Frank Bantell, VP of Technology

I’m thrilled to be joining Smack as Vice President of Technology.

Over decades of military and civil service, including nearly 30 years in the U.S. Navy and 13 at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, I've worked on many of our nation's most consequential defense challenges. I've approached those problems both as a warfighter who stood the watch and relied on operational systems firsthand, and later as an engineer focused on building better ones. Much of that work has centered on strike warfare, sensor fusion, long-range fires, and mission-level decision support, all aimed at helping warfighters make better decisions with better information at the speed the mission demands.

Along the way, I've helped shape major capability investments, transition prototypes into programs of record, and deliver operational technologies at scale. These cumulative experiences have reinforced both what is possible and why progress often remains frustratingly slow. 

Today, the U.S. Department of War has better algorithms, greater computing power, and richer data than at any point in my career. But all of this technology remains stubbornly disconnected from the mission problems it is meant to solve. LLMs alone cannot fix this. Instead, we must prioritize domain-specific decision systems that help commanders close kill chains faster, allocate resources more effectively, and preserve decision quality under operational pressure.

When I began considering my next chapter, I was deliberate about the kind of organization I wanted to join. Having already navigated both the challenges and opportunities presented by large defense organizations, I was looking to build the right solution from the ground up with a team that understands and prioritizes the mission above all else. My conversations with Andy and Clint made it clear that Smack was taking exactly this approach.

I was equally impressed by the company’s technical direction and mission. Smack is building proprietary decision systems grounded in the realities of warfare: scenario generation, operational planning, kill-chain execution, resource allocation, synchronization across platforms and weapons, and mission-aligned decision-making under uncertainty. That's a significantly harder path and mission than building siloed solutions that do not reflect the complex domain space challenges that ultimately matter most to the warfighter.

As VP of Technology, I will guide the company’s technical direction while building the engineering and research organization needed to carry that mission forward. 

Throughout my career, one of the most rewarding responsibilities I've had has been building teams capable of tackling big, meaningful challenges. Smack has assembled an exceptional group of warfighters, scientists, and engineers with deep operational and technical experience, and I'm excited to help advance our mission of delivering Decision Dominance while solving some of the most consequential challenges in national security.