At AFCEA WEST 2026, themed “Sustaining Maritime Dominance: Warfighting Readiness for the Future Fight,” Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (PEO C4I) reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening collaboration with industry to accelerate the delivery of decisive capability to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
During PEO C4I’s third annual industry engagement event, leadership from across all 11 program offices connected with more than 300 industry partners to discuss priorities, operational challenges, and opportunities to advance naval capabilities in a rapidly evolving maritime environment. The event aligned with SECNAV priorities and the National Defense Strategy, underscoring the importance of innovation, disciplined acquisition, and partnership in sustaining America’s maritime dominance.
“Today’s WEST event provided me the opportunity to share thoughts on my program office’s activities as well as to hear directly from industry on potential solutions to the challenges we face,” said Anthony "Tony" Vanaria, acting program manager for the Navy’s Carrier and Air Integration Program Office (PMW 750). “These types of government and industry engagements are invaluable in ensuring that our ultimate customer, the warfighter, is equipped with the latest technologies in the performance of their mission.”
The discussions reinforced a central theme echoed throughout WEST: acquisition is a warfighting function. In order to maintain a competitive edge in a dynamic operational environment, the Navy must integrate emerging technologies, strengthen partnerships with the defense industrial base, and deliver enhanced lethality and survivability to operational forces–faster.
Launching the PEO C4I Industry Engagement Form
Building on the momentum from WEST 2026, PEO C4I is formally launching a new Industry Intake Form, now available at https://www.peoc4i.navy.mil/Industry/.
This new form establishes a clear, structured pathway for companies to connect directly with the appropriate PEO C4I program offices, helping reduce barriers and accelerate the evaluation of innovative solutions.
“We created this page to make it easier for companies with great solutions to rapidly connect to the program managers that need those solutions,” said U.S. Navy Capt. David Gast, PEO C4I Innovation Lead. “If we are going to answer the call to field better capabilities faster, we need to remove as much of that friction as we can, and that’s our goal with this page.”
Aligned with Department of the Navy priorities to strengthen the maritime industrial base and integrate emerging technologies, the intake form supports responsible stewardship while enabling timely collaboration. By creating a centralized intake mechanism, PEO C4I is improving transparency and ensuring submissions are routed efficiently to the right technical and acquisition teams.
How the Page Works
The Industry Engagement page provides two pathways for engagement:
“While we built the website to allow companies to propose specific solutions with which we can experiment, we understand that not every company has a clear picture of what challenges we’re trying to solve,” Gast said. “There’s also an option on the page for those companies to just tell us about themselves, what they do, and how to contact them, so even if a company doesn’t have a particular solution in mind yet, they should still check out the page.”
This dual approach ensures both mature solution providers and emerging innovators have a clear entry point to engage with PEO C4I.
Strengthening Partnerships to Support the Warfighter
As the Navy works to sustain maritime dominance and maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly complex operational environment, collaboration with industry remains essential. By creating a more direct, transparent pathway for engagement, PEO C4I is reinforcing its commitment to accelerating innovation and delivering integrated C4I capabilities that give Sailors and Marines the advantage they need to deter, compete, and win.
Through continued partnership and disciplined execution, PEO C4I and its industry partners will help ensure the fleet is forward, ready, and prepared for the future fight.
About WEST 2026:
WEST 2026 brings together leaders, warriors, industry, and academia to address the challenges of a dynamic operational environment. It also provides a key opportunity to engage in critical discussions, collaborate with peers and shape solutions to enhance our capabilities in countering complex and rapidly evolving threats.
About PEO C4I:
PEO C4I is the U.S. Navy’s first line to acquire the right communication and technology tools to deliver affordable, integrated and interoperable information warfare capabilities to the fleet. Headquartered at NAVWAR’s Old Town Campus in San Diego, PEO C4I includes 11 program offices responsible for acquiring, fielding and supporting C4I systems extending across Navy, joint, and coalition platforms. This includes the management of acquisition programs and projects that cover all C4I disciplines.