Supply chain symposium unites industry and government to bolster the industrial base

The Defense Logistics Agency’s 2026 Supply Chain Alliance Symposium and Exhibition drew more than 1,300 government and industry representatives to Columbus, Ohio, on June 2-3 for two days of discussion on readiness, capability building and logistics deterrence. Hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association in partnership with DLA at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, the gathering emphasized tighter collaboration between the military and its suppliers, with a strong focus on accelerating acquisition, strengthening supply lines and leveraging technology.

Opening the event, Navy Rear Adm. Julie Treanor, commander of DLA Weapons Support (Columbus), underscored the value of sustained engagement between the War Department and industry. “Your presence and active engagement here ensures we remain united, agile and ready to learn from and support one another in an increasingly complex global environment,” Treanor said. “Our shared commitment has never been more critical. The conversations we have here over the next two days will directly impact our ability to reform acquisition, strengthen our supply lines, and rapidly field the resilient capabilities our warfighters need to win.”

A fireside chat on Day 1 between DLA Director Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly and Undersecretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael P. Duffey centered on shoring up the industrial base, encouraging competition and addressing bottlenecks in qualification and certification. “We’ve got a team that’s working very hard on how we reduce the burden of the qualification and certification process,” Duffey said. “I personally think that’s a major barrier to new entrants getting into the system. On the one hand, we need to ensure that the components and parts that we’re buying can be relied upon by the warfighter in the stressing use cases of battle. On the other hand, I’m concerned that we may be overengineering how we get to the level of confidence that we need, that a new entrant could provide as a qualified part or component to enter into the supply chain.”

Duffey also highlighted the agency’s advances in artificial intelligence and automation as critical to modernizing logistics. “I’ve been in the department for 20 years, and one of my big frustrations is that I always feel like we are a generation behind corporate America’s best business practices when it comes to leveraging information technology,” he said. “We’re immersed in information. The only way for us to effectively do our job is if we can assemble and leverage information in an effective way — in some cases artificial intelligence just does a better job.”

The conversation touched on revitalizing the national defense stockpile, employing multi-year procurements to support surge capacity, and strengthening the largely small-business supplier base. Senior leaders later led “knowledge bar” sessions on stockpile strategy, DLA Weapons Support transformation, DLA Troop Support’s four supply chains, critical mineral recovery, and improving delivery and payment timelines.

Reflecting the conference’s strategic urgency, Army Lt. Gen. Gavin Lawrence, deputy commanding general of Army Materiel Command and former DLA Troop Support commander, warned that the United States must accelerate to keep pace. “First, our adversaries are accelerating, adapting faster, building capabilities and closing gaps faster than at any point in recent history,” he said. “Second, in order to match and ultimately overmatch that pace, we must invest deliberately and urgently into our defense industrial base and supply chains. Without that foundation, we cannot scale to meet the demands of steady state operations, let alone the pressures of crisis or conflict.”

Day 2 pivoted from defining problems to detailing solutions. “We’ve spent a lot of time discussing the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ — our shared challenges, the shifting global landscape and the strategic priorities of several services in the joint force,” said Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Launey, commander of DLA Weapons Support (Richmond), in opening remarks. “But today, we’re going to focus on the ‘how.’ How do we take the fresh perspectives we gained yesterday and apply them to our daily operational challenges? How do we translate our collective capability, our innovative ideas, our relentless pursuit, our responsive sustaining strategies and concepts, and the generating of readiness and lethality for our warfighters? Because this is about them. It’s always about them.”

Breakout sessions explored mitigating critical material risk, CMMC partnering for cyber readiness, open questions to the director of supplier operations, and supplier pathways. In his keynote, Simerly framed DLA’s relationship with industry around a principle he learned in South Korea: “Katchi Kapshida,” which means “We go together.” “When I think about the term ‘alliance’ here — supply chain alliance — it’s about going together every step of the way,” Simerly said. “In order for us to go together, we all need to understand where we’re going so that we can achieve those common goals together.” He added a reminder from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine: “In every military option, we could not do our jobs without the men and women, across our country, who show up every day, around the clock, to a factory floor, a workshop, a laboratory, who build the weapons and capabilities we need to project American combat power.”

The symposium closed with additional knowledge bar exchanges on distribution efficiency led by acting DLA Distribution Deputy Director Joseph Farris, end-to-end quality management with DLA Energy experts, and an IT strategy discussion with DLA Chief Information Officer Adarryl Roberts, underscoring the event’s emphasis on practical steps to strengthen the defense supply chain.