Steven Simoni: U.S. military needs more "smaller, cheaper" weapons

• Simoni is also a former Navy nuclear engineer.

Q: When you hear "future of defense," what comes to mind?

A: Drone swarms and logistics.

Q: When will wars be waged solely by robots?

A: I don't think they ever will.

• I do see it trending in that direction. However, the robotics in the next 20 years aren't going to be at that level for them to be fully without a human.

Q: What's the biggest challenge the defense industry faces at the moment? What can be done to alleviate it?

A: Some of the biggest challenges are in procurement. We need much more smaller, cheaper systems, like drones, swarms, and these are things we're not used to buying.

Q: How many emails do you get a day, and how do you deal with them?

A: I get about 40 emails a day. I use the "star" feature in Gmail to star the ones that are most important, and I "mark as read" the ones that aren't.

Q: What's your secret to a successful overnight flight?

A: I love overnight flights.

• As soon as I get off of it, I play a round of golf.

Q: What are you currently reading, or what's a book you'd recommend?

A: I just finished reading a fiction book — one of my favorite fiction books — called "A Confederacy of Dunces." I highly recommend it.

Q: What advice would you give your younger self?

A: I think most people are battling with their internal monologue and not thinking about you. Don't sweat it when you inevitably do something dumb.