RECAP: DAY 1: Senator Banks Hosts 5th Annual Northeast Indiana Defense Summit

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Today, Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) welcomed military leaders, defense industry executives, and tech innovators to Fort Wayne for the opening day of the 5^th Annual Northeast Indiana Defense Summit.

The two-day summit began with remarks from Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston and discussions on Naval Weapons Station Crane's role in national defense and Indiana's potential as a drone testbed.

Sen. Jim Banks Opening Remarks

Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston

Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston: "In the last 5 years, real GDP growth has grown faster in Indiana than in all our neighboring states. And last year more people chose to move to Indiana than all our neighboring states."

Kickoff Panel - A New Era for Crane
Speakers: Hon. Mike Dodd, John Burer, Phil Smith, Rear Admiral Michael Richman

Moderator: Mike Johns

Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies, Hon. Mike Dodd: "We've got Senator Banks here, we've got the best delegation and Governor, going as far as advocacy to create different corridors. So, I'll use the MMR as a great example…Senator Banks, who was and is our leading advocate for that, ensuring we ran all the traps to ensure it could happen. That's one of the reasons it landed here at Crane."

Mike Johns, Senior Vice President at Kratos Defense: "For decades Crane has been at the forefront of technology development, critical technologies getting out there to the warfighter, but I believe we have entered a new period that could fundamentally change Crane's trajectory."

Admiral Michael Richman, Deputy Director, Regional Strike System, SSP: "This is the new, that is new for how we have done it, certainly the nuclear weapons world. And the test capabilities, the engineering analysis capability at Crane has enabled us to do it at the speed and the speed of relevance that the Department needs."

Kickoff Panel - Indiana the Nation's Drone Testbed
Speakers: Maj. Gen. Lawrence "Larry" Muennich, Brad Golding, Sean Conroy, Dr. Benjamin Griffin

Moderator: Daniel Sennott

Maj. Gen. Lawrence "Larry" Muennich, the Adjutant General of Indiana: "If you talk to anybody who has done drone testing and evaluation at Camp Atterbury, you're not users, you're our customers. Our mission partners are our customers. We partner with you so that we are all successful in what we do. And I'm proud to say, everyone I talk with really highlights how easy it is to do business with us here in Indiana."

Moderator Daniel Sennott, Co-Chair, National Security Group, Greenburg Traurig: "When you look at Chinese competition in the drone industry…a stated goal by many of these Chinese companies is to sacrifice profit from market share in order to drive out domestic manufacturing from the United States…then Congressman Banks, and now Senator Banks and their staff have done an incredible amount of work in the National Defense Authorization Act to make sure were combatting some of these unfair trading practices from China."

See here to view Part 1 of today's Defense Summit.

See here to view Part 2 of today's Defense Summit.

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