A global conference featuring some of the world’s foremost minds in the technology and defense sectors will meet again this coming week in New York City.
The MISSION 2044 summit taking place Nov. 6 in Manhattan will galvanize stakeholders from the United States and Europe, including venture capitalists and investors along with senior representatives from national governments and militaries, to discuss the ongoing evolution occurring within the defense innovation industry. The goal, according to event organizers, is to bridge industrial expertise, frontier technologies and capital in a pragmatic fashion.
The conference series, which held an event in New York City last year aside from other stops in in Los Angeles, Berlin, Sydney and Düsseldorf, is primed to bring together the best of the best from different industries and perspectives to escalate and invigorate conversation about national security.
“We really think that given the geopolitical scenario, it’s important for NATO and NATO allies to talk to each other about defense innovation,” MISSION 2044 founder Markus Federle told Military.com. “We think there’s not enough conversation going on between the different ecosystems and therefore, we think it’s important to bring people together.
“In Berlin, we had quite a few American venture funds and we worked with the American embassy there. And same in New York, we’re bringing out some European founders. We’re also bringing a Canadian founder and one Australian founder to showcase a little bit of that on a panel. But of course, the U.S. conference is U.S.-centric so it focuses on [that] ecosystem.”
Federle, founder and managing partner of the private investment firm Tholus Capital that is focused on resilience technology, used to be a lawyer and worked to invest in venture and in private equity. The mood even in recent years was “inconceivable” to invest more in defense due to it being very capital intensive, he said.
“And then, of course, we saw this new kind of warfare emerging, especially in Ukraine,” Federle said. “We’re all seeing this day in, day out, right, that we have [this] sort of asymmetric warfare with drones—that the expensive legacy systems are under pressure.
“When a $10,000 drone can take out a $10 million tank, then something is wrong and something has to change. So, I think we need to adapt to this rapid change in technology and these cost asymmetries.”
Mix of Stakeholders
Federle’s vision to elevate the conversation and respond to what he described as a real necessity to foster the broader ecosystem in venture and defense has a two-pronged mission statement, if you will.
One reason, per Federle, is that he and supporters believe it’s the right thing to do from a mission-driven perspective and capabilities exist including a venture fund that invests in these verticals in the U.S. and Europe.
“But the main benefit that we get is really the network,” he said. “We have this amazing global network in defense innovation, which I think no one else has—even our competitors don’t have [it] because most of the very good competitors, they’re doing either U.S. only or they’re doing Europe only.”
Federle said “the secret sauce” that has helped this blossoming summit thrive is to have a healthy mix of the different stakeholders of the ecosystem. Aside from founders and venture capitalists, that translates to military and government voices who can contribute to the brainstorming.
Last year in New York, for example, MISSION had a speaker from the U.S. Navy Disruptive Capabilities Office give a keynote address. In Berlin, they had people from the Bundeswehr (armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany) and officials from their Space Command program.
Platform For Success
Alessio Lorusso is CEO and founder of Roboze, a company that works with armed forces, government institutions and various industries to reduce dependency on foreign supply chains, accelerate spare parts availability, and strengthen national technological autonomy.
Efforts have included building 3D printers for large industrial manufacturers. Roboze also collaborates with global leaders to industrialize additive manufacturing for mission-critical applications across aerospace, defense and energy.
Lorusso told Military.com that events like MISSION 2044 afford the opportunity to align visions, technology and partnerships. It’s not simply a networking event, he added, but a platform to connect and determine how to redefine how to build, protect and advance the world, “from ground to orbit.”
“At Roboze, we are building the world’s largest Advanced Additive Manufacturing Factory: a global network of autonomous and connected Smart Factories capable of producing high-performance super polymer and composite parts exactly where and when they are needed,” he said. “his approach is transforming the way aircraft, defense systems and next-generation mobility platforms are designed, built and sustained, reducing lead times, minimizing logistics dependencies and increasing strategic resilience.”
Vital ‘Societal Debate’
Discussions among stakeholders is when the rubber meets the road.
Asked what people in his sphere are presently discussing regarding defense capabilities and large investments in that and related industries, Federle said drones remain an ongoing talking point as well as electronic warfare. Cybersecurity is also a big point of discussion.
Even beyond that, he added, is debate and investment in resilience that could include energy security and bolstering grids, health care, telecommunication and stable networks which all could fall under a label of critical infrastructure.
“What we’re seeing in Europe now is that Europe is really under hybrid attack already from Russia,” he said. “There’s sabotage, there’s drone incursions, there’s fighter jet incursions on a daily basis.”
The issue runs deep and also entertains subject matter on the dependency on critical inputs, including commodities and rare earths, the latter of which has gained more attention globally due to Russia and China.
“The people who come out to our conferences, they’re not the investors; they may be new to the asset class but everyone else is very much deeply involved in the ecosystem already,” Federle said. “It’s not a bunch of newbies who’ve never come across this.
“I think it’s important that we have a societal debate about the necessity of defense, less so in the states because I think [the] military has always been a vital and integral part of society in the United States. I think in Europe, it’s less the case because Europe obviously has the trauma of the second World War.”
Ultimately, it’s up to everyone to prioritize defense and to have an appreciation for the men and women in uniform who protect countries, values and freedoms, he added.
“We want to contribute to this societal debate because we think it’s an important one,” he said.
For more information on MISSION 2044 visit this link.
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