The Optica Defense & Aerospace Industry Summit is a strategic, end-user-driven event designed to align the global photonics ecosystem with the operational, industrial, and strategic requirements of defense and aerospace stakeholders. Over two days, leaders from defense ministries, space agencies, aerospace operators, prime contractors, system integrators, and technology enablers will define what capabilities are required, the performance thresholds that matter, and the industrial constraints that must be resolved to achieve operational deployment.

Photonics is now central to next-generation defense and aerospace architectures. It underpins directed-energy systems, advanced intelligence and sensing, autonomous platforms, navigation and positioning systems, resilient communications, and space-based infrastructure. However, large-scale adoption depends not only on technology availability but also on overcoming barriers related to technology readiness, industrialization, qualification, supply-chain resilience, and interoperability across domains and allied nations. These technologies increasingly determine sensing range, decision speed, communication security, and energy delivery across modern defence and aerospace platforms.

This summit is a requirements-definition and deployment-shaping platform. End-users articulate capability gaps, performance targets, and timelines. Industry and integrators gain first-hand directions into procurement priorities, TRL expectations, and industrial bottlenecks that will shape defense and aerospace programs over the next decade.

Hosted by Exail and iXcampus, the summit brings together stakeholders across defense, aerospace, and dual-use ecosystems in a neutral, high-level setting focused on mission readiness, industrial sovereignty, and allied competitiveness.

Strategic Objectives

• Align photonics development with defence and aerospace operational needs.
• Accelerate the transition from demonstrator to deployed capability.
• Strengthen sovereign and allied photonics supply chains.
• Define interoperability requirements for multi-domain operations.

Expected Outcomes

• A consolidated Defense & Aerospace Photonics Requirements Map, capturing performance targets, TRL expectations, and integration constraints.
• Identification of priority capability gaps requiring coordinated industrial, policy, or investment action.
• Formation of targeted working groups linking end-users, primes, and photonics suppliers.
• Guidance inputs for national and allied industrial strategies, including manufacturing capacity and supply-chain resilience.

Please note: Participant registration opens soon.

Companies interested in sponsorship opportunities are strongly encouraged to contact industry@optica.org as early as possible.

Sponsorships are allocated before general participant registration.

Hosted by:

Exail and iXcampus