If Day 1 was about the people, Day 2 was about the technology — and the exhibit floor delivered.
With 178 speakers across the week, programming covered military partnerships, veteran entrepreneurship, and future defense technologies. A recurring theme in the business-focused sessions was practical navigation of the procurement process — how companies of all sizes can effectively do business with Special Operations Command and the broader military enterprise. For defense startups and established primes alike, that guidance is hard to find anywhere else.
But I spent the majority of my time on the exhibit floor, where hundreds of companies filled the hall showcasing the full spectrum of modern defense capability. The technology agenda centered on unmanned systems autonomy and interoperability, AI infrastructure, and resilient logistics in degraded and contested environments — and the exhibits reflected that priority stack precisely.
Autonomy was everywhere. Uncrewed systems — air, ground, and sea — weren’t a sideshow; they were central to the conversation. What particularly stood out were the marine applications of UAS. Companies like AEVEX were running daily live demonstrations of unmanned surface vehicles in the harbor outside the convention center, and live industry showcases along the Tampa Riverwalk highlighted everything from maritime systems and robotics to next-generation sensors and communications.
Several past Drone Radio Show guests had a strong presence on the floor — Kelluu, Iris Automation, Red Cat, and AimLock among them. Seeing those names in this context is a reminder of how quickly the uncrewed systems industry has matured into a serious defense supplier community. I’m planning follow-up podcast interviews with a number of SOF Week attendees in the weeks ahead. The conversations are just getting started.
