Maintaining air superiority increasingly depends on how quickly military aviation programs can introduce new capabilities while sustaining aircraft already in service. That challenge will frame the 9th Annual Military Aviation & Air Dominance Summit, scheduled for January 20-21, 2027, at the Jackson Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Defense Strategies Institute will convene senior representatives from U.S. military services and acquisition authorities, together with international partners and industry participants. The discussions will examine how aviation programs can respond to changing warfare while balancing modernization requirements against the readiness demands of existing fleets.
Next-generation aircraft and aviation systems will form a major part of the program. The summit will also examine the industrial capacity supporting military aviation, including maintenance throughput and manufacturing requirements. Digital engineering and digital twins are among the technologies scheduled for discussion as defense organizations consider ways to improve aircraft design and sustainment across the aviation lifecycle.
The announced speaker roster reflects the Joint Force scope of the meeting. COL Jeffrey Poquette, Project Manager for FLRAA, and COL Timothy Jaeger, Director of Army Aviation at Army Headquarters G-3/5/7, are scheduled to participate. Col Daniel Kaiser, Commanding Officer of Marine Aircraft Group 26, and Col David Liu, Senior Material Leader at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, will provide perspectives from other service organizations. Canadian Air and Space Attaché Colonel Barry Leonard is also among the confirmed participants.
Readiness creates a second layer of complexity for modernization programs. New platforms cannot be considered separately from the maintenance capacity and supply networks required to keep fleets available. The summit is set to address these constraints while examining how emerging aviation capabilities can be introduced as military requirements change.
Aerospace and Defense Review is serving as a media partner because military aviation modernization closely aligns with its editorial coverage of aviation, defense technology and aerospace program execution. Its readership includes executives and program leaders responsible for engineering, acquisition and industrial capabilities. Coverage surrounding the summit can extend relevant discussions beyond Huntsville by examining technology developments and their implications for the broader aerospace and defense community.
The 2027 gathering comes as aviation organizations weigh near-term readiness against longer-term modernization. Decisions involving aircraft development and sustainment will influence how effectively new capabilities move from program objectives into fielded systems, making the relationship between technology development and fleet support central to the air dominance discussion.