The first NCMS Technology Showcase with the Air Force, held at Tinker Air Force Base (AFB) in Oklahoma City, July 17-18, 2023, provided an opportunity for 59 world-class companies to exhibit how their technologies serve Tinker AFB’s mission: providing sustainment and logistics readiness to deliver combat power for America.

Companies exhibited technologies in multiple focus areas including Advanced/Additive Manufacturing, Business IT and Analytics, CBM+/Predictive Maintenance, Coatings and Corrosion Prevention, Enhanced Inspection, Reliability Improvement (Hardware), and Workforce Development/Visualization.

Industry exhibitors engaged with hundreds of decision-makers, managers, artisans, and technicians.

“This event has been extremely beneficial to re-engage with existing relationships here at Tinker AFB and also to get a better understanding of the offerings of our fellow small businesses and tech innovators,” said Kyle Burns, Strategic Partnerships Development Manager at Essentium, which provides industrial 3D printing solutions at scale.

“We’ve had fantastic conversations with our DOD customers and others to learn about new technologies. The ability to speak with both the end-users and the decision makers is a priceless opportunity. I’m really grateful to NCMS for hosting the event,” said Joe Laws, Program Manager at Grey Gecko LLC, which delivers custom corrosion-detection solutions to the DOD.

The opportunity to interact with DOD decision-makers is especially valuable for small businesses.

“We’re a small business unit so there’s no one looking us up on our website and then calling us to invite us on base. NCMS events get us access to talk to people that we’ve never had,” said Mark Murphy, Director of Operations of FASTORQ, a SNAP-ON company that provides precision bolt installation and removal solutions. “Having the base commanders’ support behind it, they give people time off to come see us and collaborate. We get to ask them about what problems they face, daily. We’ve even had people from the first day bring additional contacts through on the second day. Having contacts at multiple installations within the DOD has been huge for us.”

The contacts that industry exhibitors make at NCMS Technology Showcases are often very productive.

“The NCMS Technology Showcase has been great. We went to the CTMA Partners Meeting in New Orleans, and here it’s gotten even better,” said Dillon Banner, Senior Sales Engineer, Surface Analysis Team, Keyence Corporation of America. “About 40 people come through yesterday and had a bunch of great contacts. We’ve got a demo set up on Wednesday after the showcase to go and do some testing of our equipment. We’re really excited about it.”

As a leader in industrial base modernization, Tinker is hosted by the 72nd Air Base Wing, which provides base installation and support services for the headquarters, Air Force Sustainment Center, the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex and more than 45 associate units assigned to six major commands, including the largest flying wing in Air Combat Command, the Navy’s Strategic Communications Wing One, and several defense agencies. The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex performs maintenance on multiple aircraft, TF33 engines, and a wide variety of commodities for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and foreign military. In addition, the complex is responsible for the development and sustainment of a diverse portfolio of mission-critical software.

NCMS collected feedback from all participants and is working with Tinker AFB and industry to take the next steps to transition technologies that can significantly improve sustainment operations.

To learn more about the NCMS Technology Showcase at Tinker Air Force Base, please visit https://www.ncms.org/events/ncms-technology-showcase-tinker-air-force-base.

To learn more about the exhibitors, please visit https://www.ncms.org/events/ncms-technology-showcase-tinker-air-force-base/#exhibitor-directory.