The driving purpose surrounding the Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium (GVSETS) is to advance the future of combat and tactical vehicle technologies.
New Jersey-based defense contractor Blue Raven is a technology-enabled, data-driven distributor providing highly engineered parts, systems and hard-to-source components that keep mission-critical platforms operational.
With some 240 exhibitors and 3,000 people in attendance at the Vibe Credit Union Showplace in Novi, Mich., the 18th annual GVETS event provided a target-rich environment for Blue Raven.
“We have a focus on ground vehicles … this show is very focused in the ground vehicle space,” said Brian Adams, vice president for Strategic Programs-Army for Blue Raven. “This is the place to be.”
The three-day event was the place to be for a record number of exhibitors and several thousand visitors. In addition to the hundreds of exhibits, the symposium featured a variety of panel discussions, including a venture-capital-focused panel that included perspectives from large defense-focused venture efforts, prime contractor venture arms, local Michigan investors and venture-backed startups.
The event also featured an outdoor tech demonstration, a discussion of warfighting and a panel that featured senior leadership from the Detroit Arsenal.
Eric Patton, co-chair of the 2026 event and founder of Ares Technology, said the number of visitors was “about flat” with last year, but he did notice one thing about them.
“I think the most interesting thing that I noticed is there are a ton of people who have not been here before … So we’ve attracted a lot of new folks, particularly internationally,” Patton said. “I think the word’s getting out just word of mouth. I know folks from Switzerland who have told me that this is their favorite show of the year, and they come here from Zurich to exhibit with us.”
Patton said the event’s concentration of key decision-makers and subject-matter experts is “higher than most other exhibitions.”
“We’ve got the tech session day that draws in the academic and engineer types, so you can talk to the people who are designing the systems,” Patton said. “Then on the other days have the key decision makers from the Army, from industry. I hosted a panel this morning that had vice presidents, CEOs from many of the major prime contractors. So having all those people in one space and not having 100,000 people, you can actually get to them. It’s a little bit more of an intimate event than the big national ones, but still have the right people.”
Houston-based KBR is a defense services company that services every service within the defense industry. The company has been supporting the Army specifically for more than 40 years. The company has satellite operations in Huntsville, Ala., Dayton, Ohio, Jacksonville, Fla.,and all up and down the East Coast.
KBR is a technical services firm providing analysis and engineering services to include prototyping, testing, modeling and simulation, digital engineering, etc.
“We’re really just a problem solver,” said Jonathan Johnson, KBR’s senior director for Army Aviation and Ground Systems Operations. “So as a company, we do problem solving for any of our Department of Defense or our defense-related customers across the board.”
KBR has supported the Detroit Arsenal from its office in Sterling Heights since around 2010, Johnson said, providing logistical engineering services, fielding services, training services, and also engineering services.
“(GVSETS) is huge,” Johnson said. “It’s a great opportunity to connect with the industry partners as well as our customers and clients. So we get a lot of access to multiple levels of the military organizations that we can then talk about new problem sets or new challenges that they may need to be resolved.”
Things will change for KBR in January, when KBR’s mission technology solutions business will spin off and become an 18,000-employee independent public company named Trinzic.
“Trinzic will be doing all the mission technology solutions portion of KBR,” Johnson explained.
Thales Defense & Security, Inc., is a Maryland-based multinational corporation supporting the U.S. Army and other joint services, primarily focused on sensors, communications, power management, other Tier Three products that go into systems or subsystems.
“What we do for the Army is important because it links up the communications, provide communications links,” said Patrick Allison, director of business development for Thales. “We provide management systems that monitor the power on the battlefield and we also provide a whole school of sensors that pick up and surveillance targets.”
Allison called GVETS an “important show” because “it gets right down to the core of the engineering crowd within the Detroit Arsenal.
“So if you’re coming with technology, you’re actually able to talk to engineers and other programming people who have technically oriented to be able to insert or integrate the technology onto the various platforms,” he said. “As a company, (GVSETS) makes sure that we get our name out in the U.S. Army. It allows us the avenues into market and business development products. And it’s just another way to reach the customer.”
After the three-day event, Patton said he hopes to have helped exhibitors and visitors learn how to react to “changing tmes.” “We’ve had an increased focus on experimentation, private capital coming in to support defense industry,” Patton said. “And I hope that we’ve shed a little bit of light for people on how they can adapt in these changing times successfully.”
