Chariot Defense Announces Board of Advisors Featuring Senior Military, Civilian Defense and Venture Capital Leaders

SAN BRUNO, Calif., Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Chariot Defense, a technology company pioneering next-generation software-defined power distribution for modern warfare, today announced its Board of Advisors that includes former senior military officers, civilian defense officials and a venture capital veteran.

The initial appointees are Gen. James E. "Jim" Rainey, U.S. Army (Retired); the Honorable Ellen Lord, former Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment; Brig. Gen. Samuel "Luke" Peterson, U.S. Army (Retired); and Stephen Rodriguez, Founder of One Defense.

Gen. James E. "Jim" Rainey, U.S. Army (Retired) spent 38 years in uniform building and leading the organizations the Army turned to when a mission could not fail. As Commanding General of U.S. Army Futures Command, he directed the Army's most ambitious modernization effort since the Cold War and rebuilt a challenged enterprise into a model of execution while reshaping its operational concepts and culture. As the Army's Chief Operating Officer, he managed 1.2 million personnel against a $186 billion budget. He commanded at every level from platoon to division, with multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and led the overhaul of the Army's leader development enterprise as Commanding General of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center. He previously served as Commanding General of the 3rd Infantry Division and Commandant of the Infantry School.

The Honorable Ellen Lord was the first Senate-confirmed Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, where she led the Department's personnel, policy, and processes for the acquisition of products and services, lifecycle sustainment, and the security and resiliency of the defense industrial base. She is recognized for confronting cyber vulnerabilities across the supply chain and writing an aggressive cybersecurity posture into acquisition policy. Before her government appointment, she was President and Chief Executive Officer of Textron Systems, supporting defense, homeland security, aerospace, and infrastructure protection customers worldwide. She is a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and an advisor at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and serves as Vice Chairman of the U.S. Naval Institute.

Brig. Gen. Samuel "Luke" Peterson, U.S. Army (Retired) spent nearly 35 years of service, closing his career as Program Executive Officer for Combat Support and Combat Service Support. In that role he led approximately 250 acquisition programs across the Army's Transportation, Quartermaster, Ordnance, and Engineer portfolios, directing 1,100 acquisition professionals across four states, fielding more than 22,000 pieces of equipment a year against a budget of roughly $8.2 billion. He served in Germany, Kuwait, Bosnia, and Afghanistan; in the Pentagon he advised the Army Acquisition Executive on the execution of all Army programs on the staff of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. His program work spans advanced networking, the Army's entire tactical wheeled vehicle and watercraft fleet, and acquisition strategies for hypersonics and directed energy.

Stephen Rodriguez is the Founder of One Defense, a technology-enabled consulting firm that accelerates the transition of dual-use technology into the defense industrial base, and leads defense investing at DCVC, a multi-billion dollar deep tech venture capital firm and a Chariot investor. He has worked in national security since 2001, in and out of government, and has been a senior leader at both an artificial intelligence growth-stage company and a global defense corporation. He serves as a director, observer, or advisor to fifteen venture-backed companies, including Applied Intuition, Agility Robotics, Ursa Major Technologies, Firestorm, and Blue Water Autonomy. He is a Commission Director at the Atlantic Council, Chairman of Blue Forge Alliance, Co-Chairman of the New American Industrial Alliance's Executive Advisory Board, and a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Rodriguez has been published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, War on the Rocks, and National Review.

Chariot's Advisory Board will support disciplined scaling of manufacturing, supply chains, and deployment pathways to accelerate delivery of the company's Amphora agile power systems to warfighters. Their expertise is rooted in decades of seeing firsthand the operational problems a lack of reliable power creates for troops.

"The battlefield of today, and even more so tomorrow, runs on power," said Rainey. "Sensors, drones, communications, directed energy–none of it functions without a reliable power backbone at the edge. I've watched this gap widen for years. Chariot is closing it with an urgency that matches the threat."

The company now fields Amphora systems to operational military units, enabling extended missions, supply independence and flexible, dependable power for nearly any application.

Military operations increasingly rely on high-tech systems in the hands of troops at all echelons. Recent real-world operations also show the need for a robust power backbone overseas and at home for communications, drones and counter-drone systems.

"Great power competition is accelerating. We must compress every timeline in the defense acquisition system," said Lord. "Too many critical technologies die in the valley of death, the no-man's land between prototype and procurement. Chariot has shown it can win. Their systems are already deployed with operational units. The board's job is to make sure nothing slows that down."

Confirmation of the Board of Advisors follows the announcement of Chariot's $34 million Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, and the company's recent announcement of a $7.4 million contract with the Pentagon's Department of War Innovation Unit (DIU) to start delivering Amphora systems to U.S. Army brigades this fall.

About Chariot Defense
Chariot Defense is a leading defense technology company pioneering next-generation power distribution systems built for the demands of modern warfare. Its Amphora platform provides modular voltage and low-signature power at the tactical edge—powering everything from radios and drones to sensors and directed energy systems. Founded in 2024, Chariot is backed by leading national security investors and led by a team with deep experience across defense, technology, and government.

Learn more at https://www.chariotdefense.com/.

Board of Advisors photo available for download here.

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SOURCE Chariot Defense