Scaling Autonomy That Survives Reality | Offset Symposium 2026

Demos don't win wars — reliable systems do. At Offset 2026, leaders from Forterra, Applied Intuition, HavocAI, and Reveal Technology join moderator Colin Demarest (Axios) to examine what it actually takes to move autonomous systems from promising prototypes to operational reality across land, sea, air, and space. Bad weather, degraded comms, and contested environments expose everything. This session is about what survives contact with reality — and what doesn't. Topics covered: ▸ Building an enterprise-wide "autonomy industrial base" beyond fragmented service silos ▸ Why software integration — not hardware — is the core scaling hurdle ▸ Breaking the cycle of perpetual prototyping in defense acquisition ▸ Software-defined hardware: modular upgrades to prevent systems going obsolete ▸ Why budget increases alone won't deliver capability without deployment plans ▸ Troop adoption: do soldiers actually want autonomous systems? ▸ Dull, dirty, and dangerous: the strongest use cases for battlefield autonomy ▸ Lessons from Ukraine on attritable systems, refresh cycles, and mass ************************************************************ Speakers: Paul Benfield — VP of Strategy, Forterra Ezra Shapiro — Head of Federal Growth, Applied Intuition Channing Lee Foster — Director of Government Relations, HavocAI Andrew Dixon — Co-Founder & COO, Reveal Technology Moderator: Colin Demarest — Future of Defense Reporter, Axios ************************************************************ About Offset Symposium: Offset Symposium is Second Front's annual gathering of leaders across defense, technology, and venture capital, focused on accelerating software delivery, operational capability, and mission impact across the free world. ************************************************************ About Us: Second Front Systems powers software for the free world. We accelerate the secure deployment of critical technology to government, defense, and critical infrastructure—cutting timelines from years to weeks. Trusted by the world's leading organizations and built by national security veterans, we deliver the speed, trust, and outcomes global security demands. Website: https://www.secondfront.com/ LinkedIn:   / secondfront   #AutonomousSystems #DefenseAutonomy #UnmannedSystems #DefenseTech #NationalSecurity #Offset2026 #SecondFront #DoD #AcquisitionReform #RoboticSystems #AIinDefense #SoftwareDefinedHardware #Ukraine #AttritableSystems #DefenseInnovation