Creative Disruptors by the Lakes 2025

Moderated by:
Admiral John Richardson, USN (Ret), 31st Chief of Naval Operations

Defense Leaders discussed the Trump Administration’s strategic direction to enhance the lethality of the U.S. warfighter, revitalizing the warrior ethos, and advance the doctrine of Peace through Strength. They discussed how these foundational principles will shape acquisition priorities and investments with an eye toward accelerating technological superiority, restoring industrial readiness, and reasserting American deterrence on the world stage.

Moderated by:
Congressman Ken Calvert

Moderated by the Chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Committee, this panel examined how exponential technologies are reshaping modern conflict and what it means for U.S. strategy. Panelists focused on four urgent priorities—defending against autonomous threats, employing offensive deception, fielding resilient autonomy, and countering cyber and social manipulation—and also discussed how to shape future national security investments to meet these challenges.

Moderated by:
Steve Cook, Senior Managing Director, Cerberus Capital Management

This panel explored a new paradigm with venture-backed and privately funded companies building defense systems at private expense. Panelists discussed benefits such as private innovation, cost efficiencies and speed to market and also cultural and structural reforms needed to make this paradigm shift successful.

Moderated by:
The Honorable Ellen Lord, Former Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment

Born out of transformative Trump Administration initiatives to rebuild American strength and revitalize homeland defense, the U.S. Space Force reflects a strategic shift toward confronting 21st-century threats with bold, high-tech solutions. The Trump Administration’s establishment of the Space Force and investment in layered homeland defense laid the groundwork for today’s integrated architecture combining space-based sensors, real-time targeting, and missile intercept capability. This panel explored how space-based assets enable early threat detection, agile response, and deterrence through dominance. Panelists discussed how these capabilities are reshaping America’s ability to detect, deter, and defeat attacks on the homeland advancing the Trump-era doctrine of peace through strength into the space age.

Moderated by:
Rich Carroll, Founder, Creative Defense Foundation

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into modern kill chains, validation processes must evolve to ensure reliability, accountability, operational integrity and be completed at the speed of relevance. AI-enabled kill chains introduce autonomous or semi-autonomous decision-making into critical steps of targeting, surveillance, and engagement, requiring new frameworks for testing, simulation, and ethical compliance. Traditional validation methods are insufficient when faced with adaptive, learning systems that may evolve behaviorally in complex environments. Additionally, validation must be continuous across the lifecycle as AI systems update or re-train on new data. This panel discussed the implications of this new paradigm.

Moderated by:
Adam Fife, CEO, CenCore

This session explored how current classification requirements may be preventing the Department of War from accessing the most powerful AI tools available. Topics included how to safely leverage commercial AI, create tiered access environments, and reform classification policy to enable accelerated capability delivery.

Moderated by:
The Honorable Ellen Lord, Former Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment

This session explored how the Civil Reserve Manufacturing Network can unlock surge capacity, fortify supply chains, and harness advanced manufacturing to outpace global competitors.

Workshop A explored how to operationalize the SPEED/FORGED Acts’ empowerment of Program Executive Officers. Participants designed cross-functional teams, developed portfolio budget frameworks, and recommended reforms that allow PEOs to lead industrial acceleration efforts effectively and with authority.