Defense: Innovate and Integrate

The showcase focuses on manufacturing solutions for aerospace, mobility, and defense applications, with an emphasis on flexibility, speed, and adaptability. APEX Accelerators will host small-group Knowledge Bar sessions on conducting business safely and securely in the defense industry and other federal departments. The AeroDef Strategic Advisory Council curates the aerospace and defense tracks of the colocated RAPID + TCT Conference. Those tracks cover additive manufacturing applications and supporting technologies, including AI, automation, advanced materials, digital manufacturing, qualification, and inspection.

The meeting brings together leaders from the Department of War, industry, manufacturing institutes, and academia to address the future of American defense manufacturing. Program themes include industrial surge and production capacity, supply-chain resilience, advanced manufacturing, manufacturing modernization, and priorities for strengthening the Defense Industrial Base. The format includes high-level briefings, panel discussions, and fireside chats with senior leaders.

The meeting focuses on transforming Department of War acquisition pathways and moving at the speed of relevance. It addresses challenges innovators, startups, and small businesses face in understanding customer needs, advancing technology with autonomy as the baseline, and communicating across customer and industry lines to develop capabilities that help warfighters complete missions more effectively.

The conference and reception offers an opportunity to learn about innovations in advanced energy and recent policy developments. The program includes main-stage panels, breakout panels with expert panelists, and presentations from energy experts. It brings together leaders in Michigan’s advanced energy industry, utility executives, policymakers, and regulators.

The event features exhibits in automation, robotics, smart manufacturing, precision machining, software, industrial IoT, and cybersecurity, alongside an executive keynote panel series and presentations, technology demonstrations, and interactive Knowledge Bars. The Knowledge Bars address how technology, innovation, and AI can help small and medium-sized manufacturers adopt technology. Featured technology areas also include additive manufacturing, advanced materials, digital transformation, energy and environmental efficiency, and manufacturing engineering. SME Mission Critical: Workforce 2030 focuses on manufacturers’ workforce challenges.

Discussions address federal and defense mission resilience, electric grid security, data centers’ growing energy demands, and resilient digital infrastructure. Topics include continuity of operations, mission assurance, grid and transmission planning, data center capacity, site selection, permitting, water and cooling, redundancy, physical hardening, and future-proofing. Sessions include Federal & Defense Mission Digital Resilience; Unleashing the Grid: Securing Power for Mid-Maryland’s Defense Communities; The AI Infrastructure Challenge; and Designing and Delivering Resilient Digital Infrastructure for the DoW. The keynote is by Lucian Niemeyer, former Assistant Secretary of Defense.

A B2B event focused on aerospace and defense supply chains, manufacturing capabilities, services, and technologies. Suppliers, service providers, engineering, supply chain, procurement, and product development teams connect through pre-arranged one-to-one meetings; attendance is reserved for vetted professionals. The first day features presentations by executives and leaders covering commercial and military programs at Collins, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon. Topics include market-segment trends, challenges and opportunities, supplier expectations, manufacturing automation, and information integration.

The program aligns U.S. military priorities, executive-order implementation, congressional funding, acquisition pathways, industrial-base capacity, and operational requirements for uncrewed systems. Sessions address defense acquisition reform; FY27 funding and investment signals; the Drone Dominance Program; domestic manufacturing capacity and supply-chain resilience; small-business pathways into defense markets; and export markets, financing, and export controls. Other themes include Army and Air Force autonomy fielding, congressional oversight, lessons from Ukraine, maritime security, undersea infrastructure, and scaling uncrewed surface and undersea systems. The program identifies Executive Orders 14265, 14268, 14307, 14372, and 14415 among the policy frameworks discussed. Featured speakers include Admiral Thomas Allan, Jr., Vice Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard; William Kimmitt, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade; and Emil Michael, Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering and Department of War Chief Technology Officer. Registration is restricted to U.S. citizens and citizens of allied or partner nations; the event is closed to media.

The program covers medical-device design and development, next-generation technologies, regulatory compliance, cybersecurity, supply-chain resilience, quality, and manufacturing operations. Conference topics include market readiness and adoption of medical devices; scaling miniaturized devices from prototype to production; signal integrity and EMI for medical imaging and AI-driven devices; AI-based demand forecasting; changes to FDA inspections and the Quality Management System Regulation (QMSR); 3D printing of bioabsorbable implants; and robotics and AI in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Show-floor education also addresses digital transformation, AI adoption, workforce transformation, smart manufacturing, automation, packaging, additive manufacturing, and sustainable operations. Workshops address digital lean manufacturing using automation, AI, robotics, and data analytics; OT/IT integration and smart-manufacturing roadmaps; and sterilization technologies including supercritical carbon dioxide, vaporized hydrogen peroxide, chlorine dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, electron beam, and X-ray. Sterilization topics include validation, material compatibility, scalability, regulatory expectations, and lower-emission approaches. The leadership program covers mentorship, leadership credibility, difficult conversations, decision fatigue, and burnout.