NIWC Atlantic drives strategic collaboration, alignment at Eastern Defense Summit

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic served as a primary contributor during the 2024 Eastern Defense Summit on Dec. 11-12, as the command sought to help the defense industry better understand some of the Navy's biggest technical challenges.

Sponsored by the Charleston Defense Contractors Association (CDCA), the Eastern Defense Summit saw more than 2,000 individuals and 150 vendors descend on the Charleston Area Convention Center to participate in tech-based panel discussions, breakout sessions, strategic engagements and exhibit hall demonstrations, which included NIWC Atlantic STEM activities with students from school robotics teams in the local area.

During his welcome to summit attendees, NIWC Atlantic Commanding Officer Capt. Matt O’Neal explained how the Navy engineering and information technology command he leads relies on industry partners to address the warfighter’s top technology challenges.

“The ideas discussed at this week’s summit, the foundational connections made, the innovation opportunities pursued, (they are very) meaningful,” O’Neal said. “They ensure that when our nation calls on our men and women serving around the world, they are ready, because the technology in their hands is relevant, reliable and effective.”

The theme of this year’s summit was “Collaborating on Actionable Solutions for Our Nation’s Pacing Threats.”

During the two-day event, military leaders talked about lessons learned in the Red Sea and Black Sea while leading discussions centering on joint interoperability, zero trust, AI, rapid contracting strategies, unmanned systems, expeditionary maritime operations and preparing for conflict.

NIWC Atlantic leaders sitting on various panels typically paused to first highlight Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti’s recently released Navigation Plan (NAVPLAN) for America's Warfighting Navy, which prioritizes making the Navy ready for potential conflict with the People’s Republic of China by January 2027.

The message to the defense industry was clear: We cannot do this without you.

Whether leveraging rapid contracting strategies or working traditional acquisition channels, the theme of government-industry collaboration during the summit teemed with a sense of urgency.

“I think the trend that we are all seeing is this demand to ‘go faster with good enough,’” said Greg Hays, senior scientific technology manager at NIWC Atlantic for rapid prototyping, experimentation and fleet exercises. “We can’t sit around and wait for the 100% solution if there are viable options both inside and outside of government.”

Hays said NIWC Atlantic wants to accelerate critical capabilities to the warfighter by rapidly assessing commercial and non-traditional solutions that lower risk, adopting what works, integrating into the warfighting family of systems and then ultimately letting the warfighter adapt to maximize the utility.

Capt. Andrew Gibbons, senior military acquisition advisor to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, also emphasized commercial technologies that the Navy might be able to leverage in a military fashion.

“I’m very passionate about these dual-use technologies,” Gibbons said. “We need to mine from sources of the brilliant folks out in our country, who are doing things they do not know can actually help the military.”

One reason the Department of Defense (DoD) needs to look externally is because industry far outpaces government spending in research and development (R&D), according to Jim Rabuck, Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) southwest regional director.

He said for every DoD dollar invested in R&D back in the 1950s, commercial industry was spending only half of that. Today, companies spend $10 or more to every DoD research dollar.

“In certain industries, like AI or quantum computing, you’re looking at $100 to every dollar we spend — some, even $1,000 more.”

Rabuck explained DIU was specifically set up to figure out how to work with Silicon Valley and other commercial tech solutions that might have application in DoD.

The challenge for military labs, noted Tom Rondeau, director of the DoD’s FutureG Office, is in trying to figure out what solutions exist in a sector of commerce where everyone is quickly out-innovating everyone else.

“Ukraine looked like a tank war for the first few months,” Rondeau said. “It is an innovation war. How they are competing with an adversary that is larger than they are is by innovating. They are using technology and applying it rapidly to their problem set, making adjustments within days or weeks as opposed to the traditional acquisitions model of months and years.”

During one panel discussion, Steve Harnig, NIWC Atlantic director of contracts, said one way the Navy acquires commercial solutions and partners with non-traditional vendors is through various Other Transaction Authority (OTA) vehicles, such as the Information Warfare Research Project (IWRP).

Administered by NIWC Atlantic, IWRP is a rapid-prototyping initiative aimed at advancing information warfare solutions. To date, the collaborative acquisition process has executed more than $2.5 billion in prototype project awards and follow-on production awards.

“As we think about what’s out there in the commercial sector, we have seen a large ramp-up of our OTAs,” he said. “We also use our NASA SEWP (Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement) contract for commercial solutions. The goal of any DoD acquisition model is to get technology into the warfighters hands as quickly as possible.”

Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale, assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy, also told summit attendees about the burgeoning Defense Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC), one of the most powerful OTAs the DoD has ever stood up.

“The DIBC is precisely designed to accelerate awards under the Defense Production Act and allows an innovative way to engage and partner with industry,” she said.

Alongside several Navy commands, joint force components of this year’s summit included high-level U.S. Coast Guard leadership, U.S. Marine Corps commanding officers and the 628th Air Base Wing // Joint Base Charleston commander. Each leader weighed in on their service’s contributions to joint force planning and collaboration ahead of the nation’s next potential conflict.

Throughout the summit, NIWC Atlantic highlighted other creative acquisition tools as well, such as the culminating speed-round of its Palmetto Tech Bridge Prize Challenge rodeo totaling $200,000 in prize money.

More than 100 companies competed in NIWC Atlantic’s Palmetto Tech Bridge competition. Eight companies at the summit’s Innovation Pitch Jam would ultimately receive checks for their solutions in the areas of AI, Autonomy and LVC. The Pitch Jam portion of the prize challenge was a collaborative event of the CDCA that joined NIWC Atlantic, Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane and PEO Manpower, Logistics and Business.

This year, summit organizers also offered a bonus workshop for small businesses interested in the latest NAVSEA 25.1/A Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) Topic Releases, which was hosted by the NIWC Atlantic Palmetto Tech Bridge. The next day, NIWC Atlantic’s first breakout session was a full rundown of the command’s small business goals.

Peter Woodhull, CDCA vice president and Eastern Defense Summit chair, called this year’s summit a resounding success.

“NIWC Atlantic played a significant role in that success,” he said. “The CDCA is proud of our continued partnership with NIWC Atlantic.”

About NIWC Atlantic

As a part of Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, NIWC Atlantic provides systems engineering and acquisition to deliver information warfare capabilities to the naval, joint and national warfighter through the acquisition, development, integration, production, test, deployment, and sustainment of interoperable command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, cyber and information technology capabilities.