Team CONOPS

Team CONOPS

William and Mary University


From Hellscape to CHAOS: Adapting Indo-Pacific Drone Warfare Concepts for NATO’s Eastern Front

The Team

Carson Gada

  • Major: Computer Science, concentrating in Cybersecurity

  • Minor: Finance

Charlotte Feit-Leichman

  • St Andrews William & Mary Joint Degree Programme

  • BA International Honours, International Relations and Affairs

Tom Weon

  • Major: Political Science and Government

Kelly Shinners

  • St Andrews William & Mary Joint Degree Programme

  • BA International Honours, International Relations and Affairs

Overview

United States European Command (EUCOM)

Problem Sponsor

EUCOM can benefit from technology and concepts developed in INDOPACOM

75

Original Problem Statement

Number of Interviews

The Problem

When Carson Gada, Kelly Shinners, and Charlotte Feit-Leichman enrolled in the Fall 2024 Hacking for Defense (H4D) course at William & Mary, they were looking for a meaningful challenge — and they got one. Tasked by the U.S. European Command’s (EUCOM) Joint Staff J8 Innovation Unit, the team was asked to explore how solutions developed for Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) could be adapted for use in the European theater, particularly within a NATO framework.

The problem statement was overwhelming in scope and highly technical. As Shinners recalled, “It felt way out of my comfort zone and my scope of knowledge… I didn’t feel qualified to take it on.” Despite this, the team leaned into the complexity, driven by an interest in drones, NATO operations, and emerging security threats. Their sponsor, Colonel McCarten, and course instructor, General Matthews, pointed them toward a specific domain: drone warfare in Europe.

Initial research revealed that while many NATO countries had their own drone capabilities, they lacked unified deployment strategies or infrastructure. The evolving Ukraine conflict underscored the need for rapid response and coordination across allies, especially along the Russian border. Despite early delays in connecting with their sponsor and securing interviews, the team pushed forward, eventually conducting dozens of interviews with subject-matter experts, including private defense contractors, drone engineers, AI specialists, and military personnel.

The Innovation

Team CONOPS’s final Minimum Viable Product (MVP), codenamed “CHAOS,” was a high-level deterrence concept aimed at establishing a NATO-wide drone regiment. The idea was to integrate existing NATO drone systems into a single, unified rapid-response network capable of launching from multiple border regions.

Their concept envisioned regionally distributed drone brigades stationed across Eastern Europe, each designed for swift deployment and equipped with aerial, surface, and underwater unmanned systems. The operational effectiveness of these brigades would be supported by integrated command and control software, inspired by systems developed by the defense company Anduril. To enhance long-range strike capabilities, the team proposed basing strategies modeled after Indo-Pacific “island hopping” logistics, suggesting staging points for B-21 bombers in Iceland, Spain, and Qatar. These locations would support the use of Anduril’s Barracuda missile systems and allow for deeper operational reach.

“Our whole project was called ‘CHAOS’ at the end,” said Shinners. “The idea was to create a sense of fast, overwhelming disruption before ground troops could be fully deployed, which would buy time and deter escalation.”

Though the concept was ambitious, it was grounded in feedback and inspiration from real-world military innovations. “We basically took the Hellscape concept used in INDOPACOM and adapted it for NATO,” Gada explained. “But we added long-range basing and command infrastructure, based on what we learned from Ukraine and our interviews.”

Presentation

Team Shield’s Hacking for Defense Experience

Despite the scale and ambiguity of their challenge, Team CONOPS grew significantly over the course of the semester. No team member entered the course as a drone or defense expert. “I just wanted to have more of a hands-on approach to learning about international security and the career field in general,” said Feit-Leichman. “And this was a super amazing opportunity to get that hands-on approach to what a career in defense or international security might look like.” Through extensive interviews, AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, and iterative MVP pivots, they gained both technical and contextual fluency.

“A lot of the knowledge we had came from interviews,” Gada said. “We had to learn how to ask better questions, how to pivot mid-conversation, and how to track down the right people, even when it took weeks to get started.”

All team members pointed to interpersonal and networking skills as major takeaways from the course. “People love to talk about what they know,” said Shinners. “Admitting we didn’t know anything often helped, and experts became more willing to share and teach us.” 

“As we kept working through our problem, getting the whole picture of how every person involved in a potential solution would be engaging with it was pretty important to me," added Feit-Leichman. "The insight from the H4D framework of really seeking out different perspectives was pretty crucial to the way we approached our problem and solution.”

They also emphasized the real-world challenge of defense work. “Our question was borderline classified,” Gada noted. “One of our interviewees actually warned us to be very careful with the language we used.”

The course left a strong impression on their career goals. Shinners, an international relations major, called the experience “rewarding” and said it solidified her interest in defense and security. “It’s on my CV now, I reference it in interviews,” she said. Gada, with a background in cybersecurity and policy, added: “This opened my eyes to the defense side of things… I’m applying to internships in electronic warfare now.”
Feit-Leichman reflected, “The work felt very fulfilling; it motivated me to continue pursuing a career path in international security, and a lot of the reason I'm here at Indo-Pacific Command is because of the H4D course.”

The team offered honest advice to future students:

“Make sure you actually care about defense,” Shinners said. “You’ll burn out otherwise.”

“And make time,” Gada added. “We laughed when the general said it’d be 15 hours a week. It was more.”
“This course is best for someone who's willing to step a little bit outside their comfort zone for sure; that's an important attribute for someone approaching the class,” said Feit-Leichman.

What’s Next

While Team CONOPS isn’t currently pursuing commercialization or further development of CHAOS, the impact of the course continues to shape their trajectories. Shinners is moving to London in the fall and plans to seek work in the defense or international security space. Gada is using the contacts he made in the course to explore competitive defense internships. Feit-Leichman is currently interning for the Indo-Pacific Command. With one more year of undergraduate studies, she remains open to exploring various career opportunities within the defense sector.

The team may not be building drones or commanding B-21s (yet), but their deep dive into global security challenges, and their bold attempt to solve them, left a lasting impact. 

Jessica Caterson