THE INDUSTRIAL BASE CHALLENGE

​Powered by Marshall Industries. With Invest Long Beach.

​Part of the Industrial Base Challenge, a recurring convening that takes on one hard industrial base problem at a time. This is a working session, not a panel. You leave having helped write the requirements.

​Naval operations and maritime commerce run on the same space based stack of GPS timing, satellite links, and AIS. More than 170,000 vessels were jammed at least once worldwide in a single quarter this year. Ships navigate by satellite, so this is space resilience worked at the waterfront. At the same time, AI has compressed vulnerability discovery, turning patch management into a sprint measured in hours. The problem is national, and the Port of Long Beach hosts as convening partner.

​The gap this challenge has to close
9 hours to weaponize a disclosed flaw. 43 days to patch a critical one. (Security research reporting 2026 / Verizon DBIR 2026)

​The challenge
Harden the signal. Protect naval and commercial PNT and satellite links against jamming, spoofing, and interference.
Close the patch gap. Let an organization defend its networks inside the timelines adversaries now achieve.

​What happens
Framing: how the threat is actually presenting.
Breakouts: written requirements, not a list of problems.
Output: in the form SBIR topics and BAAs already use.

​Who should attend
Port, maritime, and Navy operations. Space, PNT, RF, and cyber companies. Universities and regional government.

​Workshop led by Drew "Murph" Busbee, Executive Director, Sparrow Point.

​Seats are limited and registration is reviewed to keep the room working. To sponsor, submit a challenge, or send a team, contact Rahul Singh at rahul@socaldeeptech.com by August 21.