Defense & Aerospace Report DefAero Tech Report [Feb 04, 25] Innovation & Acquisition Take Aways from Apex Defense Year Two
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Feb 4, 2026 
Chris Servello, retired Navy public affairs officer and CAVAS Ships co-host, brings naval and industry perspective. Bryan Clark, Hudson Institute director and retired Navy commander, focuses on force design and defense innovation. They discuss services embracing disruptive tech. They explore pairing unmanned systems with traditional forces. They examine acquisition reforms, industry funding worries, and logistics, AI, and edge computing challenges.
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Services Embracing Disruption
- Services are embracing disruptive technologies and reorganizing to adopt them more aggressively.
- Senior leaders now show willingness to be disruptive in force design and industry engagement.
Integration Over Either/Or
- Panels shifted from "either/or" to integrating disruptive platforms with traditional forces as a continuum.
- The conversation matured toward how to nest unmanned and crewed systems into operational concepts.
Empower Portfolio Executives
- Empower portfolio acquisition executives to trade and rebalance budgets toward effective solutions.
- Hold acquisition leaders accountable and move people if they fail to deliver results quickly.