Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (SAMs)

The symposium focuses on space and missile defense, with organization updates from Space and Missile Defense Command, Space Command, Golden Dome for America’s Direct Report Program Manager, T2COM, CUAS, Northern Command, PAE Fires, the Missile Defense Agency, and space and missile defense companies. Panel themes include SPACECOM, Missile Defense System Next, International Space, INDOPACOM, industry, next-generation space and missile defense, and PAE Fires. The program also includes a technology track with technical paper presentations, a small-business showcase, and an exhibit hall featuring technology and products.

The summit addresses challenges confronting the U.S. Munitions Enterprise, bringing together leaders from the U.S. munitions industrial base, academia, and government acquisition, program management, and technology sectors. Listed subject areas include armaments, bombs and warheads, fuzes, weapons of mass destruction, strategic weapons, and advanced weapons. The event is closed to press.

The summit gathers Air Force and Space Force modeling, simulation, and analytics experts to learn about new initiatives and techniques and consider how modeling and simulation can move more training from the real world to digital. It provides a forum for shared information and connection across military services, the Department of War, industry, academia, and international partners. Focus areas include AI, machine learning and cloud; augmented, mixed, extended and virtual reality; analytics; digital engineering; healthcare simulations; joint coalition; multi-domain environments; and test evaluation and experimentation. Panel themes include senior leadership, Digital Space Range, NCO, Resilient, Ready & Responsive Airmen and Guardians, and Partner to Win. The summit also includes an industry exhibition and classified briefings.

The summit addresses force-level electronic warfare and electromagnetic spectrum operations capabilities across the services. Panels and keynotes will cover requirements and technologies vital to joint warfighting and electromagnetic spectrum advantage. Department of Defense leaders will discuss the roles of EW and EMSO in JADC2, joint long-range fires, and information advantage, with emphasis on artificial intelligence and machine learning to close gaps in joint capabilities. The summit is classified US Secret and TS/SCI.

The program addresses Executive Order implementation, the FAA Reauthorization Act, secure supply chains and the FCC Covered List, aircraft certification, and airspace coordination. Featured officials include Steven Haines, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Industry & Analysis; Congresswoman Dina Titus; and Senator Peter Welch. Sessions examine NASA’s plans for future air transportation; federal agency UAS operations and procurement; FAA EIPP progress; state and local pathways for advanced air mobility; vertiports, corridors, grid integration, and spectrum allocation; large-UAS operational approvals; collision avoidance and detect-and-avoid; FCC enforcement; automated flight rules; retail and commercial drone markets; and the policy agenda for drones and AAM. Further program topics include counter-UAS policy for major events, Part 146 certification, industry responses to NPRM 2209, air traffic control investment, coordination between first-responder and commercial drone operations, UAS supply-chain security and domestic manufacturing, cellular integration and spectrum access, U.S. export opportunities, EU certifications and cybersecurity regulations, and state, local, and tribal drone operations.

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.

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 summit presents an integrated, three-track program connecting aviation, advanced air mobility, space, and defense through shared priorities in supply chains, testbeds, capital, and workforce. Tracks are Flightline (Advanced Air Mobility & Aviation), Orbitline (Space & Space-Enabled Services), and Frontline (Defense, Dual-Use & Manufacturing). Sessions address Arizona entry points into U.S. and allied aerospace ecosystems; corridors, ranges, manufacturing capacity, and emerging spaceports for pilots and multi-domain experiments; intersections of aerospace with microelectronics, biosciences, AI, and advanced manufacturing; and converting strategy into pilots, partnerships, commitments, mission briefs, and Global Aerospace Commitments for 2030.

A professional development event for the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Space Force, and the aerospace and defense industry, focused on critical concerns and challenges of joint warfare. The symposium draws speakers from the Air Force, Space Force, combatant commands, industry, and the joint force, and includes dynamic exhibits. A 2027 agenda and named speakers were not listed on the event pages reviewed.