The Protocase Companies today announced the inaugural Velocity Summit, a national convening focused on one of the most pressing challenges in U.S. defense: the inability to design, build, and deploy military capability at the speed modern conflict demands. The Summit will take place on November 17, 2026, in Wilmington, North Carolina, bringing together leaders across defense, government, advanced manufacturing, and emerging technology.
Rather than introducing a predefined solution, the Velocity Summit is designed to bring together a critical mass of stakeholders to develop a shared understanding of the problem and begin shaping a coordinated path forward. A central objective of the event is to explore the formation of a sustained, cross-sector working group over time, built in partnership with the right stakeholders across industry, government, and academia.
The urgency stems from a defense industrial base that remains optimized for predictability, while modern conflict increasingly demands adaptability, iteration, and speed. Examples abound: the U.S. Navy’s Constellation-class frigate program has absorbed billions in cost with no operational ships delivered, advanced fighter and weapons platforms routinely take more than a decade to field, and munitions stockpiles remain constrained with brittle supply chains exposed during surge production efforts. According to Dr. Doug Milburn, Chairman of The Protocase Companies, “The United States doesn’t have a talent problem or a funding problem. It has a systems problem. We are asking industrial models built for certainty to operate in conditions defined by change. That gap is where time is lost.”
The Velocity Summit will function as a working session, examining key structural constraints such as how manufacturing systems can better absorb variation, how acquisition models can surface risk earlier, and how organizations can increase their capacity to learn and adapt in real time. Participants will include stakeholders from the U.S. Department of Defense and federal agencies, prime contractors and emerging defense innovators, advanced manufacturing and supply chain leaders, academic and applied research institutions, and policy and regulatory experts.
The Protocase Companies bring a track record of convening cross-sector dialogue. As a founding contributor to the Canadian Space Launch Conference, Protocase played a role in aligning stakeholders around sovereign launch capability. The company has also been active within Canada’s defense industrial base, engaging with senior leaders on procurement modernization and supply chain resilience. These experiences reflect a consistent role: helping bring the right stakeholders together and supporting early alignment around complex challenges.
Insights from the Summit will inform ongoing dialogue among participants, with the goal of determining whether and how a more formalized working group should take shape over time. For more information, visit the event landing page at https://www.protocase.com/events/velocity-summit/.
