Rewiring the Defense Industry: A New Generation of Leaders
From The Montgomery Summit · 2026
John Allen(Moderator, former NATO commander in Afghanistan, & Strategic Advisor to Microsoft)•Zane Mountcastle(Panelist, Picogrid)•Ian Kalin(Panelist, TurbineOne)•Grant Demaree(Panelist, OneBrief)•Katie Arrington(Panelist, IonQ; Former DoD Chief Information Officer & U.S. Deputy CISO, DoD)
Executive Summary
12 quotes
Concerns Raised
The integration of systems from a proliferation of new vendors will become the next major bottleneck.
Archaic bureaucratic processes, particularly the Risk Management Framework (RMF), remain a significant structural impediment to innovation.
New technologies face inherent distrust and must prove their value within existing, low-risk operational workflows to gain acceptance.
Opportunities Identified
A massive market opportunity exists to create multiple billion-dollar and potentially hundred-billion-dollar companies in the defense tech sector.
Capturing market share from legacy prime contractors with high-margin, software-driven products.
The DoD's increased appetite for risk and new VC-like mindset creates a favorable environment for innovative startups.
The United States' financial capacity to invest in defense tech far outstrips that of European and NATO allies, creating a competitive advantage.