On Wednesday, Sept. 10, government contractors from different branches of the technology industry joined the North Carolina Military Business Center (NCMBC), US Senator Thom Tillis and US Senator Ted Budd at Fayetteville Technical Community College to connect and strengthen the area’s warfighting ecosystem.  

The fourth annual Federal Technology Symposium (FTS) brought together companies, buyers and military leaders to highlight and meet the advanced technology needs of major military commands in North Carolina, the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The two day event began on Tuesday, Sept. 9, when FTS attendees were treated to a tour of the Airborne Innovation Laboratory (AIL) and the newly established Lt. Gen. James M. Gavin Joint Innovation Outpost (JIOP), both located on Fort Bragg.

Following the tour, Rob Braun, Chief Technology Officer for the XVIII Airborne Corps was able to highlight the usefulness of both facilities for allowing soldiers to innovate the solutions to problems they come across in the field and meet the needs of service members across branches.

“We look at innovation, technology adoption, integration, all the different things that we’re trying to get after, and the DoD is trying to move faster, trying to be more agile, we just happen to have the right timing to open the facility at the right time,” shared Braun. “There’s a lot of other innovation facilities that exist within the DoD. I would argue the difference is with the Joint Innovation Outpost, it is now tied to an operational unit with ground derived operational requirements from soldiers that are the end user. So that’s the difference, in my opinion, of this facility versus other facilities that have taken place in the past.”

On the second day of the event, Wednesday, Sept. 10, the gathering included live technology demonstrations, networking opportunities, fireside chats and more.
This year’s FTS featured information sessions such as “Army Modernization in Contact, Building Tomorrow's Force: Cultivating Talent for the Defense Industry,” and a special virtual session: “Frontline Technology Innovation: Rapid Iteration Under Fire” straight from the frontlines of Ukraine featuring Col. Vadym Sukharevski, deputy commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“It's an opportunity for them (FTS attendees) to hear about gaps that are being experienced in tactical commands and within agencies to meet the future needs of the war fighters, but we also recognize that there are some really interesting technologies being developed in North Carolina that have defense application,” shared NCMBC Executive Director Scott Dorney. “A lot of times when we have government partners come to an event, we were thinking they want to come and be able to tell industry what they plan to be buying over the next six months or the next year. We found out that our agency partners, to a large extent, want to come to North Carolina to find out ‘Where is the industry going, where is technology going?’” shared Dorney.
Technology demonstrations were provided by organizations from across the country including Texas based Ultraview and more local, TCOM out of Elizabeth City, N.C. The brand was able to speak directly to government buyers and showcase their capabilities both as a vendor and demonstrator.

“We’ve expanded our portfolio platforms to include high altitude balloon systems, as well as the Tethered UAS, the latest edition. We listen to our customers, and try to understand where requirements are going and where the mission needs to go,” shared Kurt McIntyre, director of Solutions Architecture for TCOM.
TCOM was able to demonstrate their Falcon Medium Tethered UAS drone launching off of a 6x6 Mothership vehicle brought to FTS thanks to a partnership with Richard Childress Racing (RCR).
“ ...We are very proud of our N.C. manufactured and tested products and love to show off our unique technology. The ability to partner with RCR for a combined technology demonstration also highlighted the synergy fostered by the NCMBC and the incredible potential of N.C. manufacturing in support of National Defense as a whole,” shared Jim Catteau, site operations manager for TCOM.

Leadership with the NCMBC consider this year’s FTS a success and look forward to continuing to grow the research and development and innovation ecosystem in North Carolina.
“It’s an amazing event and I think there were at least nine federal agencies and commands there. Some of those were national, but also a local flavor,” shared Dorney. “I think we ended up with 184 people for this event, and it’s a great mix of government, military, academia, industry, local and national, and we’re focused on research and development, focused on the workforce. We cover a lot of ground in one day.”

Learn more about the NCMBC’s upcoming events, webinars, contracting opportunities and more at www.ncmbc.us.