As tensions with a combative China rise, the U.S. is looking at the commercial market to modernize with new military technology applications, speakers at a Future of Defense event said. President Trump issued an executive order last week that aims to ramp up innovation and production capabilities across aviation, shipbuilding and more. Axios’ Colin Demarest and Alex Fitzpatrick spoke with Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.); Joby Aviation chief product officer Eric Allison; Liz Young McNally, DoD Defense Innovation Unit deputy director of commercial operations; and Anduril Industries president and chief strategy officer Christian Brose. The April 10 event was sponsored by RTX. “One thing that continues to be true is that commercial tech can be used across so many different aspects of what the [Defense] Department does,” McNally said. “There is a recognition that much of what we are dealing with in the defense enterprise is broken, that we are not where we need to be, that we are behind our peer competitor in China in some very important ways,” Brose said.
State of play: The commercial market for defense tech is seeing multiple avenues of opportunity as the Trump administration. emphasizes modernizing its industrial base. “We have to move at the speed and scale of commercial technology, and this is another great step toward the ability to do that,” McNally said of Trump’s executive order, part of which was focused on defense acquisition reform.

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