In her opening remarks, CEO Tara Murphy Dougherty discussed how we’re in a moment that can witness “dramatic and bold change,” and that “we are well past the point of desperately needing this change.”
Tara outlined three imperatives for DoD to deter conflict or win decisively if we are forced to enter it:
1. Connect the supply chain to the kill chain;
2. Ban spreadsheet management of weapons systems and platforms; and
3. Let the American private tech sector in.
Throughout the day, leaders from across the defense ecosystem shared their visions for change across Defense Acquisition—from research to production and beyond—and detailed concrete actions they’re taking to make those changes a reality.
After Tara laid out a bold vision for Defense Acquisition transformation, she welcomed GEN Randy A. George, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, to the stage for a candid Fireside Chat about the state of Army capabilities and transformation efforts. Tara noted that GEN George has been focused on Army transformation “since day one.”
“We’re going to transform at different levels,” said GEN George, “...we’re going to have to do that to maintain pace.” This pace is under pressure from adversaries who are modernizing their militaries faster than ever before. GEN George also outlined the critical industrial capacity changes already underway, and the funding agility still required to get there.
In the first panel of the day, Defense Tech, Acquisition, and the Era of Efficiency, Rachel Hoff (Policy Director, Ronald Reagan Institute) asked GEN James E Rainey (Army Futures Command), John Jason (CEO of ATI), and former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy (Operating Partner, AEI) to dive into the age of efficiency at the Pentagon.
As government inefficiency gets put under a microscope, what does tech reform look like in acquisition? For Army Futures Command, it demands rethinking processes. “We have the advantage of being designed to do things different[ly],” said GEN Rainey as he described embedding innovation in his team’s culture.
For too long, industry and DoD have decoupled the Supply Chain and the Kill Chain. We pulled together the military’s top logistics and materiel leaders to discuss bridging that gap for good.
Lt. Gen. Mark T. Simerly (Director, Defense Logistics Agency) put it plainly: “You can’t be lethal without logistics.”
Lt. Gen. Simerly was joined on stage by LTG Christopher O. Mohan (Deputy Commanding General, Army Materiel Command), and Lt. Gen. Gregory L. Masiello (Director, Defense Contract Management Agency). Moderator and longtime national security reporter Gordon Lubold pressed the group toward concrete actions industry and DoD are taking today to forge the connection between the factory and the fight.
“Convoys. Warehouses. Supply lines. A lot of things on the move…How do you go about defending such vital resources on the battlefield?” Colin Demarest (Reporter, Axios) challenged speakers to share best practices in our next panel, Precision Sustainment to Maximum Efficiency.
Recent conflicts, like the protracted war in Ukraine, have illuminated sustainment challenges facing the United States. The scale is larger than we expected, lifecycles are longer, and the platforms themselves distributed around the world.
Brigadier General Shane Upton (Director, U.S. Army Futures Command Contested Logistics Cross Functional Team), Capt Andrew Pecora (Commander, Surface Forces Logistics Center), Patrick N. Kelleher (Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Materiel Readiness), and Andy Lowery (CEO, Epirus) provided insights into the challenges of distribution, resupply, and demand management in contested environments.
Mike Stone (National Security Correspondent, Reuters) perfectly summarized the Modernization at the Pace of Conflict panel with three words: “China, Rockets, and AI.”
This forward-looking discussion brought together LTG Josh Rudd (Deputy Commander, USINDOPACOM), Jim Rebesco (CEO, Striveworks), Ben Nicholson (Chief Growth Officer, Ursa Major),—all key architects and technologists driving modernization initiatives—to examine what's working, what isn't, and what's next.
LTG Rudd outlined the delicate balance that presents opportunity and responsibility we face today in modern warfare: “We should not send a human into harm’s way to do a job that a machine can do,” but, “...we cannot lose human agency.” The tension between automation and human oversight emerged as a key theme to the modernization panel.
Our panels examined every phase of the Defense Acquisition lifecycle and built consensus around the capabilities America needs to be prepared for a protracted and contested conflict. One crucial question remained: Can we build what we need to ensure peace?
In Production and American Re-industrialization, Lauren Williams (Senior Editor, Defense One) challenged Christopher Miller (Executive Director, NAVSEA), Troy Demmer (Founder, Gecko Robotics), and Brent Sadler (Sr. Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation) to discuss through the lens of naval production, which faces a cratered industrial base, multi-year production backlogs, and continued dependence on strategic competitors.
Despite these serious challenges, there are reasons for optimism. Christopher Miller shared his optimism around additive manufacturing, saying, “We see what a gamechanger it can be—but we still have a lot of work to do.”
At midday and in the closing, we took a look back at America’s defense history—and looked ahead to the strength of the future in two intimate conversations.
In a Fireside Chat, Govini SVP Jeb Nadaner and renowned historian Dr. Arthur Herman explored crucial historical moments in history that shaped our current competition with China. Dr. Herman contrasted China’s top-down system of defense industrial control to American free enterprise. “When that got turned loose in 1940 with the building of the Arsenal of Democracy…the results were staggering.”
U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) delivered the Closing Keynote. Much of the edge of American military power comes out of Alabama—from the interceptors successfully used to down Iranian missiles in the Middle East to next generation hypersonics—and Sen. Britt was proud to share how Alabama is arming warfighters around the world. She closed with both a sobering assessment and a rallying call.
“The world is more dangerous than it has been in generations…I know everybody in this room understands what the consequences of our failure to meet this moment would be. Lucky for us, this is also a golden opportunity to modernize our military and bring much needed efficiency to our Armed Forces.”
Thank you to all who joined us in the spirit of our shared mission. We’re proud to work alongside you, and hope you left as inspired and motivated as Govinians did.
Sign up to receive updates from Govini here and stay in the loop on our events.
In her opening remarks, CEO Tara Murphy Dougherty discussed how we’re in a moment that can witness “dramatic and bold change,” and that “we are well past the point of desperately needing this change.”
Tara outlined three imperatives for DoD to deter conflict or win decisively if we are forced to enter it:
1. Connect the supply chain to the kill chain;
2. Ban spreadsheet management of weapons systems and platforms; and
3. Let the American private tech sector in.
Throughout the day, leaders from across the defense ecosystem shared their visions for change across Defense Acquisition—from research to production and beyond—and detailed concrete actions they’re taking to make those changes a reality.
After Tara laid out a bold vision for Defense Acquisition transformation, she welcomed GEN Randy A. George, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, to the stage for a candid Fireside Chat about the state of Army capabilities and transformation efforts. Tara noted that GEN George has been focused on Army transformation “since day one.”
“We’re going to transform at different levels,” said GEN George, “...we’re going to have to do that to maintain pace.” This pace is under pressure from adversaries who are modernizing their militaries faster than ever before. GEN George also outlined the critical industrial capacity changes already underway, and the funding agility still required to get there.
In the first panel of the day, Defense Tech, Acquisition, and the Era of Efficiency, Rachel Hoff (Policy Director, Ronald Reagan Institute) asked GEN James E Rainey (Army Futures Command), John Jason (CEO of ATI), and former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy (Operating Partner, AEI) to dive into the age of efficiency at the Pentagon.
As government inefficiency gets put under a microscope, what does tech reform look like in acquisition? For Army Futures Command, it demands rethinking processes. “We have the advantage of being designed to do things different[ly],” said GEN Rainey as he described embedding innovation in his team’s culture.
For too long, industry and DoD have decoupled the Supply Chain and the Kill Chain. We pulled together the military’s top logistics and materiel leaders to discuss bridging that gap for good.
Lt. Gen. Mark T. Simerly (Director, Defense Logistics Agency) put it plainly: “You can’t be lethal without logistics.”
Lt. Gen. Simerly was joined on stage by LTG Christopher O. Mohan (Deputy Commanding General, Army Materiel Command), and Lt. Gen. Gregory L. Masiello (Director, Defense Contract Management Agency). Moderator and longtime national security reporter Gordon Lubold pressed the group toward concrete actions industry and DoD are taking today to forge the connection between the factory and the fight.
“Convoys. Warehouses. Supply lines. A lot of things on the move…How do you go about defending such vital resources on the battlefield?” Colin Demarest (Reporter, Axios) challenged speakers to share best practices in our next panel, Precision Sustainment to Maximum Efficiency.
Recent conflicts, like the protracted war in Ukraine, have illuminated sustainment challenges facing the United States. The scale is larger than we expected, lifecycles are longer, and the platforms themselves distributed around the world.
Brigadier General Shane Upton (Director, U.S. Army Futures Command Contested Logistics Cross Functional Team), Capt Andrew Pecora (Commander, Surface Forces Logistics Center), Patrick N. Kelleher (Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Materiel Readiness), and Andy Lowery (CEO, Epirus) provided insights into the challenges of distribution, resupply, and demand management in contested environments.
Mike Stone (National Security Correspondent, Reuters) perfectly summarized the Modernization at the Pace of Conflict panel with three words: “China, Rockets, and AI.”
This forward-looking discussion brought together LTG Josh Rudd (Deputy Commander, USINDOPACOM), Jim Rebesco (CEO, Striveworks), Ben Nicholson (Chief Growth Officer, Ursa Major),—all key architects and technologists driving modernization initiatives—to examine what's working, what isn't, and what's next.
LTG Rudd outlined the delicate balance that presents opportunity and responsibility we face today in modern warfare: “We should not send a human into harm’s way to do a job that a machine can do,” but, “...we cannot lose human agency.” The tension between automation and human oversight emerged as a key theme to the modernization panel.
Our panels examined every phase of the Defense Acquisition lifecycle and built consensus around the capabilities America needs to be prepared for a protracted and contested conflict. One crucial question remained: Can we build what we need to ensure peace?
In Production and American Re-industrialization, Lauren Williams (Senior Editor, Defense One) challenged Christopher Miller (Executive Director, NAVSEA), Troy Demmer (Founder, Gecko Robotics), and Brent Sadler (Sr. Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation) to discuss through the lens of naval production, which faces a cratered industrial base, multi-year production backlogs, and continued dependence on strategic competitors.
Despite these serious challenges, there are reasons for optimism. Christopher Miller shared his optimism around additive manufacturing, saying, “We see what a gamechanger it can be—but we still have a lot of work to do.”
At midday and in the closing, we took a look back at America’s defense history—and looked ahead to the strength of the future in two intimate conversations.
In a Fireside Chat, Govini SVP Jeb Nadaner and renowned historian Dr. Arthur Herman explored crucial historical moments in history that shaped our current competition with China. Dr. Herman contrasted China’s top-down system of defense industrial control to American free enterprise. “When that got turned loose in 1940 with the building of the Arsenal of Democracy…the results were staggering.”
U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) delivered the Closing Keynote. Much of the edge of American military power comes out of Alabama—from the interceptors successfully used to down Iranian missiles in the Middle East to next generation hypersonics—and Sen. Britt was proud to share how Alabama is arming warfighters around the world. She closed with both a sobering assessment and a rallying call.
“The world is more dangerous than it has been in generations…I know everybody in this room understands what the consequences of our failure to meet this moment would be. Lucky for us, this is also a golden opportunity to modernize our military and bring much needed efficiency to our Armed Forces.”
Thank you to all who joined us in the spirit of our shared mission. We’re proud to work alongside you, and hope you left as inspired and motivated as Govinians did.
Sign up to receive updates from Govini here and stay in the loop on our events.
