Axios Future of Defense Summit: Innovation needs partnerships for defense advantage, experts say

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Deeper collaboration between defense companies and amongst allied countries is critical to accelerating defense innovation and production, industry insiders said at Axios' Future of Defense roundtable.

Why it matters: The defense sector is flush with emerging tech, but turning those ideas into tangible tools ready for deployment is a complex mission.

Axios' Colin Demarest and Ashley Gold moderated the roundtable discussion on Oct. 22. The event was sponsored by Booz Allen.

4 big takeaways from the conversation:

1. Shifting the focus from competition to collaboration within the private sector is key to creating solutions, said Susanne Hake, general manager of U.S. Government at Vantor. "Historically, a lot of companies have come up with problems wanting to win the entire mission space, and now it's really about interoperability," she said. "It's about working together to kind of bring those solutions to the government."

2. The relationships between Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea appear to be growing closer and the U.S. should look to strengthen partnerships with more allies as well, said Clarion Strategies president Julianne Smith, who is also a former NATO ambassador.

• "They're thinking about it in terms of defense production, about innovation, about AI, you name it. And so we've got to also put our team on the field. We've got to assemble a better network of countries."

3. Global engagement can give the U.S. a strategic edge in both military and economic defense readiness, said Cynthia Kaiser, Halcyon SVP of the Ransomware Research Center.

4. Modular open system architecture "can change the world in which we live in," said Greg Bowman, Siemens Government Technologies chief corporate strategy officer and SVP of the national security division.

• "You have to have a contractor and the government engineers in the same digital ecosystem so they can get those synergies so you don't have to worry about requirements shifting," he said.

Content from the sponsor's opening remarks:

Cameron Mayer, Booz Allen EVP of their defense technology group, said the U.S. is facing some "of the biggest threats since World War II" and that there's "urgent pressure" to help advance AI, cyber and the economy.

• He added that defense leaders have a "desire to expand the defense industrial base and bring that all together for the fight" in order to deliver tech that is ready, tested and proven.