Sift and CX2 partner to turn test data into momentum
CX2 builds electronic warfare systems for the next era of conflict — adaptive, autonomous platforms designed to dominate the electromagnetic spectrum.
Their mission: Enable forces to operate decisively in GPS-denied, unmanned, and contested environments. In that kind of environment, there are no second chances.
Every test flight has to count. Every anomaly has to be understood. And every hour between discovery and diagnosis is risk carried forward.
For CX2, moving fast wasn’t the challenge. It was everything that slowed them down.
The Data Was There. The Insight Wasn’t.
As CX2’s test cadence increased, so did the data. Ten to twenty minute flights generated five to ten gigabytes of telemetry — every time. Like most fast-moving teams, they leaned on familiar tools: CSVs, raw logs, and Drive uploads — just enough to keep moving early on, but not enough to scale.
The problem? Their platforms were moving fast — but their data review tools weren’t keeping up.
“We realized quickly… passing around CSVs just wasn’t going to scale,” said Lee Thompson, co-founder at CX2.
Blair Gagnon, an engineer who joined CX2 after nearly a decade at SpaceX, was candid: “Even if we record the data and put it somewhere, it’s useless if we don’t analyze it.”
There was no time to wait for an internal tool to be built, or to spin up a sprawling pipeline that would only serve one team’s needs. They needed something that just worked — out of the box, but deep enough to keep up with their pace of development.
“Sift was the most natural fit,” Blair said. “And it came with real engineering support. We’re not on our own.”
From Flight to Fault Isolation
Before Sift, field testing often meant waiting days to understand what happened. Now, that review happens the same day — often the same afternoon.
After a recent desert test, the team ran into a platform fault. In the field, there wasn’t much they could do. But when they got back, they pushed the data to Sift and started investigating.
“We analyzed the flight, crossed out branches of the fault tree, and isolated the issue,” Blair said. “That just wouldn’t have been possible without Sift.”
The entire team works from the same data. No one’s left guessing which version of the logs to review. If something needs to be checked before a follow-up test, the answer is already in Sift.
“I just say, ‘Check the Sift link before tomorrow’s flight,’” Lee said. “That wouldn’t have been possible before.”
No one’s left guessing which version of the logs to review.
Collaboration Without the Drag
CX2 didn’t just need visibility into their systems — they needed it at test speed. They needed to slice through gigabytes of data without writing a parser for every sensor log.
What stood out wasn’t just that Sift worked — it was how fast it adapted.
Maps came online instantly. Flight paths and trajectory data could be plotted against sensor values. Even Blair, who expected friction, was surprised: “I didn’t think that would be ready — but it was just there.”
And when new engineers started using it, adoption didn’t take weeks or training sessions. It took one graph.
“We call it the new Sift world,” Blair said. “As soon as someone sees what it can do, they want in.”
When new engineers started using it, adoption didn’t take weeks or training sessions. It took one graph.
Sift Isn’t an Improvement. It’s an Enabler.
CX2 didn’t adopt Sift because their team was struggling. They adopted it because they were moving fast — and the tooling wasn’t.
“Sift hasn’t helped our workflow,” Blair said. “It’s enabled it.”
The time saved on analysis isn’t just a win for velocity — it’s a hedge against blind spots. When data is easier to review, teams review more of it. Issues get spotted earlier. Faults don’t get shipped. The system becomes antifragile.
Results: No Bottlenecks. No Blind Spots.
What CX2 has achieved with Sift isn’t a workflow improvement — it’s a foundational shift in how their team operates. Every test cycle, every log file, and every anomaly now moves through the same centralized, searchable, collaborative system — without slowing the team down.
- Analysis time cut from days to hours
“We spent four hours analyzing the flight, crossed out branches of the fault tree, and isolated the issue. That just wouldn’t have been possible without Sift.” — Blair - Zero internal tooling backlog
“We never even thought about building it. It would’ve been untenable.” — Blair - Instant onboarding and company-wide adoption
“As soon as someone sees a graph in Sift, they want in. We call it the new Sift world.” — Blair - Confidence to move fast, again and again
“I just say, ‘Check the Sift link before tomorrow’s flight.’ That wouldn’t have been possible before.” — Lee
Beyond the Test Bench: CX2 is shaping the future of electronic warfare
Sift backs teams building the machines and infrastructure of tomorrow — and CX2 is one of them. With deep expertise, clear urgency, and a high-cadence approach to testing, CX2 is not waiting for the industry to catch up. They’re moving fast, with a clear view of what comes next.
Their ability to test, analyze, and adapt quickly isn’t just helping them meet today’s demands — it’s laying the groundwork for scale.
Here’s what that looks like:
- No wasted cycles — Every flight test produces actionable results the same day.
- Engineering velocity stays high — Sift removes friction, so root cause happens fast.
- No internal tools, no backlog — The team skips the build vs. buy debate and focuses on shipping systems.
- Shared context. No silos. No black boxes. — Everyone works from the same truth, in real time.
Most companies struggle to keep up with their own test data. CX2 uses it to move faster, validate smarter, and scale confidently.
What Comes Next
Today, Sift is embedded in how CX2 works — a standard part of their workflow across test flights, hardware-in-the-loop chambers, and field systems.
“Everything is going into Sift,” Lee said. “Because when something goes wrong, you need breadcrumbs. And Sift is that breadcrumb trail.”
And if Sift were to disappear tomorrow? “We’d be stopped in our tracks,” Blair said. “No question.”
