least.

White House accuses China of ‘deliberate, industrial-scale campaigns’ to steal US AI models

US needs to flesh out strategy to counter China’s robotics advances, lawmakers say

AI capabilities are needed to counter drone threats, senator says

House FY27 VA funding bill allocates $3.4B for EHR rollout

VA resumes EHR rollouts at four Michigan medical sites

Decision authority shifts, the government acting like a venture customer and data transparency being the standard mode of operations are examples of how the old formulas of GovCon business success are becoming outdated.

Davi Hayes, senior director for federal strategy at The Chertoff Group, fields any questions from industry clients seeking to understand those trends and more about how the buying behaviors of their federal customers are changing.

For this episode, Davi joins our Ross Wilkers to lay out some of the answers he found in putting together the article “The Federal Market Has Changed. Has Your Strategy?” The three trends highlighted at the top feature in their discussion.

Davi and Ross also overview how services companies are also part of the equation when “Navigating the New “Production-First” Defense Paradigm,” a second article to read along as they discuss the new world order of GovCon.

Noblis was stood up in 1996 as a science, technology and strategy organization that works with federal agencies on creating and rolling out solutions for some of their most complex problems.

Mile Corrigan, chief executive of Noblis, joins for this episode to go over the firm’s blueprint for its future beyond this milestone year of celebrating its 30th anniversary and how technology transition efforts are at the heart of that vision.

The government wants tech to get from lab to field much quicker than before. In talking with our Ross Wilkers, Corrigan explains some of the keys to making that happen from an industry point-of-view.

Corrigan also lays out how Noblis looks at applied science, the firm’s venture investment activity since starting out on that in 2023 and what it means to be a nonprofit in today’s landscape.

WT 360: The tech and investment threads of Noblis 'Vision 2030'

Noblis' venture arm backs generative AI company

Noblis' venture arm invests in space data tech company

Noblis' venture arm backs digital twin specialist

Noblis looks within for its next chief executive

More code than papers: inside Noblis' turn into that direction

Noblis' evolution told by this foray into solutions

While the 20th century’s Space Race was strictly head-to-head, the 21st century variant is much more complex and multipolar as private businesses and nations are looking to lead in this domain.

Kevin Kelly, chief executive of Arcfield, joins for this episode to go over how this systems engineering outfit is looking at the landscape through the lens of a company that has both government and private sector customers.

In talking with Ross Wilkers, Kelly explains the art and science of managing space as it gets more and more crowded thanks to plummeting launch costs.

The Golden Dome missile defense initiative, data centers in space and Arcfield’s acquisition activity over the past three years are also on the agenda.

Arcfield enters the seas via acquisition

Arcfield adds small satellite skills with new acquisition

Arcfield acquires digital twin provider

WT 360: All about Arcfield's strategy and investment thesis

Cuts to contract and grant spending, including outright cancellations, were a feature of the Department of Government Efficiency’s activities during the first year of the Trump administration and some lawsuits followed from those impacted.

Natalie Alms, senior correspondent at NextGov/FCW, worked with our colleague and fellow senior reporter Eric Katz at Government Executive to watch 23 hours of testimony in one of those cases that sheds light on DOGE’s goals and the pressures to meet them.

“Nat” joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to explain what she and Eric discovered in reporting out a story that is still working its way through the judicial system, but is showing enough of the atmosphere and environment surrounding DOGE.

Nat also goes over her findings on how some technologists joining the government workforce can remain connected to their private sector employers and summarizes the White House budget office’s ongoing review of federal contracts.

If you have a tip you'd like to share, Natalie Alms can be securely contacted at nalms.41 on Signal.

Inside DOGE’s early days of pressure campaigns, rule breaking and ‘chaos’

DOJ clears the way for government to hire technologists still connected to their private sector employers

Contract reviews continue at OMB, official says

Federal CIO tapped for dual-hatted role at GSA

Agencies lost around 20,000 tech workers last year — and now the Trump admin is hiring

Inside the federal CIO’s culture-first approach

Trump admin launches US Tech Force to recruit temporary workers after shedding thousands this year

GovCon finds itself in a strange situation where the Homeland Security Department does not have a budget and is in a shutdown, but the three immigration agencies are still operating with some funds.

How is that possible? Stephanie Kostro, president of the Professional Services Council, joins Nick and Ross for this episode to lay out how that is and the DHS funding lapse’s myriad impacts on industry and society.

Their conversation then turns to what contractors are seeking to learn and understand from the U.S. government’s very public breakup with Anthropic, which will take months to complete, and what to watch for next in the Federal Acquisition Regulation overhaul effort.

The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul is far from the only policy item contractors should pay attention to in 2026, as Kostro explains.

Trump's new DHS nominee promises some changes, adequate staffing amid shutdown-induced departures

CISA to furlough most of its workforce under impending DHS shutdown

Path to averting a shutdown remains elusive as lawmakers debate DHS funding

Microsoft takes Anthropic's side in DOD fight, warns it sets a new precedent

WT 360: Nextgov/FCW’s Alexandra Kelley on the government’s breakup with Anthropic

Anthropic sues over a dozen federal agencies and government leaders

The FAR overhaul rewrote the rules, but now comes the hard part

The hardest part of FAR reform is culture, not the rules

GSA set to begin its rulemaking push for the FAR overhaul

Small businesses face upheaval under the acquisition overhaul and agency cuts

Science Applications International Corp. can move ahead on their big decision points now that it has a permanent chief executive, which presents at least one element of certainty in a world replete with unknowns.

Nick and Ross use this episode as a starting point for looking at SAIC’s next steps under CEO Jim Reagan, and the paths forward for several other key business and policy storylines in the public sector landscape.

Anthropic’s fight against the U.S. government’s push to eject it from the market has industry-wide implications to unpack, as does the future of IT resellers and 8(a) companies amid their customer’s scrutiny on those corners of the market.

Nick and Ross also break down why organizational culture is crucial for the Federal Acquisition Regulation overhaul effort.

SAIC's board stays with Reagan, names him full-time CEO

SAIC plans partial pivot away from enterprise IT

Microsoft takes Anthropic's side in DOD fight, warns it sets a new precedent

Anthropic sues over a dozen federal agencies and government leaders

WT 360: Nextgov/FCW’s Alexandra Kelley on the government’s breakup with Anthropic

Government equity investments open a new frontier for industry

OPINION: Federal equity investments raise troubling questions about picking winners and losers

L3Harris to spin off its rocket motor business with the Pentagon as an anchor investor

OPINION: The government's 'passive' Intel stake heightens their commitment to each other and winning the chip wars

‘We will have their backs:’ GSA pushes culture shift for FAR changes

The hardest part of FAR reform is culture, not the rules

FAR overhaul targets risk-averse acquisition culture

GSA wants answers from resellers about markups and equipment maker relationships

Don’t count out resellers as OneGov agreements grow

Where GSA sees resellers fitting into its unified procurement strategy

SBA boots 628 more companies from 8(a) program

8(a) program faces unprecedented pressure from Trump administration attacks

SBA probing 8(a) fraud allegations at tribal-owned contractor

The Defense Department and Anthropic are on opposite ends of a nasty disagreement, with government-wide and industry-wide implications, over what the company’s Claude large language model and other offerings can be used for.

Alexandra Kelley, our Nextgov/FCW colleague who covers emerging tech, has extensively covered the fallout from that impasse as agencies are working to comply with President Trump’s executive order to stop using Claude after the Pentagon essentially broke up with Anthropic.

“Alexa,” as we and other GovExec colleagues call her, joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to explain how those phase-out processes are taking place and provide an initial look at the government’s AI landscape without Anthropic in it.

Claude is embedded in so many workflows across government that fully removing it is not a matter of simply deleting the app, as Alexa points out.

Private sector, former military leaders urge Congress intervene in Pentagon-Anthropic dispute

House amendment responding to Pentagon-Anthropic conflict fails committee vote

Defense tech enters a new era: the case of Anthropic and the DOD

Pentagon’s war on Anthropic based on ‘dubious’ legal thinking and ideology—not real risk, sources say

Agencies begin to shed Anthropic contracts following Trump’s directive

Trump directs government to ‘immediately cease’ using Anthropic technology

It would take the Pentagon months to replace Anthropic’s AI tools: sources

Anthropic CEO defends support for AI regulations, alignment with Trump policies

Anthropic CEO sees 3 areas where policymakers can help with AI

GSA and Anthropic ink deal for Claude AI across all government branches

AWS GovCloud gets high-level security approvals for Anthropic and Meta AI models

Anthropic introduces new Claude Gov models with national security focus

AI startup Anthropic to build out public sector team