E55 – Christine Fox: the REAL Charlie
Podcast: The MergePublished On: Sun Jan 18 2026
Description: There is a strange set of organizations that live betweenindustry and government called Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs).They play an important—but largely misunderstood role—in national security.What better way to understand it all than with a guest who’sone of the most famous pop-culture examples: Christine Fox.She was the real person who was portrayed as ‘Charlie’,Maverick’s civilian love interest, in Top Gun! She spent 40+ years working as an analyst in UARCs and a civilian leader at the Pentagon, culminating in serving as the acting Deputy Secretary of Defense. Today, she continues to serve as a Fellow at Johns HopkinsUniversity’s Applied Physics Lab (JHU APL), which is the nation’s largest UARC.This interview has a ton of inside baseball that you won’t find anywhere else! Links• Sign up for the newsletter! • Support us on Patreon! ----Follow us on...• LinkedIn• Instagram• X• Facebook• Website ----00:00 intro00:35 Top Gun01:33 Christine Fox02:53 origin of FFRFC & UARC05:36 access to classified info08:30 tech transfer11:33 independence14:42 threat analysis story16:35 misunderstandings20:29 software and competition24:32 fix the gray27:11 what if they disappear?27:39 Navy Red Sea support28:29 hypersonics30:08 Golden Dome31:01 whole of nation approach38:20 2026 resolutions39:42 closing remarks
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