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National Security Demo Day a salute to the power of tech and innovation

Nancy Dahlberg
Nancy Dahlberg
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The second annual eMerge Americas National Security Demo Day at PortMiami attracted innovators, companies, and military and government leaders to learn about – and celebrate – the work of  defense tech and dual-use tech startups that are on a mission to keep America safe. As eMerge CEO Melissa Medina put it, the event on Tuesday was a “convergence of tech, innovation, entrepreneurship and love of country.”

Florida is currently No. 4 in the U.S. for defense industry growth, said Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, a 23-year retired Green Beret, but “I expect us to lead, because when Florida leads, America wins… We need to bring in more technology, more drones, more understanding of how this critical infrastructure works [because] our people are our priority.”

To that end, 20 companies from Florida and other states, some of them founded by veterans, presented their technology to a couple hundred attendees that took over much of Terminal B for the day. Some of the companies even did live demos over the water, although high winds limited some of the plans.

Space-Eyes,, an aerospace and defense tech startup based in Miami,  builds geospatial intelligence tools that fuse satellite imagery, AI, and multi-sensor data.  At the National Security Demo Day, the company presented Morpheus, a comprehensive counter-UAS command and control system for tracking and neutralizing hostile drones, providing command and control in real time with AI enabled autonomy and predictive intelligence.

Regent Defense’s Seagliders fly and float, providing a fully autonomous low-altitude, high speed and long range solution that’s crucial  in maritime conflicts, including against rising threats like China as well as improving domestic capabilities against narco-terrorists, said Tom Huntley, general manager and VP of Regent Defense. The company also has a $10 billion commercial backlog for passenger transportation, logistics support and cargo, he said. “Seagliders are the future of maritime mobility, capability and importantly are dual use across commercial and defense, reducing risk, increasing supply chain resilience and improving overall maritime capability. … We are a proud US company building the future of American shipping.”

Other companies included Glid, with a unique solution for getting cargo from ship to rail in 45 minutes or less, Florida-based National Energy USA that turns waste into fuel and electricity, Renu Robotics with a robot that cuts grass for military fields now but expect surveillance and research applications to follow, and Pivotol, developer of eVTOLs for personal, public safety, and defense use.

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XTEND, a Tampa-based defense tech startup, demonstrated how its tech enables just one UAV to continually have a visual line of sight on its point of interest. Before the UAV on duty begins to run out of power, another one hovers over it to receive the mission profile from it, so that the mission continues with no interruptions and the original one returns to the nest for a battery swap. It’s a software-defined autonomous system enabling persistent, scalable security operations. A single operator could manage multiple systems across multiple locations with continuous coverage and minimal power.

Magnet Defense’s innovation was impossible to miss, quite literally. Marc Bell, co-founder and CEO of Magnet and a South Florida serial entrepreneur, said “what we have done is built the future of maritime warfare, and it’s floating in right there,” pointing to a massive 4 decker research vessel – the M48 – riding by the crowd [yes, that’s it below].  It’s a fully autonomous, multipurpose vessel that uses proprietary AI software to navigate the globe without human assistance, he said, adding that M48 has sailed over 32,000 nautical miles. The top two decks can come off off, Bell said, “and that is the future of unmanned surface warfare. We have designed it, we have built it, we have tested it, and now it’s ready for mass production, a warship that can sail over 17,000 nautical miles on a single tank of fuel.”

This week, Magnet announced a strategic partnership with Hanwha Defense USA, one of the world’s largest shipbuilders and defense contractors, to produce Medium Unmanned Surface Vessels (MUSVs) for the U.S. Department of War. The partnership includes several potential projects, such as producing 38-meter MUSVs and developing state-of-the-art AI-driven robotic shipyards of the future.

And there’s more to come. National security and defense tech will have a bigger presence at eMerge Americas this year under Tyler Johnson’s leadership, with a massive exhibit area and talks throughout the conference on the national security and main stages.

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Nancy Dahlberg
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