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5 Aug 2026

ASCA Pitch Day 2026 – Resilient Command and Control

Adelaide Convention Centre · Adelaide, Australia

ASCA Pitch Day 2026 – Resilient Command and Control venue
Photo: Shkuru Afshar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Dates
Wed, 5 August 2026
Venue
Adelaide Convention Centre
Location
Adelaide, Australia
Organizer
Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA)
Cost
paid
Scale
intimate
Recurrence
annual
CFP deadline
14 Apr 2026
Format
Hybrid

Market intel

Moderate pricinghigh confidence

ASCA Pitch Day 2026 – RC2 was an invite-only, government-curated pitch session embedded within the ADSTAR Summit 2026, featuring 14 shortlisted organisations from across Australia.

  • The event focused squarely on resilient C2 in contested/DDIL environments, with quantum navigation, photonic inertial systems, and secure edge networking among the standout technologies.
  • Prize winners were selected by senior Defence officials, giving the event direct procurement-signalling weight.
Notable exhibitors
Q-CTRL (Innovation Award winner – MagSLAM quantum magnetic navigation)Lockheed Martin Australia / Advanced Systems and Technologies (Project Albatross)Boeing Defence Australia (Next generation networking)Australian National University (Provably Secure Tactical Edge C2 Platform)Forge Photonics (Cost-asymmetric Photonic Inertial Navigation)Cueven (Trusted Sensor Assurance Layer – Best Presenter Award)Space CoLAB (HaloCore Quantum-Secure Laser Communications)Stratoship (HARCC – High Altitude Resilient C2)

AI-researched Tue, 25 August 2026. Estimates from public sources. Verify with the organizer.

Why it matters

This pitch day is a direct pipeline into Australian Defence procurement: ASCA funds travel and accommodation for selected presenters, and winning solutions gain visibility with senior ADF decision-makers actively seeking to transition asymmetric capabilities.

  • For SMEs and startups, it is one of the few structured, government-run mechanisms to formally pitch C2 and resilience technologies to Defence under the Defence Industry Development Strategy.
  • The RFI-to-pitch format means shortlisted companies receive formal evaluation feedback and exposure to the broader ADSTAR ecosystem of 2,000+ researchers and decision-makers.

About

ASCA Pitch Day 2026 – Resilient Command and Control (RC2) is a government-run pitch competition held as part of the ADSTAR Summit 2026 at the Adelaide Convention Centre on 5 August 2026.

  • Fourteen industry and academic organisations, selected via a formal Request for Information process, presented solutions addressing three challenge statements: operating in DDIL environments, protecting resilient C2 capabilities, and recovering degraded C2 networks.
  • Prizes were awarded at the ADSTAR Gala Dinner by a panel of senior Defence officials, with Q-CTRL's quantum-enabled magnetic navigation solution taking the Innovation Award.
  • Both in-person and virtual attendance options were available, with in-person access requiring an ADSTAR Summit ticket.

Topics

C2 / Battle ManagementCyberAIISR & SensorsAutonomy & Robotics

Who it's for

SMEsStartupsInstitutions

Funding behind this kind of event

Instruments with a call window open right now, tracked with their deadlines.

All defence and dual-use funding

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