On this month’s episode of The Business of Defense Rich Brady speaks with Sumner Lee, CEO and Founder of Fuse Integration about bringing data to tactical edge for warfighters in flight.

To understand Fuse Integration, a company whose products give warfighters in flight a data-driven tactical advantage, you simply need to get the backstory on its founder, Sumner Lee.

“I started out my life in the Navy as a knuckle-dragging CH-46 pilot, flying an age-old helicopter. The most advanced piece of technology that we had was a handheld Garmin GPS,” which pilots held out their windows to get a signal, Lee said.

Bringing more technology to military airspace became a passion. Lee never looked back, moving from helicopters to naval IT during a nearly six-year stint at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. Next stop, after a couple of years working in product design? Founding Fuse Integration in San Diego in 2010.

“Fuse puts the internet into aircraft. We bring a combination of resilient and secure networks to the tactical edge,” Lee explained during an interview for the American Society of Military Comptrollers’ The Business of Defense podcast on Federal News Network.

“We utilize various forms of satellite communications — a lot of new low Earth orbit satellites, medium Earth orbit satellites and geostationary satellites, different kinds of links — bringing that advanced technology data and information out to the tactical edge. Then, we put that together and network that with mesh network links and tactical data links.”

Continue reading for more from Lee.