Against the backdrop of ongoing global instability and increasingly fierce international competition, the strength of a country’s military has become a crucial indicator of its comprehensive national power. With the rapid advancement of science and technology, the competition in modern military strength is no longer confined to the contest of traditional weapons, but has expanded to in-depth competition in the field of science and technology. Amid the tide of rapid scientific and technological development, the military field is experiencing an unprecedented transformation. From intelligent weapons and equipment to information-based combat systems, and further to the construction of digital battlefields, every leap forward relies on the strong support of science and technology.

In the journey of strengthening the military through science and technology, connector products in the data communication field have attracted particular attention. They not only bear the responsibility of information transmission but also serve as the key to achieving precise strikes, efficient reconnaissance, and real-time command in modern warfare. High-end optoelectronic connectors, characterized by high speed, high efficiency, and reliability, play an irreplaceable role in military communication, optoelectronic detection, precision guidance, and other fields, becoming an indispensable part of modern military equipment. The application of these products not only enhances the overall effectiveness of China’s military strength but also contributes significantly to safeguarding national security and world peace.

Jiangsu Naguang Communication Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Naguang Communication"), as a leading enterprise in the military industry, has successfully applied its profound accumulation and continuous innovation in optoelectronic communication technology to multiple fields such as military communication, optoelectronic detection, and precision guidance, providing the military with efficient and reliable information transmission solutions.

In 2018, relying on years of profound accumulation in military industry technology and products, as well as a firm belief in the industry’s future development prospects, Zhang Huan joined hands with several senior industry experts to embark on the journey of partnership entrepreneurship. After in-depth market research, detailed industry analysis, and combining his own rich experience, he finally set his sights on the optoelectronic transmission field, determined to make great achievements in this broad sector and start a new entrepreneurial chapter. In the early stage of the company’s establishment, it adopted a strategy of providing targeted services to customers, with a small range of product categories and production scale. While meeting the company’s basic survival needs, the partner team continuously explored future development directions. After two years of exploration and development, the company achieved certain growth in both technical accumulation and scale, and urgently needed a larger platform for further development. After careful consideration and prudent investigation, the company selected Nanjing—located in the Yangtze River Delta region, with a developed economy, convenient transportation, a solid foundation in the military electronic industry, and abundant talent and market resources—as its new base, and relocated to Lishui District, Nanjing at the end of 2021.

As a startup, Naguang Communication’s initial funds came from the team members’ own capital, and the company’s early profits were barely enough to meet its survival needs. After the relocation, the company’s costs in labor, base construction, and R&D investment rose rapidly. At the same time, the unfavorable overall economic environment led to an extension of the industry’s payment collection cycle, which once left this startup facing a shortage of working capital. Securing external financial support became an urgent need for the company to continue its operations.

The emergence of Nanjing Innovation Investment Group brought a glimmer of hope to this struggling enterprise. The Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 mentions the need to strengthen the integrated military-civilian development in fields including optoelectronic technology. Meanwhile, the military electronic industry, as a strategic emerging industry and one of the key industries prioritized by Nanjing, has always attracted much attention. Guided by national policies, Nanjing Innovation Investment Group never forgets its responsibility and mission as Nanjing’s core investment and financing platform. In practice, it actively demonstrates the role of state-owned capital, extensively seeks cooperation opportunities with outstanding enterprises in the industry, and aims to nurture the growth of more high-quality small and medium-sized enterprises in the military industry through the power of capital.

The connection between the Venture Capital Group and Naguang Communication began with an initial exchange of investment intentions. After the two parties reached a preliminary consensus, the Venture Capital Group took swift action and launched a detailed and rigorous due diligence process. After in-depth understanding and evaluation, the Venture Capital Group decided to inject tens of millions of yuan into Naguang Communication through the Nanjing Industrial Development Fund under its management. This not only helped this high-quality military enterprise gain a firm foothold in Nanjing but also demonstrated the Venture Capital Group’s firm confidence and support for high-quality enterprises.

The investment from the Venture Capital Group brought new opportunities and advantages to Naguang Communication. With the initial support of state-owned capital, Naguang Communication quickly attracted the attention of many investors. More and more investors took the initiative to extend olive branches, expressing their willingness to provide financial support for Naguang Communication’s development. This not only alleviated the company’s initial capital shortage but also injected strong impetus into its stable transition and sustainable development.

When talking about why Nanjing Innovation Investment Group was chosen over other venture capital institutions, Zhang Huan, General Manager of Naguang Communication, expressed deep feelings. He said, "We once held reservations about venture capital institutions, worrying that they would be overly focused on return on investment and interfere with the company’s normal operations and decision-making. However, the Venture Capital Group gave us a completely different experience. They focus on long-term cooperation and common development, do not have excessive expectations for return on investment, and will not interfere in the company’s daily operations. The entire investment process was extremely standardized, and the fund disbursement was very fast after the agreement was signed. Such an investor makes us feel deeply trusted and at ease."

At present, after several years of development, Naguang Communication has become a star enterprise in Nanjing’s military electronic product industry. It has accumulated rich technical achievements and a wide range of customers, with nearly 300 customers in stable cooperative relationships. Its market scale and industry status continue to grow.

As the "14th Five-Year Plan" requires accelerating the development of strategic, cutting-edge, and disruptive technologies and the in-depth implementation of the domestic substitution strategy, China’s military industry is ushering in a golden period of accelerated development. Precise policy support and in-depth optimization have provided military enterprises with a broader market space and richer resource support, enabling them to achieve breakthroughs in key technical fields, get rid of dependence on external supply chains, and thus greatly enhance the industry’s independent controllability. The superposition of these opportunities has promoted the accelerated development of China’s military industry and injected new vitality into the country’s national defense construction.

Under the positive guidance of macro policies, the military industry is ushering in new development opportunities. As microcosmic entities in the industry, military enterprises bear the important mission of promoting technological innovation and realizing national defense modernization. Driven by both policies and domestic substitution, military enterprises have also gained broader development space, contributing to national defense construction and national security while achieving their own development. In this process, how to maintain their advanced nature and surpass competitors is an important question that military enterprises need to answer in the current era.

Zhang Huan, one of the founders and General Manager of Naguang Communication, also gave his answer to this question: "First of all, we must always maintain advanced nature in terms of technology. We invest 10% of our annual operating income in R&D, and at the same time, we conduct more than 40 employee training sessions every year." By continuously increasing investment in key technical fields, Naguang Communication has not only improved its independent innovation capabilities and maintained technological leadership in the industry—successively winning titles such as "Jiangsu High-Tech Enterprise" and "Jiangsu Specialized, Refined, Characteristic, and Innovative Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise"—but also realized the independent production of supply chain components, promoted the localization process in the field of optoelectronic connectors, and enhanced its voice and competitiveness in the industrial chain. The high emphasis on technology development and talent training has become a key factor for Naguang Communication to succeed in the fierce market competition.

"Secondly, the ability to respond quickly is something that many similar military enterprises find difficult to achieve at present, and it is also one of the pain points complained about by customers." This rapid response capability has not only improved Naguang Communication’s market sensitivity but also brought more business opportunities and market share to the enterprise, laying a solid foundation for it to gain a foothold in the market. Naguang Communication has always adhered to the concept of providing services to customers with a positive attitude, making full use of its advantages of a flat structure and small scale to provide customers with the best service experience. Moreover, Naguang Communication has actively practiced this concept in its business operations. For example, in a cooperation with a client, the client urgently needed Naguang Communication to produce and deliver a complete set of products within two days—a task that is not easy for most manufacturers. Thanks to its strategy of pre-reserving technologies and products, Naguang Communication, after evaluating the difficulty of the task, decided to take on the challenge. While completing mapping and design, it arranged production, and finally successfully delivered the products within two days. This not only won the client’s favor but also deepened their cooperation.

Finally, it is the long-term development approach of not pursuing excessive profits but choosing reasonable profits. Naguang Communication’s prudent philosophy is reflected not only in the selection of shareholders but also in its adherence to business principles. Pursuing only reasonable profits has helped Naguang Communication establish a good brand image, win the trust of consumers and partners, and create long-term and stable returns for the enterprise. "Regardless of whether the customer is large or small, or whether there is a bidding process, we will maintain what we consider a reasonable profit margin, rather than testing the customer’s bottom line for the sake of price negotiations," Zhang Huan said. In Naguang Communication’s view, product prices should remain fair; an enterprise’s excessive pursuit of high profits will instead lead to the loss of customers and overdraw the enterprise’s development potential.

In addition, strategies and concepts such as organizing production based on market demand, enriching and diversifying product types, and prioritizing quality are also important factors contributing to Naguang Communication’s success. Relying on these strategies and concepts, Naguang Communication has won widespread recognition from its clients, which in turn has fed back to drive the company’s development. This has not only made Naguang Communication a high-tech enterprise in Jiangsu Province but also led to it being recommended by clients to obtain confidentiality qualifications, enabling it to participate in the research of some major national classified projects. Step by step, Naguang Communication has built its own business territory and become one of the leading enterprises with outstanding competitiveness in the industry today.

"Compared with foreign enterprises or domestic leading enterprises, we do not have an advantage in scale. However, in terms of technical level, product yield rate, and cost performance, Naguang Communication’s performance is comparable to or even surpasses theirs. Moreover, the difference in scale also provides us with an advantage in cost control. Therefore, in the future, Naguang Communication will continue to leverage its strengths and move forward on the path of long-term development," Zhang Huan said.

With the continuous evolution of the global situation, international dynamics are changing increasingly fiercely, local tensions continue to escalate, and regional conflicts are intertwined with global issues. Countries around the world have stepped up their military strength construction to ensure national security and stability. Against this background, the intelligent upgrading of military equipment has become a key area of competition among countries. The rise of intelligent technology has injected new impetus into the upgrading of military equipment, putting forward unprecedented high requirements for military enterprises and their products.

China’s "14th Five-Year Plan" has set higher standards for the development of intelligent equipment, and the pace of national defense modernization is accelerating. Among them, optoelectronic transmission systems, as core technical equipment, play an increasingly important role in improving the performance of military equipment and achieving precise strikes. Due to the particularity of the military field, market competition is relatively limited and the market environment is relatively stable, providing a favorable environment for the development of optoelectronic connectors. Despite the downward pressure on the global economy and certain market challenges, the development prospects of optoelectronic connectors in the military field remain broad. In the future, military enterprises still have great potential in the high-end field, and optoelectronic connector technology will continue to innovate, contributing more to national defense construction.

Facing the current market situation and industry development trends, Zhang Huan stated that the company will transform toward localization and high-end development in the future. Based on the "14th Five-Year Plan’s" call for the military industry to transform toward miniaturization, lightweight, and intelligence, the company will prioritize quality and reliability, improve product performance, introduce new materials and processes, and build differentiated high-end equipment. "At present, the economic downturn has led to changes in the country’s military equipment procurement strategy—shifting from large-scale upgrading and replacement in the past to the R&D of high-end equipment, which puts forward higher requirements for the quality of equipment. In such a situation, enterprises need the injection of new technologies even more. Only by continuously introducing and integrating new technologies can enterprises maintain competitiveness and gain market share. In the end, competition between enterprises also focuses on the competition of core technologies. Therefore, enterprises need to increase investment in technological innovation even more, establish a sound R&D system, and actively introduce and cultivate scientific and technological talents to provide strong support for technological innovation," Zhang Huan said.

Driven by both the intensification of international trade frictions and the acceleration of the domestic substitution strategy, the domestic military optoelectronic connector industry is ushering in an unprecedented wave of growth. In the past, the dominant position in this field was long held by foreign technologies. However, now domestic high-quality enterprises such as Naguang Communication, through continuous R&D innovation and process improvement, have successfully created core products with excellent performance that surpass international competitors. These high-quality connectors not only meet the urgent needs of the domestic military field but also achieve reverse exports in the international market.

In Zhang Huan’s view, the future development blueprint of China’s optoelectronic industry is already clear. To achieve the grand goal of domestic substitution, he firmly believes that three core aspects must be focused on: "First and foremost, technology must remain leading and forward-looking. As the economic situation evolves, the demand for cutting-edge technology becomes increasingly urgent." It is precisely by virtue of its profound technical accumulation and its keen ability to capture changes in market trends that Naguang Communication has quickly engaged in high-end transformation and successfully seized market opportunities. "Secondly, quality and reliability must always be placed first—quality is the lifeblood of the military industry." Naguang Communication is meticulous in quality control. General Manager Zhang Huan convenes all employees to hold monthly quality analysis meetings and actively promotes the transformation of the production chain toward informatization and intelligence to ensure that every product can withstand market tests. "Thirdly, the ability to solve problems throughout the entire chain has become an indispensable core competitiveness of enterprises." Facing customers’ diverse usage scenarios and technical requirements, Naguang Communication is well aware that adhering to old ways can no longer adapt to the trend of the times. Only through continuous innovation can it meet customers’ diversified and personalized needs.

"In the future, if enterprises can continue to take the lead in R&D and product technological innovation, they will undoubtedly gain more opportunities in the market," Zhang Huan said. With its persistent pursuit of technology and keen insight into the market, Naguang Communication shows full confidence in its future development. Facing new opportunities and challenges in the military industry in the future, the enterprise will take technological innovation as its core driving force, continuously break through technical barriers, improve product performance, and strive to promote the development of domestic optoelectronic connectors toward high-end and intelligent directions. At the same time, Naguang Communication will actively respond to the strategic needs of the country’s modern military construction, contribute more to national defense security, and demonstrate the enterprise’s responsibility and commitment!