Defense One Tech Summit Highlights
Who Attends
Defense One Tech Summit has become the premier forum for accelerating technological innovation and aligning public and private sector leaders with critical national security priorities. Tech Summit brings together over 300+ attendees who convene senior leaders across the services, combatant commands, and innovation ecosystem to network and examine:
- Enterprise AI and resilient data infrastructure
- Distributed intelligence and real-world autonomy
- Startup-driven innovation and procurement reform
- The convergence of space, missile defense, and deterrence
This event draws:
- Policy leaders setting national security and AI governance direction
- Senior Pentagon officials aligning budgets and enterprise priorities
- Program executives & acquisition leads moving capabilities into production
- Technical operators & cyber leaders deploying technology in real-world environments
Past Speakers
Past Defense One Tech Summit Speakers
- Katrina Mulligan, Head of National Security, OpenAI for Government
- Derek M. Tournear, Former Director, Space Development Agency
- Brandon Tseng, Co-Founder & President, Shield AI
- LTG Robert Ashley, Former Director, Defense Intelligence Agency
- Ash Carter, Former U.S. Secretary of Defense
- Kevin Fahey, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition
- Sue Gordon, Former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence
- Gen. Paul Nakasone, Former Commander, U.S. Cyber Command & Director, NSA
- Dr. Dimitra Stratis-Cullum, Chief Scientist, U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory
- Will Roper, Former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics
- B. Edwin Wilson, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy
- Kathleen Hicks, Former Deputy Secretary of Defense
- Dr. Stefanie Tompkins, Former Director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
- Sunmin Kim, Policy Director, Defense Innovation Unit
- Jarret Lafleur, Senior Advisor to the Principal Director for Hypersonics for Strike Systems Strategy and Policy, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering
- Trey Treadwell, Associate Director for Capabilities, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
- Gen. David Thompson, Former Vice Chief of Space Operations, U.S. Space Force
- Alexus Grynkewich, Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Commander, United States European Command
- Leslie Beavers (Former) Principal Deputy CIO, Department of Defense
What to Expect
What to Expect
- A 360-degree speaker lineup and audience of senior defense leaders, program executives, technologists, and industry innovators spanning the services, combatant commands, and the broader defense ecosystem.
- Hear how AI, data, and autonomy are being deployed today - from edge environments to enterprise systems.
- Learn how DoD is scaling technologies - and where challenges remain across acquisition and integration.
- Explore how space, cyber, missile defense, and nuclear capabilities are converging.
- Understand how the U.S. is responding to fast-moving near-peer threats.
- See how startups and primes are shaping the future force — and where they can plug in.
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Defense One Featured Content
All wars are robot wars
A video by Patrick Tucker, Defense One's Science and Technology Editor
Experts see promise, risk in Pentagon’s draft acquisition reforms
A draft memo is circulating ahead of SecDef Hegseth’s Friday speech.
Meet the startups trying to build military-specific AI
The Anthropic-Pentagon feud revealed a giant gap between what giant frontier models do and what troops actually need.
Pentagon’s spending plan doubles down on land, air robots
A look at new tech efforts in the Pentagon’s $151 billion reconciliation allocation plan.
The Pentagon plan to Americanize drone warfare
At drone experiment outside Indianapolis, various elements came together to reveal the way forward.
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