19-03-2025
Today's wars show "air superiority matters," says GE Aerospace's Amy Gowder
The Russia-Ukraine war, conflicts across the greater Middle East and plans for potential Indo-Pacific fighting share something in common, according to Amy Gowder, the president of defense and systems at GE Aerospace.
"We still see air superiority matters, whether that's through unmanned or helicopters or the traditional fighters," she told Axios in an interview.
Why she matters: Gowder leads a multibillion-dollar operation to develop, build and deploy engines and other equipment for military operations, including air combat, refueling and training.
The company last week announced an engine contract with the U.S. Air Force worth as much as $5 billion.
Q: When you hear "future of defense," what comes to mind?
A: Agile, capable and efficient.
Clearly the threat environment is changing, so the agility and the flexibility are needed by the military services. In GE Aerospace, probably our best example of that is the MOSA, the Modular Open Systems Approach we're going to put on the new V-280, the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program.
For capable, I would point to our advanced adaptive engine technology. As we think of future adversaries in the Pacific, range is really required.
And then further on the efficiency argument would be our T901 engine.
Q: What's the biggest challenge the defense industry faces at the moment?
A: It really is the resiliency and strength of the industrial base.
Q: How many emails do you get a day, and how do you deal with them?
A: Probably 200-300-ish. I still want to get that little spam filter right.
There's a lot of swipe right to delete this stuff, and then a lot of, "Does my team need to know this now, or can I wait?" The ones that are tough are when I really want to read and think about it but not forget to come back.
Q: What's your secret to a successful overnight flight?
A: A good glass of wine.
Honestly, though, because I travel so much, I have to have dark. An eye mask is key to me. If you give me an eye mask, I can probably sleep anywhere.
Q: What advice would you give your younger self?
