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  • June 10-11, 2026
  • Dayton, Ohio

In a rapidly evolving threat landscape, the Midwest’s ability to build, innovate, and collaborate is now central to America’s security and deterrence.

The third annual Sagamore Midwest Defense Summit convened senior policymakers, national security leaders, researchers, industry executives, and technologists to advance the growing momentum around national security solutions from the Heartland.

Building on the industrial maritime focus of last year’s convening, the 2026 convening concentrated on how the Midwest’s air and land power are foundational to U.S. national security. Discussions will highlighted how Heartland defense and industrial innovators and how these leaders are strengthening their partnerships to drive the future of defense.

Air Power from the Heartland at the Museum of the U.S. Air Force

Welcome from CEO Jay Hein & Keynote from Dr. Jerry Hendrix

The Future of U.S. Shipbuilding | Fireside Chat with George Moutafis & Dr. Jerry Hendrix

Arming the Arsenal: Midwest Leadership in Munitions Manufacturing

Strengthening America's Land Power from the Midwest

From the Frontlines: Keynote from Major General (Ret.) David L. Grange

Workforce Ready: Building the Midwest Talent Pipeline

The Pentagon's Michael Cadenazzi on Building the U.S. Industrial Base

Summit Recap

The Top Line

  • The Midwest has the manufacturing base, research institutions, and testing infrastructure to lead the next era of America’s defense industrial capacity — from air and sea to land and munitions. The path forward is as much about industry and people as technology: bigger workforces, more tooling, more capacity, and faster acquisition timelines are just as critical as new platforms.
  • Autonomy is reshaping every domain, and the region is positioning itself as the focal point for developing, testing, and scaling unmanned systems in the air, on the water, and on the grou

Air Power from the Heartland

At the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, we brought together industry leaders to discuss the past and future of Midwest air power.

  • Winning the next era of air power means achieving asymmetric capability at scale, shifting from expensive, slow-built platforms towards smarter, smaller systems while closing major gaps in autonomous testing capabilities, intelligent risk tolerance, and acquisition speed.

 

  • The Heartland is becoming an important part of the future of air power. It has secured a drone test bed, boasts strong manufacturing roots, and hosts some of the world’s top research institutions.

The State of Midwest Defense

Sagamore CEO Jay Hein opened the summit, followed by a keynote from Dr. Jerry Hendrix.

  • Jay and Jerry traced the history of Midwest Defense at Sagamore, outlining how what began as research projects and policy discussions at Sagamore evolved into real policy initiatives in Washington, illustrating how think tanks, industry leaders, and policymakers can work together to define national strategy.

 

  • Right now, the next generation of American industrial strength is being forged in Midwest communities that continue to value technical skills, hard work, and long-term investments in workforce and technologies.

 

  • Jerry announced he was taking a leave from Sagamore to serve full-time in Washington, where he’ll continue to lead on America’s shipbuilding agenda.

Fireside Chat on Shipbuilding with George Moutafis

Fincantieri’s George Moutafis joined Dr. Hendrix for a discussion on America’s maritime revitalization.

  • The Great Lakes region, particularly Lake Michigan, offers a unique combination of secure testing environments, manufacturing capacity, research universities, and military facilities that could support innovation across air, surface, underwater, and ground-based autonomous platforms — an Area 52 for maritime autonomous development.
  • The future of maritime defense will increasingly rely on unmanned systems. Jerry and George argued that instead of adapting traditional ship designs to operate uncrewed, builders and innovators need to start designing autonomous vessels from the ground up.  

Arming the Arsenal: Midwest Munitions & Manufacturing

A discussion on the innovations and systems stocking the next Arsenal of Democracy.

  • Today’s “munition” is as much a technical data package and software-driven kill chain as it is a physical projectile, requiring a fundamentally different industrial and supply chain mindset than in the past.

 

  • Innovation requires shared investments across government, industry, and academia to develop more affordable and efficient munitions systems, as both adversaries like Iran and allies such as Ukraine have shown that low-cost, mass-producible munitions can offset high-end technology and rewrite tactical playbooks.  
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Ground Game: Land Power from the Midwest

Panelists spotlighted the essential role of land power and how new technologies are shaping the battlefield.

  • Long-range weapons dominate headlines, but warfare still comes down to controlling terrain and protecting people on the ground through armored and maneuver forces.

 

  • Land warfare has become an industrial contest, and the Midwest can lead. The U.S. needs more tooling, more welders, more machines, stronger supply chains, and deeper partnerships with commercial manufacturers to produce at scale and meet rising global demand.
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From the Front lines: General (Ret.) David L. Grange

David Grange gave an overview of his organization’s work on the front lines in Ukraine, supporting humanitarians and warfighters.

  • The fight in Ukraine has shifted from artillery dominance to the global frontlines of drone warfare. This battlefield, under constant surveillance, has fundamentally changed how armies fight, shelter, and maneuver.

 

  • General Grange and his team at Osprey Global Solutions are teaming up with Sagamore to bridge the innovation-to-deployment gap, getting critical field-tested technologies to warfighters and humanitarians operating in this new context.
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Fireside Chat with the Pentagon’s Michael Cadenazzi

Michael Cadenazzi, Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy, provided a view from Washington on how the Heartland is critical to tackling America’s biggest national security challenges.

  • Assistant Secretary Cadenazzi emphasized that the nation’s defense industrial base is decades behind after industry and government embraced post-Cold War “just-in-time” assumptions. He argued that the Midwest offers the manufacturing foundation the country urgently needs, including skilled workers, strong customer relationships, and practical technical expertise.

 

  • OUSW IDB’s current operations are guided by the three pillars of prioritization, productivity, and production. In practice, this means making real investment tradeoffs — such as prioritizing critical minerals over AI — and judging success by total output, not merely strategy alignment.
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SPEAKERS

Edward L. Bartlett, Jr.

Founder, Chairman and CEO, Bartlett Maritime Corp.

Jean-Pierre "JP" Bolat

U.S. Market Senior Advisor, Sumitomo Heavy Industries, President & CEO, The Bolat Group

Michael Cadenazzi

Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy

Thomas Deale

Corporate Lead Executive, Director of Air Force Programs, Northrup Grumman

Molly Dodge

Senior Vice President for Workforce and Careers, Ivy Tech Community College

Scott Forney

President, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems

Jay Hein

CEO, Sagamore

Dr. Jerry Hendrix

Senior Fellow, Sagamore Institute

Andy Hove

Managing Director, Horisonter Group

Andrew Kossack

CEO, Applied Research Institute (aRI)

John Kusnierek

Senior Vice President, LibertyWorks at Rolls-Royce

Paula Lemke

Executive Director, APEX

Zachary Mears

Senior Vice President of Strategy, Anduril Industries

George Moutafis

CEO, Fincantieri Marine Group

Geoff Norman

Director, U.S. Strategy and Growth, General Dynamics Land Systems

AJ Piplica

Co-founder & CEO, Hermeus

Chris Power

Founder & CEO, Hadrian

Jim Schirmer

Senior Vice President & Deputy Managing Director, American Rheinmetall

Dan Sloan

Director, Workforce and Industry Partnerships, SME

Mike Smith

President & COO, Hanwha Defense USA, Inc.

AGENDA

Subject to Change

Wednesday, June 10 | The Tank @ The Dayton Arcade

  • 12 PM | MDX Autonomous Heartland Forum

Separate Registration Required - See More Below

Wednesday, June 10 | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

  • 6 PM | Welcome Reception
  • Panel Discussion: Air Power from the Heartland

Thursday, June 11 | The Dayton Arcade

  • 8:00 AM | Breakfast and Morning Keynote
  • Panel | Arming the Arsenal: Midwest Leadership in Munitions Manufacturing
  • Panel | Ground Game: Strengthening America's Land Power from the Midwest
  • Lunch Keynote
  • Panel | Workforce Ready: Building the Midwest Talent Pipeline
  • Afternoon Fireside Chat
  • 4:00 PM Closing

More in Midwest Defense: MDX Autonomous Heartland Forum

June 10, 2026 | Dayton, Ohio

Join Sagamore for a half-day working session ahead of the 2026 Midwest Defense Summit.

This interactive event, hosted by Sagamore’s Midwest Defense Accelerator, brings together manufacturers, defense leaders, innovators, and workforce partners to explore how the Midwest can transition into autonomous and maritime production—and build the ecosystem to scale.

The event is free and open to manufacturers, defense partners, investors, and workforce organizations and is held just before the Sagamore Midwest Defense Summit.

MDS Attendees: Please register separately for the MDX Autonomous Heartland Forum. 

Autonomous Heartland Forum

Learn More & Register

MIDWEST INDUSTRY & AIR POWER

In December 1903, the Wright brothers changed the world in twelve seconds at Kitty Hawk—then returned home to Ohio to quietly perfect their invention with the same discipline they brought to their Dayton bicycle shop.

That Midwestern approach—practical, persistent, and focused on building—has shaped American defense innovation ever since.

It’s fitting that the 2026 Sagamore Midwest Defense Summit convenes near Wright‑Patterson Air Force Base, a center of airpower born from that legacy. Today, the Midwest continues to lead in advanced manufacturing, autonomous systems, and critical dual‑use technologies. The threats and technologies have changed; the region’s essential character has not.

Reclaiming the Cutting Edge in the Drone Age

By Alan Dowd
Read More

The Past and Future of American Air Power

Ahead of the Midwest Defense Summit in Dayton, Sagamore Institute Senior Fellow Alan Dowd weaves together how the past and future of U.S. air power run through the Heartland. 

PAST MIDWEST DEFENSE EVENTS

2025 Midwest Defense Summit

Dearborn, Michigan
Learn More

Renewing America's Maritime Industry

A conversation with Sen. Todd Young
Learn More

2024 Midwest Defense Summit

University of Notre Dame
Learn More

Midwest Defense Forum

Green Bay, Wisconsin
Learn More

THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS

THE FUTURE OF DEFENSE, FROM THE HEARTLAND

The ABC's of National Security

America’s Heartland is postured to do its part by contributing to the arsenal of democracy, the breadbasket of democracy and the circuitry of democracy.
Read the Article

Heartland Contributions to the Arsenal of Democracy

From the frontlines to the home front, the Midwest is stepping up for our national security.
Read the Article

An "All -ands-on-Deck" Approach to Deter China

To counter China, America needs to expand not only its maritime capabilities, but also its understanding of what defines the fleet and how to deter the enemy.
Read the Article

The Navy Needs an ‘Area 52’

Senior Fellow Jerry Hendrix makes the case for autonomous systems testing on Lake Michigan
Read the Article

The Sagamore Midwest Defense Summit is not a part of the Department of Defense or any of its components, and it has no governmental status. No Federal Endorsement implied.