NDIA Logistics Management Division October Meeting

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 theme is “One Logistics Enterprise.” Government, industry, academia, and allied and partner nations will examine how national and allied capabilities can strengthen readiness, resilience, and sustainment. The program is described as featuring perspectives from the Department of War, military services, Defense Logistics Agency, Intelligence Community, Department of State, other federal agencies, and international partners.

Theme: “Winning on the Factory Floor: Rebuilding the Arsenal of Freedom.” The conference focuses on logistics, sustainment, and supply chain excellence, including industry partnerships, innovation, and operational efficiency aimed at delivering capabilities to warfighters. Discussions address challenges and solutions driving defense readiness across logistics and acquisition, aviation, and land and maritime sectors.

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 symposium focuses on Army materiel readiness, sustainment, logistics, acquisition, modernization, and the defense industrial base. Its stated themes include logistics, maintenance, supply, and lifecycle management; accelerating capability development and integrating emerging technologies; and partnerships among Army organizations, government, industry, and academia. Programming is described as strategic discussions and professional development centered on acquisition, experimentation, readiness, and modernization. The event is open to interested parties, subject to AUSA’s stated identifiable-relationship criteria and its right to deny admission or cancel registration.

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 forum focuses on Army Aviation Maintenance & Sustainment and the Organic Industrial Base, including opportunities for Corpus Christi Army Depot and industry to partner on business opportunities and improve awareness and efficiency. Program topics include global aviation supply-chain depth and preparing for peace and war; advanced manufacturing; the Army Materiel Command Organic Industrial Base Integration Office; public-private partnerships; shared challenges and opportunities in the Defense Industrial Base; Army Materiel Command priorities; and the risks and rewards of artificial intelligence in the Defense Industrial Base.

The program focuses on weapon-system maintenance and sustainment, readiness, and defense industrial base revitalization. Plenary and breakout sessions examine acquisition authorities and faster capability delivery; domestic manufacturing, industrial-base investment, and workforce capacity; contested logistics and forward maintenance; munitions lifecycle management; resilient supply chains; and the application of AI, advanced manufacturing, software, and digital engineering to sustainment. Specific discussions include the Portfolio Acquisition Executive authorities under the Warfighting Acquisition System; the Major Weapon Systems and Critical Munitions Readiness Campaign Plan; EO 14415 supply-chain mapping and illumination; and public-private co-production, technical data and right to repair, intellectual property, and capital requirements for industrial-base expansion. The Weapon Systems Software Summit covers applied AI and autonomous systems, DevSecOps and software factories, cybersecurity and Zero Trust, digital engineering, data and cloud architecture, acquisition policy, and workforce and talent management. Associated forums address corrosion prevention, provisioning and cataloging, defense working-capital funds, depot capabilities, allied co-sustainment, and supply-chain risk management. The program also includes a Maintenance Innovation Challenge and a co-located Maintenance and Logistics Exhibition with a Maintenance Yard.

Discussion covers evolving industrial base cyber challenges, standards validation at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, supply-chain risk management, changes to the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), and False Claims Act legal risks in cyber assurance.