About the Optics Summit

The Optica Optics Manufacturing Industry Summit brings together the companies designing, manufacturing, testing and deploying precision optics for defense, space, and advanced sensing applications, from optical designers and precision manufacturers to metrology specialists, materials suppliers, and the end users who buy and integrate their work into fielded systems.

In 2027 the Summit comes to Tucson, Arizona, a hub for defense-optics manufacturing and design, at Pima Community College’s Downtown Campus. Defense is the organizing thread of this year’s program rather than one topic among several: the meeting opens with a Tucson-based defense prime, anchors Day 1 with an end-user panel where primes and integrators from the U.S. and Europe state what they buy and what they cannot yet source, and closes Day 2 with a dedicated session on supply chain, trade compliance, and workforce, reflecting the questions this audience brings to the table right now.

The two-day program traces the full value chain: optical design under real-world constraints (thermal shock, vibration, radiation, ITAR-restricted collaboration), domestic precision-optics manufacturing capacity, metrology and qualification against military standards, materials and coatings for harsh environments, and emerging platforms including waveguides, meta-optics, diffractive elements, and lidar moving from prototype to volume.

Key facts

• Held at Pima Community College Downtown Campus in downtown Tucson, Arizona, March 16–17, 2027, with a welcome dinner the evening before and a dinner reception on Day 1.
• Two days spanning the full defense-optics value chain: design under constraint, domestic manufacturing capacity, metrology and MIL-STD qualification, materials and coatings, emerging platforms, and supply chain, trade compliance and workforce.
• Built for optical designers and engineering firms, precision-optics manufacturers, metrology and test equipment makers, materials and coatings suppliers, and the defense primes, government laboratories, and space agencies that integrate their work.
• Anchored by a keynote lineup spanning a Tucson-based defense prime, a U.S. Air Force directed-energy research directorate, a federally funded defense research laboratory, and a U.S. space research laboratory.
• An end-user panel puts primes and integrators from the U.S. and Europe directly in front of the supply chain, addressing infrared materials availability, high-energy laser optics, lightweight space telescopes, second sourcing, and lead times.

Venue

Pima Community College Downtown Campus in downtown Tucson, Arizona