NEWPORT, R.I. – Four technology companies connected with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport engineers and scientists at the warfare center’s Narragansett Bay Test Facility on Aug. 26, and more than 30 in-water demonstrations were given at Sail Newport at Fort Adams State Park on Aug. 27, during the 2026 Blue Technology In-Water Demonstration Event, or BlueTIDE.
“Standing here today, you can feel the energy of what happens when bright minds and bold ideas converge,” NUWC Division Newport Technical Director Marie Bussiere said at the Aug. 27 event. “When your systems are put into these waters, our Navy engineers aren’t just watching a demo, they are actively envisioning how your technology fits into the future of our mission areas.”
Hosted by Division Newport’s Northeast Tech Bridge, in partnership with the Polaris Tech Bridge, BlueTIDE brings technology companies together with Division Newport scientists and engineers to identify technologies that could address Navy needs and accelerate delivery of capabilities to the warfighter.
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who attended the event on Aug. 27, stressed the importance of technological innovation as warfare continues to evolve.
“The character of warfare is changing dramatically and at breathtaking speed,” Reed said. “Drone and autonomous naval technologies are evolving faster and more creatively than ever in the history of this country.”
Reed said the ultimate importance of that work is measured by what it provides to those serving in uniform.
“What you do affects the young men and women who wear the uniform in the United States,” Reed said. “There’s no nobler calling than giving them the best.”
Also attending were Congressmen Gabe Amo and Seth Magaziner, Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, and Stefan Pryor, Rhode Island’s secretary of commerce.
The demonstrations reflected one of the primary goals of BlueTIDE — to give Division Newport technical experts an opportunity to work directly with companies and determine how emerging technologies might help address Navy challenges.
This year, Division Newport put that approach into practice by challenging four companies —Khasm Labs of Seattle, Washington, Sofar Ocean Technologies of San Franciso, California, and Orpheus Ocean and Poseidon’s Forge, both of Massachusetts — to integrate their technologies around a cross-domain command, control and communications mission.
“In the span of only three months, these four companies, who never worked together previously, rallied around interoperability as a strategy to deliver capability faster,” Bussiere said. “Each company was able to highlight its unique technology, but by integrating them, they collectively delivered operationally relevant information from the seabed to the command center,” Bussiere said.
Julie Kallfelz, director of the Northeast Tech Bridge, said the ability of the four companies to make their technologies work together was an important outcome.
“It was a very impressive showing by these four companies who really embraced the call for interoperability,” Kallfelz said. “If we can get various technologies to interact and operate together, we will be able to get capability out faster to the fleet.”
BlueTIDE moved to Sail Newport at Fort Adams State Park on Aug. 27, where dozens of companies showcased technologies during in-water demonstrations.
Kallfelz said bringing so many organizations together at one event makes the opportunity for connections more efficient.
“These kinds of events are the most efficient way for industry, government and other partners to get together, have real conversations, real interactions and real observation of technologies,” Kallfelz said. “It’s just a high-density opportunity.”
For Division Newport, the work is intended to continue beyond BlueTIDE. Kallfelz said she was already seeing connections made with participating companies.
“I’m seeing very productive exchanges going on, folks from NUWC, engineers and scientists from NUWC, reaching out to these companies to say, ‘Hey, I want to follow up on that conversation we started,’” Kallfelz said.
For Bussiere, maintaining those relationships is an important part of translating demonstrations into future capabilities.
“We need to carry the energy, enthusiasm, our collective expertise and the collaborative spirit of the past two days into work every single day,” Bussiere said. “The path to undersea dominance cannot be forged alone in a single lab or a single office. It is forged through partnerships like the ones represented here today. Let’s carry that momentum forward, push the boundaries of what’s possible and build the future of undersea dominance together.”
NUWC Newport is the oldest warfare center in the country, tracing its heritage to the Naval Torpedo Station established on Goat Island in Newport Harbor in 1869.Commanded by Capt. Kevin Behm, NUWC Newport maintains major detachments in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Andros Island in the Bahamas, as well as test facilities at Seneca Lake and Fisher's Island, New York, Leesburg, Florida, and Dodge Pond, Connecticut.