1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,770
- I'm Dr. Dave Stuckenberg.

2
00:00:01,770 --> 00:00:05,160
I am the chief operations
officer at Genesis Systems

3
00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:09,060
and one of the inventors of
this really cool technology

4
00:00:09,060 --> 00:00:10,020
called the WaterCube,

5
00:00:10,020 --> 00:00:14,613
which is a black box that makes
a water supply from the air.

6
00:00:15,450 --> 00:00:19,080
So what's truly dynamic
about Genesis WaterCube

7
00:00:19,080 --> 00:00:24,080
is that this simple box can
create up to 26 gallons of water

8
00:00:24,300 --> 00:00:26,070
a day from the humidity,

9
00:00:26,070 --> 00:00:28,620
and that's water you no
longer have to carry with you

10
00:00:28,620 --> 00:00:29,820
wherever you're going.

11
00:00:29,820 --> 00:00:31,860
And what's versatile about the system

12
00:00:31,860 --> 00:00:34,650
is that it has various electrical outlets

13
00:00:34,650 --> 00:00:37,800
and abilities to connect to
a vehicle battery system,

14
00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:41,670
or to operate off of DC power
from a single solar panel,

15
00:00:41,670 --> 00:00:43,860
or even into a conventional generator.

16
00:00:43,860 --> 00:00:45,210
So it's exceptionally versatile

17
00:00:45,210 --> 00:00:47,340
in the way you can provide energy to it.

18
00:00:47,340 --> 00:00:49,560
Heretofore, you had to either carry water

19
00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:53,040
into a combat operations area

20
00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:55,590
or into a disaster recovery area,

21
00:00:55,590 --> 00:00:57,330
and that's no longer a requirement.

22
00:00:57,330 --> 00:00:59,760
And so what you do is
you free tonnage, right?

23
00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:03,330
That would ordinarily be
transported onto a ship

24
00:01:03,330 --> 00:01:05,460
or maybe an aircraft.

25
00:01:05,460 --> 00:01:09,063
And once you turn it on,

26
00:01:09,990 --> 00:01:12,120
and we're making water
right now from the air

27
00:01:12,120 --> 00:01:14,370
in Tampa, Florida, here at SOF Week,

28
00:01:14,370 --> 00:01:18,210
you make potable water
that can even operate

29
00:01:18,210 --> 00:01:20,700
in a contested environment
such as a chemical,

30
00:01:20,700 --> 00:01:23,310
biological, radiological,
or nuclear environment

31
00:01:23,310 --> 00:01:25,230
where contaminants have entered the air.

32
00:01:25,230 --> 00:01:27,150
So we can even purify those out.

33
00:01:27,150 --> 00:01:29,400
This system is combat-hardened,

34
00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:31,980
so it is able to withstand an EMP,

35
00:01:31,980 --> 00:01:33,720
an electromagnetic pulse,

36
00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:35,640
and you can't hack into it either,

37
00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:39,330
because it can operate either
analog or digital via SAT.

38
00:01:39,330 --> 00:01:40,980
If you operate it via SAT,

39
00:01:40,980 --> 00:01:42,060
the links are impenetrable

40
00:01:42,060 --> 00:01:44,400
because they can be encrypted

41
00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:47,220
with post-quantum encryption
for many, many years,

42
00:01:47,220 --> 00:01:49,590
in fact, probably more than 25.

43
00:01:49,590 --> 00:01:51,210
DARPA and other agencies have been looking

44
00:01:51,210 --> 00:01:52,950
at how to develop, you know,

45
00:01:52,950 --> 00:01:54,990
basically an efficient system

46
00:01:54,990 --> 00:01:58,110
that made enough water
to be valuable in combat.

47
00:01:58,110 --> 00:01:59,940
And so one of the
breakthroughs that Genesis had

48
00:01:59,940 --> 00:02:03,120
is actually heat management
and how to manage

49
00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:05,610
what we would call the
latent heat of evaporation,

50
00:02:05,610 --> 00:02:07,980
or condensation, within our system.

51
00:02:07,980 --> 00:02:10,830
And so there are many
different technology suites.

52
00:02:10,830 --> 00:02:14,430
The company has about
70 patents, seven-zero,

53
00:02:14,430 --> 00:02:16,620
on all the different technologies we use.

54
00:02:16,620 --> 00:02:20,280
And putting those together
in a system of systems

55
00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,800
that creates a combat-ready product

56
00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:24,990
that can't be interrupted by cyber,

57
00:02:24,990 --> 00:02:27,990
electromagnetic spectrum interruptions,

58
00:02:27,990 --> 00:02:29,450
or even chemical, biological,

59
00:02:29,450 --> 00:02:31,710
or radiological, or nuclear problems,

60
00:02:31,710 --> 00:02:33,660
it will still make clean water

61
00:02:33,660 --> 00:02:35,580
no matter what kinda what's thrown at it.

62
00:02:35,580 --> 00:02:37,980
That creates a new class of infrastructure

63
00:02:37,980 --> 00:02:40,170
called an uninterruptible water system.

64
00:02:40,170 --> 00:02:42,780
And so the journey started
off 9 1/2 years ago.

65
00:02:42,780 --> 00:02:44,700
I was actually flying combat missions

66
00:02:44,700 --> 00:02:48,210
at Al Udeid Air Base on OEF/OYAF,

67
00:02:48,210 --> 00:02:51,450
and I noticed that
there were tanker trucks

68
00:02:51,450 --> 00:02:54,030
pulling water out of the
last aquifer in Qatar.

69
00:02:54,030 --> 00:02:56,310
And that concerned me
because of the centralization

70
00:02:56,310 --> 00:02:58,230
of all the water supplies
across the Middle East.

71
00:02:58,230 --> 00:03:01,470
They support about 66 million people.

72
00:03:01,470 --> 00:03:03,450
And if you had an interruption to those,

73
00:03:03,450 --> 00:03:05,760
you've created a big problem very quickly.

74
00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:09,570
So we began sharing this idea,

75
00:03:09,570 --> 00:03:10,590
then in concept,

76
00:03:10,590 --> 00:03:11,850
with the Department of Defense,

77
00:03:11,850 --> 00:03:14,790
and it got backing and
traction really immediately.

78
00:03:14,790 --> 00:03:18,750
SBIR programs were put into action,

79
00:03:18,750 --> 00:03:20,250
and funding was brought online.

80
00:03:20,250 --> 00:03:23,430
And so as we kind of went through creating

81
00:03:23,430 --> 00:03:26,610
this dual-use technology
for the warfighter version,

82
00:03:26,610 --> 00:03:29,040
we passed through all the gates.

83
00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:32,340
And kinda one of the final gates
was a program called TACFI.

84
00:03:32,340 --> 00:03:34,170
And that's tactical financing.

85
00:03:34,170 --> 00:03:36,750
The Air Force partnered
with private investment

86
00:03:36,750 --> 00:03:38,887
to come together and actually say,

87
00:03:38,887 --> 00:03:41,310
"All right, let's buy a bunch of these

88
00:03:41,310 --> 00:03:45,330
and send them out into the unit
for the final field trial."

89
00:03:45,330 --> 00:03:46,920
And so a unit was provided,

90
00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:48,240
six of the WaterCubes,

91
00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:49,770
and these are the small ones,

92
00:03:49,770 --> 00:03:50,670
the WaterCube 10s.

93
00:03:50,670 --> 00:03:52,470
And they were also provided larger systems

94
00:03:52,470 --> 00:03:55,320
that make 100 to 200 gallons a day.

95
00:03:55,320 --> 00:03:58,020
And when those units were equipped,

96
00:03:58,020 --> 00:04:00,000
they got ready to go out to the Pacific,

97
00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,940
and were actually turned
and sent the other way

98
00:04:02,940 --> 00:04:06,990
to the Middle East-North
Africa region and U.S. CENTCOM.

99
00:04:06,990 --> 00:04:09,360
And what we know now is,

100
00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:11,640
this happened just weeks ago,

101
00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:13,530
Operation Epic Fury kicked off,

102
00:04:13,530 --> 00:04:15,900
and that unit going into
a routine deployment

103
00:04:15,900 --> 00:04:20,010
found itself in a fight to
maintain mission readiness,

104
00:04:20,010 --> 00:04:23,190
and their water supply was interrupted,

105
00:04:23,190 --> 00:04:24,960
and they sustained themselves

106
00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:26,790
with the WaterCube water systems.

107
00:04:26,790 --> 00:04:29,880
And so this was a first combat test

108
00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:34,050
and proof of concept ever
done with the technology.

109
00:04:34,050 --> 00:04:37,740
And the unit had no idea
that that was gonna happen.

110
00:04:37,740 --> 00:04:39,480
And it was almost pure luck.

111
00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:42,660
But the after-action reports
went back to the Pentagon,

112
00:04:42,660 --> 00:04:45,180
and they said, "This thing worked.

113
00:04:45,180 --> 00:04:47,788
It provided us the ability to keep going."

114
00:04:47,788 --> 00:04:50,670
And just two hours old now,

115
00:04:50,670 --> 00:04:51,780
we've received the news

116
00:04:51,780 --> 00:04:54,300
that the Office of the
Undersecretary of Defense

117
00:04:54,300 --> 00:04:56,130
has awarded units around the world

118
00:04:56,130 --> 00:04:58,710
the ability to buy up to $10.5 million

119
00:04:58,710 --> 00:05:00,150
of the WaterCube systems

120
00:05:00,150 --> 00:05:02,700
for their individual needs this year.

121
00:05:02,700 --> 00:05:05,370
The next stop is to drop it from airplanes

122
00:05:05,370 --> 00:05:07,680
and really shake, rattle and roll,

123
00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:10,430
and then to get this into a
military program of record.