Highlights from AFA’s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference

The Air & Space Forces Association wrapped up its 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference on September 16 after three days stacked with keynotes, panel discussions, exhibits, and more at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. Here are all the highlights from this year’s show.

Weapons on Orbit, and New CCA Vengeance and Fury

The United States “now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force,” Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink told the audience in the conference’s opening keynote on Sept. 14. The line made headlines worldwide. He also paused for a recorded greeting from one of the Space Force’s own—Col. Anil Menon, an astronaut serving with NASA aboard the International Space Station—who thanked AFA and the audience for aiming high.

In a fireside chat with AFA President & CEO Lt. Gen. Burt Field, USAF (Ret.), Meink also announced the official designations of the Air Force’s first operational Collaborative Combat Aircraft: General Atomics FQ-42 “Vengeance” and the Anduril FQ-44 “Fury.”

A New Space Force Chief and Air Force Point Defense Push

On Sept. 15, Gen. Doug Schiess used his first public remarks as the service’s third Chief of Space Operations to lay out the agenda for the next four years, built on three priorities to forge the Guardian ethos, arm and grow the Guardian force, and integrate Guardian power at scale.

“We [the Space Force] deter from a position of strength. It is responsibility and privilege that comes with being a Guardian,” said Schiess, who argued that growing the Space Force is a Joint Force requirement rather than a service preference.

A day earlier, Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Ken Wilsbach unveiled two point-defense initiatives: the development of weapon systems with kinetic and nonkinetic capabilities and a new point-defense career field for Airmen. Drawing on Operation Epic Fury, he framed the service’s path forward as three imperatives—ready to fight, built to endure, and integrated to win.

“For decades, American air and space power has often operated from a position of sanctuary,” said Wilsbach. “Those days are over.”

NASA and the Race to the Moon

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told the audience in his Sept. 15 keynote that the United States is “in the midst of a very real second space race,” and warned that China “will accomplish what the Soviets never could.” He also thanked Guardians for supporting Artemis II’s recent trip around the moon, a partnership he said will only grow as the United States pushes beyond Earth.

Isaacman reiterated his top priority of returning Americans to the moon. The 2027 Artemis III mission will test critical technology, the 2028 Artemis IV mission will land a crew on the lunar surface, and uncrewed landers will arrive at the lunar south pole nearly monthly to lay the foundation for a long-term human presence. Beyond the moon, NASA plans to launch Space Reactor-1 Freedom to Mars in 2028, designed to be the first nuclear fission-powered interplanetary mission.

Caine: ‘We Cannot Buy Time’

“For 25 years, our joint force has fought a particular kind of war,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said in his Sept. 16 keynote—one waged from a position of relative advantage. Now it must adapt to fight “from the seabed to cislunar space,” and fast. “We can buy almost anything in life, but we cannot buy time,” he said.

Caine pointed to early results, including the first known rescue of downed U.S. service members by an unmanned vessel. Still, the Chairman charged industry to “move faster, deliver outcomes that can survive first contact … with shorter lead times and lower costs.” He closed with two questions for everyone in the room, asking, “If not now, then when? And if not the leaders in this room, then who?”

Remembering the September 11 Attacks, 25 Years Later

AFA marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks with “Bravery in the Skies,” a session with two pilots who were ready to give their lives that morning—Heather Penney, Director of Studies and Research at AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, and Lt. Gen. Marc H. Sasseville, USAF (Ret.), the 12th Vice Chief of the National Guard Bureau.

Penney and Sasseville recounted how they launched from Andrews Air Force Base in F-16s with no missiles and no ammunition on 9/11, sent to stop hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 before it reached Washington. “We were sent on that suicide mission because our nation was unprepared,” Penney said, warning that today’s Air Force is smaller and older than it has ever been. “Those are the real heroes of that day,” Sasseville said of the passengers who fought back aboard Flight 93.

Funding, Building, and Sustaining the Force

Golden Dome will deliver operational capability by summer 2028, program director Gen. Michael Guetlein told the audience during a Sept. 14 panel with Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of U.S. Northern Command.

“We stood up our first operational site already,” Guetlein said, “and have been digging dirt across the homeland.” Guillot, whose command will operate the system, said Golden Dome is necessary to tie existing and future defenses into one integrated system for “a country that used to worry about threats from one avenue of approach and really in one domain.”

Fischer expressed concern that Congress may not be able to “fund what we need” and said lawmakers must “go through an appropriations process,” rather than rely on one-time reconciliation dollars, to give Golden Dome lasting certainty.

In a separate fireside chat, Rep. August Pfluger of Texas, the only F-22 pilot in Congress and a leading policy driver in the House, cautioned that long-term continuing resolutions “do a lot of damage to our war fighting capacity” and urged military leaders to speak up, telling them, “We need you to be bold, to tell the truth, to say we’re underfunded.”

Supporting Service Members and Their Families, Past and Present

In the days leading up to Air, Space & Cyber, the Air Force Cycling Team joined hundreds of riders on AFA’s Memorial to Memorial Ride, pedaling 340 miles from the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk, N.C., to Arlington, Va., in support of AFA’s Wounded Airmen & Guardians Program. On Sept. 13, 335 riders, including 33 wounded warriors, CSAF Gen. Ken Wilsbach, and Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentivegna, reached the Air Force Memorial, surpassing the ride’s goal and raising more than $120,000.

On Sept. 14, AFA’s United Forces & Families Program hosted a panel on unlocking military spouse talent, framing spouse employment as a readiness issue. “This is not charity work. This is a good business decision,” said Stephen B. Simmons, deputy assistant secretary of war for military community and family policy, pointing to the department’s rebranded SpouseWorks program and a 25% drop in military childcare wait lists. In his keynote, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David R. Wolfe announced Global Military Spouse Connection, a new Air Force program that went from idea to first action in 60 days and connects qualified Active-duty Department of the Air Force spouses with federal career opportunities.

The conference closed on Sept. 16 with the United Forces & Families senior leaders panel, where Wilsbach, Schiess, Wolfe, and Bentivegna were joined by their spouses, Cindy Wilsbach, Debbie Schiess, Dr. Doniel Wolfe, and Cathy Bentivegna. The four spouses will bring their experiences to the new President’s Military Spouse Commission, and they asked families to share their own to help focus its work. “We recognize there’s some longstanding generational problems that we need to get after,” Cindy Wilsbach said.

The couples also traded stories from decades of service. The Wilsbachs, who met in a 10th-grade geometry class, counted “41 years and 26 moves.” Cindy Wilsbach recalled a spouse at Kadena Air Base who told the wing commander everything was fine, then told her it wasn’t. “I sometimes see things and am told things that he doesn’t,” she recalled. Debbie Schiess said 9/11 changed how she saw military life, when she realized “this wasn’t just his service to our country, it’s our family’s service to our country.”

Hollywood on Stage, Lessons in Leadership, and Innovation

A record number of exhibitors, well over 300, filled the conference’s three technology halls. Exhibitors showcased everything from full-scale models of the Air Force’s new Collaborative Combat Aircraft to large autonomous systems and hands-on demonstrations of cutting-edge technology.

Throughout the week, Pentagon leaders shared the stage with stars in the civilian world. On Sept. 16, Lt. Gen. Andrew J. Gebara, Director of Staff at Headquarters Air Force, joined the creators of the upcoming biopic “JIMMY” — director Aaron Burns and Jimmy Stewart’s own daughter, Kelly Stewart-Harcourt — to discuss the legacy of famous actor Jimmy Stewart, an AFA founding member, as an Airman and airpower advocate whose example still inspires Airmen and Guardians today.

AFA’s Doolittle Leadership Center hosted celebrity chef Robert Irvine and Ramon “CZ” Colon-Lopez, USAF (Ret.), former Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for a candid conversation on leadership—both in the military and in the kitchen. “Accountability is not hostility,” Colon-Lopez told the audience, while Irvine urged leaders to listen first. “God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason,” he said. After the panel, Irvine and Colon-Lopez greeted Airmen and Guardians and signed copies of their books at the AFA Pavilion.

At AFA’s on-site film studio, high-profile guests like Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Shawn Bratton, CMSAF Wolfe, CMSSF Bentivegna, and military storyteller Sam Eckholm joined the Doolittle Leadership Center’s “Building Better Leaders” podcast. Experts from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies also made appearances in the studio, analyzing and responding to all the breaking news from the conference.

Want to see more than just the highlights? Watch full sessions and read transcripts from all three days of the 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference online at afa.org.