Defense industry panel examines how to meet growing military demands at TSIS 2026

By Jayden Hermitt, Staff Writer

August 5, 2026

Executives from leading defense companies discussed whether the defense industrial base can keep pace with increasing demand during the panel, “The Industrial Base Question: Can Industry Actually Meet the Demand Curve?,” at the Training & Simulation Industry Symposium (TSIS) on June 17.

Presented by the National Training & Simulation Association (NTSA), TSIS is one of the key gatherings for the modeling, simulation and training (MS&T) community. Within Florida, it is second in scale only to the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC).

The symposium serves as an annual forum for representatives from industry and the U.S. military to discuss training and simulation requirements. Officials from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force presented updates on current and future procurement needs. Topics included acquisition strategies, timelines and funding priorities.

Moderated by George Cheros, president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Simulation (NCS), the panel featured Alicia Combs, vice president and general manager of Cubic Defense; Michael Garrity, chief executive officer of Aptima; Favio Lopez, chief executive officer of Trideum Corporation; and Khoi Vu, president of Wittenstein Motion Control, Inc.

Kicking off the discussion, Vu said rising defense budgets and modernization efforts are driving increased demand across the aerospace and defense sectors, with artificial intelligence (AI) playing a significant role.

While AI is accelerating demand, Vu added that manufacturers are struggling to keep pace because workforce development and production capacity cannot expand as quickly as technology.

“Unfortunately, our industry — especially manufacturing — can only grow so fast,” Vu said.      “We’re shifting from traditional engineering. Our engineers have been trained on technologies that supported us up to now, but AI changes the environment.”

Building on Vu’s comments, Combs explained the defense industry can accelerate capability delivery by leveraging systems that already exist among allied nations rather than developing new solutions from scratch.

“We’re all solving many of the same problems related to training and simulation,” Combs said. “We can get those capabilities to our partners much faster by working together. I really think that’s one way we can help.”

While Combs focused on collaboration, Garrity pointed to budget uncertainty as one of the biggest barriers preventing companies from scaling to meet demand. He said innovation programs and evolving contracting models have created more opportunities to transition technology into government programs, but inconsistent funding continues to slow progress.

“Even if you’re prepared to scale production or increase capacity, you can’t control the speed at which funding arrives,” Garrity said. “That uncertainty affects companies throughout the industrial base.”

Lopez noted stronger government acquisition practices are equally important to giving industry the confidence to make long-term investments. He emphasized workforce education and closer collaboration between government and industry.

“I think we all have to understand that we each have a place in the ecosystem,” Lopez said. “Workforce education isn’t just about going to DAU or earning another certification — it’s about really understanding the environment we all operate in.”

Lopez also called for greater predictability in government programs, emphasizing that companies need confidence that long-term investments won’t be undermined by shifting priorities. He encouraged broader use of commercial standards instead of government-specific requirements.

“We have to have some level of confidence that programs aren’t going to be pulled out from under us six months after they begin.” Lopez said.

Lopez concluded by adding that successful partnerships require industry to share both the risks and rewards of defense programs.     

“If I do a great job, there should be incentives,” Lopez said. “If I don’t, there should be consequences. Government and industry need to share both the risk and the reward.”