![DEFAERO Strategy Series [Jul 08, 25] Applied Minds’ Bran Ferren](https://defaeroreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-08-at-7.56.03 AM-351x185.png)
DEFAERO Strategy Series [Jul 08, 25] Applied Minds’ Bran Ferren
On this episode of the Defense & Aerospace Report Strategy Series, sponsored by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Bran Ferren, the cofounder and CEO of the Applied Minds consultancy, joins Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian to discuss the merits of bringing interdisciplinary to problem solving; the need for the United States to adopt disruptive thinking to countering adversaries like China rather than playing their numbers game; how to drive innovation; why America has tracked the China threat in particular but failed to better prepare for it; why the Pentagon needs a variety of acquisition approaches with differing speeds depending on what’s being acquired; and enduring lessons from mankind’s greatest achievement, the Apollo moon landings.