By Lynndy Smith, President & CEO — Global Defense & Industry Coalition

In early 2023, I boarded an 18-hour overnight train from Poland to Kyiv. There were no direct flights into Ukraine. I wasn’t sure what I’d find when I arrived — only that U.S. industry had more to offer Ukraine than it was being given the opportunity to provide, and I needed to understand why. That trip led to conversations with nearly every relevant ministry, the head of defense intelligence, and multiple meetings with President Zelenskyy himself. It changed the trajectory of everything I had been building.

That was my first trip. I’ve now been to Ukraine over a dozen times, and the work is far from finished. But to explain how an Arizona defense coalition ended up on that train, I have to go back a little further.

I grew up in Arizona with a dad who was a pilot — weekends at the airport watching jets, a fascination with flight and national security that eventually pointed me toward defense. My entry came through Senator John McCain’s office, where I first encountered the industry not as a contractor, but as a policy problem to be solved. I was hooked. When Senator McCain stood up in the Senate Armed Services Committee and pushed for direct communication between Congress and industry, the Arizona Defense & Industry Coalition — AZDIC — was born.

AZDIC, and its national umbrella the Global Defense & Industry Coalition — GDIC — were built for a different kind of convening. Not to meet for the sake of meeting, but to put the right people in the right room at the right time for conversations that produce real outcomes. That means connecting manufacturers directly to procurement decision-makers, walking companies into conversations they couldn’t access alone, and driving policy change on supply chain and critical minerals. Through GDIC’s growing national chapter model, that access is now available to defense industry companies across the country.

Which brings me back to Ukraine. That first train ride led to a Memorandum of Understanding signed at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington with President Zelenskyy in attendance, delegations of Arizona companies traveling to Kyiv, and joint venture conversations between U.S. industry and Ukraine’s defense establishment. In January 2024, I was personally appointed as the sole American on the Supervisory Board of Ukrainian Defense Industry — a role I hold in my individual capacity, and take seriously as an obligation to transparency and long-term industrial development.

This level of industrial partnership should have existed before the war. That is the lesson Ukraine teaches, and it is why GDIC is now building these same frameworks with allied nations before a crisis forces the conversation. We are actively developing partnerships in the United Kingdom, Canada, Lithuania, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia — structured pathways for U.S. industry to engage allied defense markets with the access and support they need. The infrastructure for those conversations is being built now, not after the fact.

I believe a strong defense industrial base is what preserves this country’s strength for the next generation. That is what drives me — whether I’m on a train into Kyiv, in a Senate hearing room, or connecting a manufacturer to a contract they couldn’t reach alone. Build the relationships. Have the hard conversations. Don’t wait.