Balerion Senior Associate Aidan Daoussis sits down with Eric Hostetler, Founder & CEO of Volund Manufacturing, to discuss attritable jet engines and rebuilding U.S. defense manufacturing. Volund is developing the next generation of made-in-USA attritable jet motors, designed to power long-range drones and low-cost cruise systems at scale. Hostetler explains how his background in high-volume consumer manufacturing shaped Volund’s approach, why the U.S. defense industrial base struggles to manufacture propulsion systems at scale, and how vertically integrated, software-defined factories could dramatically reduce the cost and lead time of critical defense hardware.
00:00 – Introduction to Eric Hostetler, Volund Manufacturing, and the broader challenge of rebuilding U.S. defense manufacturing capacity.
01:10 – Hostetler’s background in high-volume consumer manufacturing and how that experience shaped his perspective on design for manufacturability.
03:20 – Why Volund chose jet propulsion: the gap in scalable, attritable engines for long-range drones and missile-class systems.
06:40 – Turbojets versus solid rocket motors, and why air-breathing systems may be better suited for certain low-cost, long-range defense applications.
08:15 – Demand signals from new U.S. defense programs, including the widening gap between propulsion demand and current supply.
10:00 – Why traditional approaches to scaling manufacturing fall short, and how Volund is thinking differently about cost, automation, and defense-scale production.
12:45 – Rebuilding turbine manufacturing from first principles through tight integration between engineering, materials selection, and factory execution.
17:15 – What wartime surge manufacturing really looks like, and why bottlenecks often sit deep in the industrial supply chain.
19:30 – Lessons from offshore and vertically integrated manufacturing systems, and why Hostetler believes product-focused factories outperform fragmented supply chains.
23:30 – How software can improve defense manufacturing, from traceability and compliance to factory data systems and continuous improvement.
26:15 – Volund’s moat: software-defined manufacturing, scalable engine design frameworks, and integrated factory infrastructure.
30:05 – The military risk picture if the U.S. fails to rebuild manufacturing depth for propulsion and munitions.
35:40 – Where Volund is today: prototype engine work, secure digital factory systems, and building the engineering team.
39:05 – Customer strategy: why non-traditional defense contractors may be the earliest adopters, followed by larger primes.
44:00 – Long-term vision: Volund as a vertically integrated manufacturing partner for defense hardware, similar in role to a specialized Foxconn for aerospace and national security.
52:25 – Closing takeaway: Volund is working to demonstrate a new way to produce defense articles at speed, scale, and lower cost.
