Program
Event overview
The Optica Optics Manufacturing Industry Summit brings together the companies designing, manufacturing, testing and deploying precision optics for the world’s most demanding applications: defense, space, and advanced sensing.
In 2027 the Summit moves to Tucson, one of the deepest optics-and-defense clusters in the country, and puts defense at the center of the program rather than treating it as one industry among several. The agenda follows the optics value chain from design through manufacturing, metrology, and materials, then anchors it in a defense end-user panel where primes, government laboratories, and space agencies state directly what they need from the supply chain, what they cannot yet source, and how long qualification really takes.
The timing matters. As the U.S. defense and space sectors push to rebuild domestic precision-optics capacity and reduce single points of failure abroad, the questions of supply chain resilience, trade compliance, and workforce pipeline have moved from side conversation to headline topic. This Summit puts them on the agenda directly, with a dedicated session built around exactly that.
Program at a glance
- Day 0, Monday, March 15: welcome dinner, downtown Tucson (venue TBC).
- Day 1, Tuesday, March 16: design under constraint; rebuilding domestic manufacturing capacity; metrology and MIL-STD qualification; defense end-user panel.
- Day 2, Wednesday, March 17: materials and coatings for harsh environments; emerging platforms; supply chain, trade compliance and workforce. Close at 1:50 PM, ahead of afternoon flights.
Day 0: Monday, March 15, 2027
| 6:00 PM | Optional welcome dinner hosted by Optica
Dinner and networking in downtown Tucson the night before the Summit. Venue to be confirmed. |
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Day 1: Tuesday, March 16, 2027
All sessions at Pima Community College Downtown Campus. Registration details and building access instructions to follow.
| 8:00 – 9:00 AM | Registration and coffee |
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| 9:00 – 9:30 AM | Welcome remarks
Speakers to be confirmed |
| 9:30 – 10:00 AM | Opening keynote
Speaker to be confirmed |
| 10:00 – 10:45 AM | Session 1: Design Under Constraint — From Rays to Waves in Ruggedized Systems
Optical design has moved from ray tracing to wave-based methods. This session asks what happens when those tools meet defense requirements: thermal shock, vibration, radiation, ITAR-restricted collaboration, and a design-for-manufacture loop that has to close inside a U.S. supply chain. Speakers cover multiphysics and stray-light design for EO/IR payloads, meta-optical and diffractive design flows, and how Tucson’s design houses work with primes. Three speakers to be confirmed |
| 10:45 – 11:15 AM | Networking break |
| 11:15 AM – 12:45 PM | Session 2: Manufacturing Across Scales — Rebuilding Domestic Precision-Optics Capacity
Grinding, polishing, molding, replication and wafer-level processes, framed by the question primes and the Department of Defense are asking: can the U.S. supply chain deliver precision optics at volume, on time, without single points of failure abroad? Presentations from the largest U.S. merchant optics manufacturers cover capacity investment, automation, workforce, and where wafer-level and replicated optics can substitute for conventional fabrication. European suppliers show what transfers across the Atlantic and what does not. Six speakers to be confirmed |
| 12:45 – 2:00 PM | Lunch |
| 2:00 – 2:30 PM | Keynote 2
Speaker to be confirmed |
| 2:30 – 3:30 PM | Session 3: Metrology and Qualification — From Surface Figure to MIL-STD
Interferometry, wavefront and MTF measurement, alignment and environmental test as the gate between an optic and a fielded system. The session connects surface and functional metrology, then adds what defense qualification demands: traceability, ITAR-compliant test facilities, testing across the infrared, and the metrology needed to accept meta-optics and wafer-level parts into programs written for bulk optics. Tucson’s metrology cluster is on stage. Five speakers to be confirmed |
| 3:30 – 4:00 PM | Networking break |
| 4:00 – 4:30 PM | Keynote 3
Speaker to be confirmed |
| 4:30 – 5:40 PM | Session 4: End-User Panel — EO/IR, Directed Energy and Space: What Primes Need from the Optics Supply Chain
Primes and integrators from the U.S. and Europe state what they buy, what they cannot source, what they qualify and how long it takes. Topics include infrared materials and coatings availability, high-energy laser optics, lightweight space telescopes, second sources, lead times, and whether nanostructured optics have a path into programs of record. Moderated as a panel with short position statements and no slides. Moderator and six panelists to be confirmed |
| 5:40 – 6:10 PM | Keynote 4
Speaker to be confirmed |
| 6:10 – 6:20 PM | Wrap-up of Day 1 |
| 6:30 – 9:00 PM | Dinner reception
Venue to be confirmed. |
Day 2: Wednesday, March 17, 2027
All sessions at Pima Community College Downtown Campus.
| 8:30 – 9:00 AM | Welcome coffee |
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| 9:00 – 9:10 AM | Welcome remarks
Speakers to be confirmed |
| 9:10 – 9:40 AM | Keynote 5
Speaker to be confirmed |
| 9:40 – 10:40 AM | Session 5: Materials and Coatings for Harsh Environments
Coatings and structured surfaces, with the emphasis on what fielded systems need: infrared glasses and chalcogenides sourced domestically, high-laser-damage-threshold coatings for directed energy, durable AR and polarization control for airborne and space platforms, and nanostructured alternatives to multilayer stacks. This is the materials supply chain behind the demand set out in Session 4. Five speakers to be confirmed |
| 10:40 – 11:10 AM | Networking break |
| 11:10 AM – 12:20 PM | Session 6: Emerging Platforms — Waveguides, Meta-Optics, DOEs and Lidar for the Field and for Orbit
The platforms that exist only because of nanostructuring and wafer-level processes. The session asks which of them are ready for helmet-mounted displays, seekers, lidar, laser communic |
