Beyond the platform: What the unmanned systems boom means for the GovCon market

The wars in Ukraine and Iran have made one thing clear to the Pentagon: uncrewed systems are no longer nice-to-have.

They are rewriting the rules of engagement across air, ground, surface and subsurface domains. This means the U.S. Army and Navy are racing to catch up, both on offense and defense.

That urgency is the backdrop for Washington Technology's Aug. 14 Power Breakfast, "Beyond the Platform: Inside the Army and Navy's Expanding Unmanned Systems Market."

We will go beyond the hardware headlines to look at where the contracting opportunities live. This includes demand for command-and-control, data processing, sensors, cybersecurity and the supply chains that keep it all running.

Forecast International analysts Thomas Freebairn, Anna Miskelley and David Hutchins open the morning with a market landscape session, where they will unpack demand signals shaped directly by what is playing out on real battlefields.

From there, three case studies get specific:

• Thales Defense & Security's Tony Lengerich, a former Navy rear admiral, on how the ANGLER uncrewed underwater vehicle is taking on persistent mine threats in contested waters.
• CACI's Erik Grant on defeating the swarm of low-cost, adaptable drone threats now facing military operators — the counter-UAS fight.
• Serco Inc.'s Mike Fortune on the USX-1 Defiant, the company's autonomous ship built to help the Navy project force across wider, more contested maritime areas.

A group Q&A closes out the case studies.

For contractors, the message is the same one we keep coming back to:

The platforms get a lot of the attention. But the money — and the differentiation — is in everything wrapped around them.

Follow this link to learn more and register. As always, the event is free for Washington Technology Insiders.