Whether you’re exhibiting at this year’s AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition 2026 with your own booth, co-exhibiting with a partner or integrator, or simply just walking the floor, our team of senior-level PR experts would love to meet with you. Since our inception in 2021, the Wise Up team has become a specialist Defense PR Agency, supporting established, listed companies to early-stage defense startups across counter-UAS, autonomous systems, robotics, resilient communications, sensing technologies, and beyond.
The Wise Up PR team will be back on the floor for the third consecutive year at the AUSA 2026 Annual Meeting & Exposition, scheduled to take place from October 12–14, 2026, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. For defense technology startups looking to make a name for themselves to legacy primes who’ve been in operation for decades, the event is one of the biggest conferences on the calendar for the year.
AUSA 2026 Comes at a Major Moment for Defense
The Defense industry is actively being shaped by real-time conflicts, the global proliferation of key technologies like drones and autonomous weapons, and shifting procurement and acquisition priorities. The big idea: Deploy technologies at the speed of the battlefield or risk losing the competitive edge to adversaries.
Here are just a few of the top defense trends that will shape what’s on the floor at AUSA:
- Technology built on a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA): Modularity and interoperability are now procurement requirements. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s address to the industry at the top of the year set the stage for procurement that prioritizes technology that is easily upgradable, so systems can be enhanced without full, expensive hardware overhauls.
- The Drone Dominance Program Supercharging America’s Drone Industry: The U.S. Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program is looking to produce large quantities of affordable, combat-ready small drones (300,000+) through a $1.1 billion investment. The ongoing goal is to procure drones with demonstrated capabilities in the world’s most contested environments, not ones backed by loose, unproven R&D promises.
- JIATF 401 (Joint Interagency Task Force 401)’s Mission for Universal C-UAS: On the flip side of furthering America’s drone production dominance, is JIATF’s mission to bring department-wide consistency to C-UAS operations (the MOSA theme above ties heavily into the execution of this). This means favoring products that follow established common testing standards, aggregate performance data, and contribute to a reliable, validated C-UAS marketplace
- Autonomous Weapons Systems Are a Top Procurement Priority: The Pentagon’s FY2026 plan allotted tens of billions behind autonomous systems, drones, and related technologies. The focus has moved far beyond AI and autonomy as buzzwords, but to how quickly these systems can be deployed and fielded to maintain battlefield superiority.
Defense PR Agency Specialists: Meet the Wise Up Team Heading to AUSA 2026
AUSA is where trends move markets and shape investments in key defense technologies. This means it’s a key event to include in your media relations program, with top journalists in attendance and industry and national publications closely covering everything from product launches, market entries, partnerships and beyond announced in and around the show. If you have news to share in the Fall, timing it around AUSA is the move if you want to make a splash.
This is even more reason to lean into a seasoned defense PR agency to execute on your media relations program and PR goals around the event. Wise Up PR has supported every media campaign you can think of at AUSA, with a team of senior-level PR experts who know the industry lingo and ins and outs of the defense media landscape.
Here are our PR experts who will be on-site this year and how to connect with them:
David Claxton, Founder of Wise Up PR
David Claxton founded Wise Up PR’s Defense practice as the industry re-emerged as one of the most high-growth and heavily invested in sectors in the world, in turn making strategic defense PR and communications incredibly crucial. Since launching the practice, he has led a team of seasoned PR experts in establishing the agency as one of the leading boutique firms in the space, supporting leading firms like Echodyne, DroneShield, AimLock, Mehler Systems Group, Emesent, and more.
Taylor Maurits, Lead Media Strategist at Wise Up PR
Taylor has worked closely with defense companies of all sizes and specialties since joining Wise Up PR 5 years ago. From executing on AUSA media campaigns across product launches, platform updates, market entries, integrations, and partnerships, to facilitating on-site briefings on the show floor, she’s supported clients across the industry with cutting through the noise and securing brand awareness that justifies event spend.
Founder of Wise Up PR, David Claxton, on AUSA: “AUSA is a moment that gives companies of all sizes a chance to network and showcase their product offerings. This means there’s a unique media relations opportunity to be had, and a specialist defense PR agency like Wise Up can help brands leverage the event to maximize brand awareness in front of the right audiences, whether that’s integrators, customers, end-users, acquisition decision makers, or a combination of some or all of the above.”
“We’ve been in the space long enough to know that it’s a highly regulated sector built on trust and credibility, and AUSA is one of the great levers to pull to get your name out there and join the broader conversation.”
Both David and Taylor are serving as judges for this year’s Defense Media Awards, an annual event that celebrates outstanding achievement and journalistic excellence in defense reporting and culminates in the popular Defense Media Awards dinner which takes place the night before AUSA kicks off. This year there was a record number of entries received, with 420 entries significantly surpassing last year’s total of 350. The two have served as judges for three years in a row.
Connect with Wise Up PR Ahead of or During AUSA 2026
Whether you’d like to talk about your PR goals ahead of AUSA 2026, or schedule time to meet in person on the floor, there’s no better time to Wise Up. Contact our team of defense PR experts here to book in time to speak.
We look forward to supporting our clients, meeting new faces, and seeing the best of the best of what the defense technology industry has to offer in DC this October.