Profile
Zac Staples is the Founder and CEO of Caliburn Technologies, where he leads the deployment of TempestOS, the first operating system purpose-built to orchestrate cyber, AI, robotics, and sensor payloads at the tactical edge. Caliburn exists to move capability to the fleet at the pace of relevance, providing commanders a secure “digital hitch ball” that allows mission payloads to be added, swapped, or upgraded in real time as adversaries adapt.
Previously, Zac founded and led Fathom5, a defense technology company at the forefront of U.S. Navy innovation. As CEO, he led the deployment of the Navy’s first AI program of record on a warship, establishing a durable foundation for trusted AI in contested maritime environments. A former naval officer and cyber warfare practitioner, Zac also directed the Navy’s Center for Cyber Warfare Research and received the Secretary of the Navy’s Innovation Catalyst Award for accelerating operational adoption of advanced software capabilities.
Zac's drive for reimagined naval power put him at the center of articulating the Hedge Strategy in 2021, which has now been adopted by the Chief of Naval Operations. This strategy calls for tailorable forces that can be dynamically configured to impose uncertainty and deny adversary advantage. Caliburn and TempestOS are the technical answer to the capability gap the Hedge Strategy demands: a hardened, cyber-resilient integration layer for Software-Defined Warfare that allows commanders to "Orchestrate the Storm", rapidly assembling and adapting software-defined combat power in hours and days rather than quarters or years.
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