Andy Christian, Director of Growth

I’m thrilled to join Smack as Director of Growth.

Over the course of 28 years with Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) and Naval Special Warfare Command (NSW), I had a front-row seat to the introduction of drones used as an attack vehicle against Allied forces. There was no playbook for fighting this new threat during the battle of Mosul, where I served as the Special Operations Task Force Commander. Instead, we learned on the job and were forced to adapt as the technology and tactics of the enemy evolved.

Recently, Ukraine has only reiterated how quickly these capabilities are advancing. Autonomous systems will be a defining part of how all future conflicts are fought, and we must think strategically about how they integrate not only with each other, but with the men and women making decisions from the command center to the tactical edge.

That’s why I came to Smack. Over four tours in Afghanistan and five in Iraq, I had the opportunity to work closely with Andy and other members of the founding team. The level of deep military and special operations experience they have assembled is unparalleled. Combined with Smack’s engineering and scientific talent, I immediately recognized this as a team that both understands the operational problem and has the technical ability to solve it.

Smack’s focus, Decision Dominance through Intelligent Autonomy, is exactly what warfighters need. Staffs still spend enormous amounts of time building PowerPoint slides and preparing decision briefs that have to be tediously pushed between siloed organizations, echelons, and allies. All this is taking place while data is being generated faster than ever.

The challenge is turning that data into the right decisions quickly, while determining where humans need to remain in the loop and where machines can take on more of the work. Getting that balance right will be critical as the volume and speed of information on the battlefield continues to increase.

We also need to solve the problem of orchestration. There are many companies building autonomous vehicles, drones, sensors, and C2 systems. To succeed on the battlefield, we will need to bring these capabilities together with older platforms and systems, and make them usable by warfighters at the tactical edge without relying on cloud computing and reachback, particularly in denied, degraded, or intermittent communications environments.

Since retiring from the military in 2017, I’ve spent nearly a decade working across defense and commercial technology, from electric vehicle infrastructure to autonomous systems. That experience gave me a unique perspective on technology development and commercialization that I didn’t have while in uniform. What makes Smack so compelling is the opportunity to bring those experiences back to a mission I care deeply about: building the platforms that deliver better information, faster decisions, and more meaningful capabilities to warfighters in this new age of autonomous warfare.

I’m excited to get to work.