EP 50 — Inneos’ Brian Peters on Building the Nervous System for Autonomous Military Vehicles

In the early 1990s Brian Peters, Founder/CEO of Inneos recalls, "lasers were a solution looking for a problem. Today, Inneos is transforming military platforms by replacing traditional copper wiring with advanced fiber optic solutions, significantly reducing weight and enhancing security across air, land, and sea vehicles. In this compelling episode of DIB Innovators, Brian walks Dave through how this technology is revolutionizing military platforms through dramatic weight reduction and enhanced security. 

 

Inneos, named by combining "innovation" and "Eos," the goddess of dawn, has developed a way to combine multiple signals onto a single fiber using different wavelengths of light, effectively replacing traditional copper wiring in defense systems. The impact is significant: where a 747 contains approximately 700,000 feet of copper wire weighing 15 tons, fiber optic alternatives can reduce this to just one ton while improving performance. This technology is proving crucial for autonomous military vehicles, where weight directly impacts operational range and power consumption. Beyond weight savings, these fiber optic solutions offer enhanced security against electromagnetic interference and physical tampering.

 

Topics discussed:

• The critical SWAP-E (size, weight, power, and EMI) advantages of replacing copper wiring with fiber optics in military platforms.
• Inneos's innovative approach to combining multiple signals onto a single fiber strand using different wavelengths, enabling up to 16 different channels without interference.
• The parallel between autonomous military vehicles and the human nervous system, with fiber optics serving as the "spinal cord" that efficiently transmits sensor data to the vehicle's "brain" (CPU).
• The company's strategic decision to maintain in-house manufacturing and acquire their own semiconductor fab facility for laser production, ensuring supply chain control and enabling development of high-temperature capable components.
• Specific security advantages of fiber optics over copper in military applications, including immunity to EMI-based surveillance and physical tapping attempts, particularly crucial for command and control centers.
• The business strategy of bootstrapping after buying back the company and maintaining profitability through disciplined "spending behind revenues" rather than seeking venture capital.
• The emergence of unmanned and autonomous vehicle applications as a major growth area, where fiber optics' weight and power advantages directly translate to extended range and enhanced capabilities.
• Defensive business strategy in the defense industry, including building sustainable competitive advantages or "moats" rather than just focusing on product offerings.