Business Daily meets: the ex-soldier building weapons

Summary

Business Daily Meets: The Ex-Soldier Building Weapons

Podcast: Business Daily (BBC World Service)
Host: Rob Young
Guest: Will Blythe, Co-founder & CEO, Arundight
Original Air Date: November 14, 2025

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Brief Overview

This episode explores the intersection of modern warfare, artificial intelligence (AI), and entrepreneurship. Rob Young sits down with Will Blythe, former British Army officer and now CEO of Arundight, a UK-based AI defense technology company. Together, they delve into Blythe's military background, the rapid evolution of battlefield technology—particularly in light of recent conflicts like Ukraine—and the profound ethical and practical challenges involved in arming democracies with the latest tech while keeping humans in the loop.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Soldier to Defense Entrepreneur

• Military Origins:
  • Blythe describes his middle-class upbringing and early attraction to public service, initially through the army or possibly medicine.
  • He joined the British Army at a time when peacekeeping shifted to prolonged combat following 9/11.
  • Quote:
    • “Somehow these had some equivalence of linked to public Service and a desire to try to. To do something, to give back to society early on.” — Will Blythe [02:20]
• Combat and Learning Process:
  • His first Afghanistan tour (2009) was “quite an intense combat tour … one of the most intense … in the whole campaign.”
  • Gained firsthand experience about modern warfare and caring for those under his command.
  • Career evolved into various roles, culminating at the Ministry of Defence in urgent procurement.
  • Quote:
    • “People don't understand about the military necessarily, who haven't been in the army, it's not really one job. You're moving through different jobs all the time.” — Will Blythe [03:38]

2. Transition to Technology & Founding Arundight

• Leaving the Military:

  • After 12 years, Blythe saw advancing technology as a new frontier for serving society.
  • He believed he could do just as much from the outside:
    • “It was clear to me that an important way to continue to serve was in making sure that many of these technologies could get into people's hands more quickly.” — Will Blythe [04:45]

• The Impact of Ukraine:

  • Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine underscored the need for rapid advancement in defense technology.

• Naming the Company:

  • “It’s really hard to name a company… Arondite is the sword used by Sir Lancelot in the Arthurian legend. We thought that was as good a name as any, plus it was free and available.” — Will Blythe [05:55]
  • The name symbolizes purpose and higher mission.

3. The Changing Face of Warfare

• From “Big Kit” to Networked Systems:

  • Shift from small numbers of crewed, expensive systems to complex networks of affordable drones, robots, and sensors.
  • “There’s been a move towards increasing numbers of disparate robotic systems, drones, sensors... an enormous growth and added complexity from all these new pieces of equipment.” — Will Blythe [07:42]

• Key Challenges Identified:

  • Integration: Connecting new, “off-the-shelf” devices quickly on the battlefield.
  • Data Overload: Interpreting numerous, real-time streams from diverse devices.
  • Human-Machine Teaming: Scaling meaningful human control and judgment even as machine autonomy rises.
  • Quote:
    • “How do you make sure that these blended teams of humans and robots can work together … in a way that scales up a human’s ability to have meaningful control?” — Will Blythe [09:02]

4. Arundight’s Role & Technology in Practice

• Product in Use:
  • Blythe describes the firm’s AI software being operational with the UK military in Latvia.
  • Focus is on connecting sensors, robotics, and traditional systems for faster, more effective battlefield reactions.
    • “Something as simple as [automated drone deployment] … at the speed that we can make it happen, can make the difference between losing a battle and winning a battle.” — Will Blythe [12:38]

5. Ethics, Human Control, and AI Risks

• Keeping Humans “In the Loop”:

  • Blythe is emphatic about centrality of human judgment in potential lethal decisions.
  • AI assists with identifying and interpreting, but humans must approve any use of force.
    • “Making sure that the human users remain central to the way that robotic systems are being used by Defence… you have to make sure … that they can take a decision related to any, any targeting on the battlefield.” — Will Blythe [14:20]

• Values and Legal Norms:

  • Stresses obligation to pursue speed and operational effectiveness without sacrificing ethics.
  • “Democratic countries … have expected their armed forces to abide by codes of conduct and by a whole range of legal norms... we have to overcome [the idea of] zero sum trade offs … between speed and ethics.” — Will Blythe [14:56]

6. Who Gets the Technology?

• Sales Restrictions:
  • Arundight will not sell to China, Russia, or non-democratic countries.
  • “It is such a hard no. I just want to make it overwhelmingly clear that is absolutely not the point of the company. … We know which side we’re on for sure.” — Will Blythe [17:18]

7. Leadership, Company Culture, and the Future

• Military vs. Tech Startup Life:

  • Blythe dismisses stereotypes of military regimentation—believes modern command is about enabling smart people, not commanding them.
    • “I don’t think I’m in charge of our software engineers. I think we bring on incredibly smart people … and we create the conditions for them to innovate and invent.” — Will Blythe [18:04]

• Company Growth and Mission:

  • Having raised over $12 million, their urgent objective is to “expand the company as quickly as possible” to have defensive impact for democracies.
  • “We feel that we’re against the clock every single day to grow the company as fast as possible.” — Will Blythe [19:05]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We exist as a company to make sure that the democratic countries who share our values have the tools they need to keep our societies safe.” — Will Blythe [01:46]
• “When they’re face down in the mud and you’ve got a rifle in one hand and a radio in the other ... you’re not giving them some kind of extra tech that’s just totally unreasonable ... in that situation.” — Will Blythe [06:20]
• On ethics in warfare tech:
  • “You have to make sure that the way you’re solving this is worthy of the values that you’re seeking to defend.” — Will Blythe [14:32]
• On AI in warfare:
  • “Everything about the use of artificial intelligence on the battlefield needs to be approached with, with a sober, careful and responsible mindset ... I don’t see anyone in the defence industry who’s in some way flippant about this stuff or taking an irresponsible approach.” — Will Blythe [15:57]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–01:09: [Adverts and show intro omitted]
• 01:09: Introduction & context
• 02:20: Blythe’s background & motivation for joining the military
• 03:38: Afghanistan experiences and shifting responsibilities
• 04:45: Reason for leaving the military
• 05:33: Ukraine, shifting focus, and founding Arundight
• 05:55: Naming the company and its symbolic meaning
• 06:20: Military perspective in product design
• 07:42: Rise of AI & robotics in warfare
• 09:02: Challenges in integrating and managing data on the battlefield
• 12:17: Arundight’s product, clients, and real-world deployment
• 12:38: Practical examples of battle management using AI
• 13:39: Growing concerns about autonomous weapons
• 14:20–15:41: Centering human judgment & democratic values in warfare technology
• 15:57–16:55: AI risks, ethical responsibility, and Blythe’s view of industry culture
• 17:03: Company stance on sales to non-democracies
• 17:57: Leadership philosophy—command vs. enablement
• 19:05: Vision for growth and urgency

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Takeaway

This episode highlights the profound technological changes sweeping through military defense, sparked in part by recent conflicts like Ukraine. Will Blythe’s journey from soldier to tech CEO illustrates both opportunity and risk: AI brings efficiency, complexity, and new ethical dilemmas. Blythe’s conviction is that the “free world” can—and must—create systems that preserve human judgment and democratic values, even as the battlefield becomes increasingly autonomous and data-driven.

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For those interested in defense technology, ethics in AI, and entrepreneurship on the frontlines of security, this episode is a candid, thoughtful exploration of what it means to build the next generation of tools for democracy’s defenders.

Transcript

[Will Blythe]

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[Will Blythe]

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[Rob Young]

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[Will Blythe]

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[Will Blythe]

Family.

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[Will Blythe]

You can save for college now.

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[Rob Young]

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[Rob Young]

Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. I'm Rob Young. War is more high tech than ever and it's becoming even more so. Artificial intelligence companies are making software which is increasingly being used on the battlefield.

[Will Blythe]

The way defence is using our software is to connect up all these drones, ground robotic systems, sensors, all this growing mass of tech that defence needs to join up.

[Rob Young]

Today we're meeting a soldier turned entrepreneur who's making AI systems for the military. Well, only for those defending democracies.

[Will Blythe]

We exist as a company to make sure that the democratic countries who share our values have the tools they need to keep our societies safe.

[Rob Young]

Business Daily meets Will Blythe, the co founder and chief executive of arundight. As we were hearing on yesterday's program, unmanned aerial vehicles, drones have transformed modern warfare. The technology was relatively new when our guest today, Will Blythe from the uk began his military career.

[Will Blythe]

Well, I mean I grew up in a middle class family, was very lucky and lived in the suburbs north of London. And for some reason I got it in my head as a child that the army was going to be the thing I wanted to do. And I think there was some point as a kid where, you know, maybe it would have been if it wasn't going to be the army, it would have been being a doctor or something. Somehow these had some equivalence of linked to public Service and a desire to try to. To do something, to give back to society early on. So by the time I was heading to university, hopefully I had a bit more of a sophisticated view of what that would involve. And of course, by that time, you know, 9, 11 happened, as when I was a teenager, so the military had gone from a phase of sort of peace support operations into operations that involved a bit more prolonged combat. And so I think I headed into that with my eyes open. Good evening.

[Rob Young]

As you will note from the announcement.

[Will Blythe]

By President Bush, military action against targets.

[Rob Young]

Inside Afghanistan has begun. America reveals its Special Forces are in combat, killing the Taliban. They claim Bin Laden's number two has been killed by US bombs. As well as the invasion of Afghanistan, the British military also fought in Iraq. A decade and a half of conflict.

[Will Blythe]

My first tour in Afghanistan was quite an intense combat tour. Actually. That summer of fighting in 2009 was one of the most intense certainly in the whole campaign. I think for a young infantry officer, a really important opening set of experiences about what modern combat entails and about how to look after the soldiers that you've got under your command and still try to get the job done. Throughout the rest of my career, then moved into a whole bunch of different roles. And I think it's one of the things that people don't understand about the military necessarily, who haven't been in the army is it's not really one job. You're moving through different jobs all the time. And so certainly for an officer, every year and a half to two and a half years, something like that, you're rotated through different jobs. The tech sort of snuck up on me a bit and I found myself drawn more and more to it and seeing that so many of the challenges that defence is trying to solve, really, are about trying to make use of the latest technology as rapidly as possible in the most effective way possible. Yeah, I did a series of jobs in this area and then finished up in the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall, running part of the process to work on urgent procurement.

[Rob Young]

Why did you decide to leave the military?

[Will Blythe]

I think 12 years is a long time to do anything. I think I did everything that I set out to do. And for me, I think I felt that as technology was moving on and accelerating in some of the areas you might come to talk about, it was clear to me that an important way to continue to serve was in making sure that many of these technologies could get into people's hands more quickly. And certainly I felt that you could do just as much from the outside as you could from the inside, but it was a difficult decision, I think for anyone leaving the military, there's a sense of finality to it.

[Rob Young]

After leaving the British military, Will then worked for two companies that were developing software for the defense industry. It was at this time that questions about defence became very real in Europe. Peace on the continent was shattered when Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine in early 2022.

[Will Blythe]

We are live in Ukraine, a country at war. After a huge Russian military offensive, Putin started a war against Ukraine, against the whole democratic world.

[Rob Young]

Two years ago, Will decided, along with an engineer he knew, to set up a company focused on artificial intelligence in defence. They established Aaron Dite in London.

[Will Blythe]

First of all, it's really hard to name a company. I think people don't understand quite how hard it is to come up with a name that hasn't been taken by some small business somewhere on the other side of the world. And Arondite is the sword used by Sir Lancelot in the Arthurian legend. We thought that was as good a name as any, plus it was free and available.

[Rob Young]

But yours is a high tech company and I can't think of anything less high tech than a medieval mythical sword.

[Will Blythe]

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Maybe this is slightly lame. I'm sure it is. But for us it's about trying to make sure and to get across to everyone who's joining the company that there's a higher purpose to all this. I think any engineering decision we take is every time people are suffering on exercise or alongside the military somewhere sharing in some of the hardships the military endures to make sure our tech is working in the real world. There's a reason for this and that you're doing it for a higher mission. You don't have to have been in the military to found a defence technology company. But I think it certainly gives you an insight into what it feels like to be under an enormous amount of pressure, to be very tired all the time, to be either very hot or very cold or very wet, and then potentially to be under fire and feeling quite scared and trying to make sure that the technology that you put in the hands of those people under these conditions is actually going to work in a way that's reliable. You know, when they're face down in the mud and you've, you've got a rifle in one hand and a radio in the other, that you're not giving them some kind of extra tech, that's just totally unreasonable to ask them to be using that situation.

[Rob Young]

Will's company is one of a Rapidly growing number of firms focused focusing on how artificial intelligence can be used on the battlefield. The conflict in Ukraine has turbocharged the development and use of new tech and AI for militaries.

[Will Blythe]

The way technology has changed since the start of my career is basically that there's been a move from relatively smaller numbers of expensive, exquisite kit that has people in them, so crews, tanks, you know, fighter jets, whatever, all the traditional stuff from the 20th century. And there's been a move towards increasing numbers of disparate robotic systems, drones, sensors, a whole load of extra things layered on. Now, much of that the existing kit from the last century is still around, is still really important and is probably going to remain important for decades to come. But you've got this enormous growth and added complexity from all these new pieces of equipment. And what we see is that as you kind of play this tape forward over the next five, 10, 15 years, that complexity is going to grow. There's going to be more scope and more use of increasingly performant systems like drones and sensors and robots. And what defence needs to be able to do is to be able to use these things in collaboration and wield them together as one. Even though each one of those companies that built those systems weren't particularly anticipating them being used with any one of the other companies systems. And so this is an emergent challenge in this area and it's one we're tackling head on.

[Rob Young]

So you're saying then that militaries have more and more data, but don't necessarily have any way of interpreting it all at once very quickly there's really two.

[Will Blythe]

Or three different challenges. So the first is how do you connect these systems up really quickly? So if you're the average brigade in defence in Ukraine right now, you are getting thrown a new drone or robot every single day that someone is acquiring on your behalf, or maybe that you've locally acquired yourself, or even that someone's been building fairly near the front line these days and you're trying to work out how you can use this new system in collaboration with other staff. So step one, one is how do you actually connect this stuff up, make sure that the data that's coming off these systems is part of a coherent data model. And then the second challenge is one that you describe, which is that, well, you've got so many more systems around the battlefield and they're all collecting data on what's happening. Some of them have artificial intelligence models running on them, they're helping to interpret the sensor streams and that helps. But then what do you do with that data, the things that you're detecting around the battle space and how do you make sure that that data is making you better as an organization over time? And then the final challenge, the big challenge is how do you team with these systems? So how do you make sure that these blended teams of humans and robots can work together in a way that scales up a human's ability to have meaningful control over those systems? And alongside that means that the human's judgment can therefore also be scaled up and that the human is able to bring that judgment to bear and make sure it's the heart of the decision making process.

[Rob Young]

You're listening to Business Daily on the BBC World Service with me, Rob Young.

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[Rob Young]

Today we're talking to Will Blythe, a soldier turned entrepreneur who set up and runs an artificial intelligence firm in the uk.

[Will Blythe]

Mission management orchestrate live operations and make AI driven decisions. Cobalt delivers results across industries, defense, coordinate battle space management and multi domain autonomy.

[Rob Young]

This is an advert for the product the company has developed even though the firm is only two years old. The UK Armed forces, considered one of the world's most powerful, has been using Arundide's AI software in Latvia, which borders Russia. Engineers from the company have been embedded with the military. As you'd expect, Will isn't willing to reveal much.

[Will Blythe]

We tend not to talk too much about individual customers at this point, for obvious reasons. But what I can say is that the way Defence is using our software is to connect up all these sensors and systems that it has. Drones, ground robotic systems, sensors of all kinds. So that could be things like cameras, but also radar systems, electronic warfare counter, UAS systems, all this growing mass of tech that Defence needs to join up. And then the challenge there that they have is how do they use these things in concept? So when, if they're seeing something that's interesting across one of these sensors, how can they quickly react to that? By tasking something else. And the way that's historically been done has involved far too much. We call in the industry sort of swivel chairing between you and the person next to you and asking them to go and do something. Some of these challenges that we're trying to solve are things like how do you go and task a drone to automatically go and confirm something you've seen on, say, an electronic warfare sensor? Something as simple as that, if that's done at the speed that we can make it happen, can make the difference between losing a battle and winning a battle.

[Rob Young]

The British army says modernizing technology is enhancing its lethality and soldiers ability to respond to adversaries. But the growing use of artificial intelligence by the world's armies, navies and air forces is worrying many. There's a campaign to ban the use of autonomous robots that can kill. So how does aarondite's Will Blythe deal with those ethical concerns? Isn't an AI system that automatically sends a drone to check out something? The example he gave earlier, just one step away from being able to take the decision to shoot at something or someone without a human deciding whether to pull the trigger.

[Will Blythe]

So this is a really critical point, which is making sure that the human users remain central to the way that robotic systems are being used by Defence. The way we think about this is that you need to make sure that you have to use a little bit of jargon, sort of context, appropriate control of these systems. So if you're going towards targeting decisions, then it's really important that human beings are closely involved in understanding the context around what the robotic systems are showing, that they understand the context around any use of artificial intelligence in that chain and that they can take a decision related to any, any targeting on the battlefield. Now getting that right is absolutely Central to what we're doing, and I think the way we think about this is you have to make sure that the way you're solving this is that is worthy of the values that you're seeking to defend. Democratic countries, quite rightly for a very long time, have expected their armed forces to abide by codes of conduct and by a whole range of legal norms. And what we need to make sure is that we in the free world, in the Western world, are building this foundational software and infrastructure in a way that means that we can carry our values forward into this robotic age. And I'm really suspicious and dismayed when people talk of there being zero sum trade offs here between speed and ethics. You know, we have to overcome that.

[Rob Young]

Many people are terrified at the potential uses of artificial intelligence in low level administrative tasks, never mind in defense or war. Some critics say AI systems could get us into conflicts more easily. Is that something you also fear?

[Will Blythe]

Everything about the use of artificial intelligence on the battlefield needs to be approached with, with a sober, careful and responsible mindset in which you're testing things rigorously and making absolutely sure that these systems will behave in the way that you expect them to behave. Many of the types of artificial intelligence people encounter in their daily lives when they're using language models are not the types of artificial intelligence that we're talking about. At the heart of some of the concern is this perhaps misunderstanding. I'm actually quite heartened both by the way that the Ministry of Defence and governments are approaching this. And then when I look at the industry and what they're building, I don't see anyone in the defence industry who's in some way flippant about this stuff or taking an irresponsible approach. It's right in a democratic country for people to be concerned about the way in which their forces operate and the way tech is going to be used on the battlefield. They should be concerned. That's part of being in a healthy democracy. But so far what I can see is responsible actors doing their best.

[Rob Young]

Now you are the boss of this company. You get to decide who you sell your product to and who you don't. Would you sell to China?

[Will Blythe]

We exist as a company to make sure that the democratic countries who share our values broadly the west and the world, have the tools they need to keep our societies safe.

[Rob Young]

So that's a no. You wouldn't sell to China.

[Will Blythe]

So yeah, my answer is just to sort of. It is such a hard no. I just want to make it overwhelmingly clear that is absolutely not the point. Of the company. And obviously, you know, we hope that some of the conflicts that are predicted never come about and that we can. We can deter our adversaries, but we know which side we're on for sure.

[Rob Young]

So Russia again, it would be a no.

[Will Blythe]

It's a no.

[Rob Young]

Now you've gone from living in a world where almost all your waking day was determined by the military. You had to be up at a certain time, wear certain clothes. You've gone into a world where you are now in charge of software engineers who are not known for living a regimented life. It must have been quite a culture change.

[Will Blythe]

Being in the military is. You're a lot more free than I think a lot of people think you are. And I think, particularly if you do.

[Rob Young]

There's not that 5am Cold shower on a run.

[Will Blythe]

It's not. That hasn't been my experience. I mean, certainly, I think if you're in. If you're in a frontline unit, like a military army battalion, yeah, there'll be a schedule that battalion will run to. And that's certainly true for most of my career. You know, if you're a staff officer working in the mod, it feels a lot like the same experience of being a civil servant just sat next to you working that same mod. It's. I don't think I'm in charge of my software engineers. I don't think anyone's in charge of our software engineers. I think we bring on incredibly smart people who are some of the brightest and most capable people in the world, and we create the conditions for them to innovate and to invent. And I see my job as finding the right people, creating an environment in which they can flourish, and removing blockers and friction from those people so they can think. I don't think I'm in charge of those people. I think I'm responsible for getting out of their way.

[Rob Young]

So they don't call you cern. Salute.

[Will Blythe]

No, we don't have that norm yet.

[Rob Young]

What's the plan for the company, then? You've recently raised over $12 million from a consortium of global investors. Where do you hope to take it next?

[Will Blythe]

So for us, the starting point is the mission, and for us to have scaled impact across the democratic West. What we need to do is expand the company as quickly as possible. What we see is a deteriorating geopolitical climate. I think this decade, I'm hopeful that deterrence will succeed. We need to be ready if it doesn't. And that means we see ourselves as having to act with incredible urgency and we feel that we're against the clock every single day to grow the company as fast as possible.

[Rob Young]

That was Will Blythe, the co founder and chief executive of Arundight. Well, we'd love to hear your thoughts on the use of artificial intelligence in warfare. Do get in touch at business [e-mail] and remember, if you've missed any of our recent episodes, you can download them from the BBC [e-mail] and wherever you usually get your downloads.