Advancing Rapid Defense Innovation Symposium (ARDIS)

Join us at ARDIS where we'll dive into cutting-edge technologies and strategies to advance rapid defense innovation!

About this Event

Advancing Rapid Defense Innovation Symposium (ARDIS)

The 2025 Advancing Rapid Defense Innovation Symposium (ARDIS), taking place on December 16, 2025, at the Kerr McGee Community Center, will focus on helping shape the future of U.S. military technological superiority in an increasingly complex global environment.

Structured around tightly moderated sessions, the symposium reflects a growing urgency within the Department of the Navy to accelerate innovation while safeguarding classified insights and proprietary technologies. Organized in close coordination with Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) China Lake, the ARDIS event fosters dialogue across sectors to collaborate at the speed of changing technology.

The event serves as a unique, high-level forum for collaboration among the Department of Defense, defense contractors, technology startups, and research universities—centered on solving real-world challenges and accelerating innovation for the warfighter.

Program Highlights

1000

Opening Plenary – The Defense Innovation Unit Accelerates Emerging Tech

Participants will explore how the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is reshaping the way the DoD accesses and integrates emerging technologies, provides access to capital, and builds a dynamic innovation ecosystem that connects Silicon Valley speed with Pentagon-scale impact. Attendees will gain insights into how every tier of the military procurement supply chain—whether agile innovators or established integrators—can engage in this process and unlock new opportunities in shaping the future of defense innovation.

1100

Drones at the Speed of Battle: Delivering Mission-Ready Systems to the Warfighter

For the warfighter, drones are more than technology—they are force multipliers that enhance situational awareness, logistics, and combat effectiveness. We’ll examine how contractors at every level can accelerate the production of U.S.-made drones to meet operational demands. Primes bring integration and scale, mid-tier suppliers deliver critical components and cybersecure systems, startups inject disruptive autonomy and design agility, and research institutions advance next-generation capabilities.

1200

Luncheon and Tech Showcase and Technology Pathway Briefs

1330

Academic and Strategic Partnership Roundtable

This moderated roundtable explores the future of emerging technologies—AI, autonomy, big data, secure communications—and how these innovations can rapidly transition to operational use. Discussion focuses on bridging exploratory research with practical applications, while respecting proprietary boundaries and IP. Panelists include university experts, TechGrid and NAWCWD personnel who provide insights into sandbox opportunities for both contractors and non-traditional innovators.

1430

AI, Cybersecurity and Zero Trust

This session explores how the Department of Defense, through entities like the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), is accelerating the integration of AI-driven capabilities while demanding secure-by-design principles from the start. Panelists will examine the intersection of AI development, cybersecurity risk management, and the practical implementation of Zero Trust strategies across operational environments. Participants will also learn how DIU’s innovation pipelines enable industry partners to contribute to these efforts, offering agile acquisition models for AI and cyber solutions that are mission-ready, scalable, and secure.

1530

Closing Session & Call to Action: Bridging the "Valley of Death" Gap

This session will focus on the barriers known as the “Valley of Death”—the space where promising technologies often stall between research and deployment due to a lack of sustained funding, alignment, or acquisition authority. Leaders from NAWCWD and defense innovation organizations will examine how new models of public-private collaboration, like those championed by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), National Security Innovation Capital (NSIC), and NavalX, are accelerating the transition process and reshaping the defense acquisition landscape. The session wraps up with an open Q&A forum, encouraging participants to voice questions and clarify next steps.

1700

Adjournment

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Kerr McGee Center, 100 West California Avenue, Ridgecrest, United States