The Advancing Rapid Defense Innovation Symposium (ARDIS) will return in 2026, bringing together senior military strategists, government officials, defense and technology executives, researchers, investors and national security leaders for direct conversations about strengthening America’s defense capabilities in an increasingly complex global security environment.
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Kevin Czinger, Founder, Lead Inventor & Executive Chairman of Divergent and Czinger Vehicles provided the Keynote Address at ARDIS in December 2025. With its manufacturing platform, DAPS™, Divergent designs, builds, and assembles structures and solutions across critical industries. Established in 2014, with multiple, adaptive factories, its work enables products across leading aerospace, defense, and industrial programs. Los Angeles based Czinger is an industry-disrupting performance vehicles brand pioneering a new era in the automotive space by fundamentally changing the way cars will be designed and manufactured for generations to come. Built around a core ethos of utilizing revolutionary, proprietary technology to create vehicles equipped with both dominating performance and iconic design, Czinger’s first production car, the 21C, represents a radical transformation of the manufacturing sector and the future of human-AI design within an environmentally sustainable system.
ARDIS 2026 will convene in Ridgecrest, California, home to Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake and the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, within one of the nation’s largest and most strategically important concentrations of military installations, test ranges, research institutions, aerospace enterprises and advanced technology companies.
California’s defense ecosystem extends from the laboratories and weapons-development capabilities of the Mojave Desert to major naval, aerospace, space, cyber, manufacturing and research operations throughout the state. Its military installations, universities, national laboratories, venture capital networks and technology companies place California at the center of America’s ability to develop, test, finance, manufacture and deploy the next generation of national defense capabilities.
“California is not only a center of technology and innovation; it is an essential component of the nation’s defense infrastructure,” said Matt Thomas, Program Director of Speaker Engagement. “The technologies, research institutions, military installations, test capabilities and investment networks located throughout the state are helping shape how the United States prepares for emerging threats and maintains its strategic advantage.”
ARDIS 2026 will provide a national forum for candid and consequential discussions about what must change to move critical defense technologies from the laboratory and prototype stage into production and operational deployment.
The program will bring together leaders from the military services, federal agencies, traditional defense contractors, nontraditional technology companies, universities, research laboratories, venture capital firms and advanced manufacturing organizations.
Careful attention will be given to the growing role of non-traditional companies in national defense. Technology startups and commercially focused enterprises are introducing new approaches to autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, software development, advanced manufacturing, additive manufacturing, counter-unmanned systems, space capabilities, resilient communications and digital engineering.
“The United States does not lack innovation,” Thomas said. “The challenge is creating the pathways, partnerships and production capacity needed to move innovation into the hands of the warfighter. ARDIS is designed to bring the people responsible for those decisions into the same room for honest conversations about what is working, what is not working and what must happen next.”
Key areas of discussion will include defense industrial capacity, rapid acquisition, advanced and additive manufacturing, software-defined systems, artificial intelligence, autonomous platforms, counter-UAS capabilities, supply-chain resilience, modular open systems, digital qualification, workforce development, private investment and the transition from prototype to sustained production.
ARDIS 2026 will also examine lessons from recent international conflicts and their implications for homeland defense, deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, installation protection, contested logistics, affordable mass and the replenishment of critical munitions.
Unlike a traditional trade show, ARDIS is structured as a leadership forum centered on substantive dialogue and mission-driven outcomes. The symposium is intended to foster direct engagement among the officials who establish defense requirements, the military and research organizations that test new systems, the companies developing emerging technologies and the investors capable of helping those technologies reach scale.
ARDIS 2026 is designed for senior military and government officials, defense and aerospace executives, technology founders, researchers, acquisition professionals, program managers, engineers, manufacturers, investors, policymakers and organizations working to advance U.S. national security. ARDIS 2026 is presented by Saalex Solutions and includes the participation of NAWCWD, NAVAIR and NAVSEA.
For more information, visit DefenseInnovationUSA.com
About ARDIS
The Advancing Rapid Defense Innovation Symposium (ARDIS) is a national defense leadership forum focused on accelerating the development, acquisition, production and operational deployment of technologies critical to the United States and its allies. ARDIS connects military, government, industry, research and investment leaders to address barriers to innovation and strengthen collaboration across the national defense ecosystem.
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