National Security at the edge of what’s next.
A senior officer, a strategist, and a builder — operating at the seam where defense, technology, and policy meet.
Gabe Arrington has spent more than two decades at the highest levels of the Department of Defense — from the cockpit of a C-17 over Iraq to the Joint Staff during the COVID-19 response, from the creation of Pilot Training Next to the corner office where the Pentagon decides which emerging technologies the Joint Force will fight with next. As Chief of Disruptive Technology, he led a $9B shift in funding that leadership described as the “Third Offset Strategy.”
Today he serves as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, an MIT Seminar XXI Fellow, and a former National Defense Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He advises 75+ companies — from early-stage startups to Fortune 100 primes — and sits on the boards of AI 2030, PPE Kids, the National Amateur Fall Baseball Federation, and Brandeis University.
Three threads, one practice.
The Work
Strategy
& Policy
Technology
& Innovation
Leadership
& Service
Command pilot, Air Task Force commander, and mentor to the next generation through MIT Seminar XXI, CNAS, AI 2030, PPE Kids, and the Baker Institute at Rice University.
It's not just 5G. China's telecom strategy needs to be countered in space.
The questions I spend my time on.
At the Pentagon, on stage, on the page, and in advisory rooms — these are the threads that connect the work, from operational concepts to acquisition pathways to the next generation of leaders.
National Security Strategy
Joint Warfighting Concept, force design, doctrine, and the budgets behind them.
Emerging & Disruptive Tech
Space & Space Logistics
Energy & National Security
Defense Innovation & Acquisition
Pilot Training & Performance
Leadership & Talent
Working Together
The credentials that frame the work.
Three fellowships sit at the center of how Gabe thinks and works. They sit alongside a quarter-century of decorations earned in flight, in command, and in the rooms where strategy gets written.
MIT Seminar XXI Fellow
National Defense Fellow, CNAS
Non-Resident Fellow, Baker Institute
Selected writing & media.
The DoD Needs a Joint Wargaming Center.
AI's role in trusted national security supply chains.
How space is changing the nature of war.
Time to operationalize wearable technology in the DoD.
The USO, family support, and the DoD budget.
Air Force Doctrine — Ep. 23, Air Task Forces.
Available for keynotes, panels, and fireside conversations.
75+
Companies advised — from early-stage to the Fortune 100.
+ many more