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Top 10 Plan Factors Launch Table Top Manoeuvre Exercises Incorporate Autonomous Systems

2/23/2019

Massive armoured vehicle force-on-force mechanised air-ground attack and long-range weapons are all soon to be elements of combat scenarios taken up in major wargames.

“We are going to be doing table top war games to see what kinds of things we will need in our platforms to counter threats,”

Wargames pit friendly “blue” teams against “red” teams acting like major adversaries. The exercise can involve maps, intelligence data, terrain and geographic factors as well as specifics regarding whatever populations or countries are involved. They are often literally on a table top with nearby computers, simulations and methods of data analysis, or in some cases they can be as large as moving structures on the floor of a gymnasium.

“Through a series of structured questions, you have leaders make decisions. In a table top you get reactions. You may even have players that act like a local population. You put it in context of geopolitical and tactical circumstance.

By emphasising that these wargames would be designed to identify enemy threats, its important to capture, replicate or precisely mirror weapons, tactics, strategies and force structure of specific high-tech adversaries.

While never exact, these kinds of wargames strive to closely approximate specific weapons systems, armored vehicles, missiles and drones a particular enemy force would have.

“If you can do it based on real-world intel, then you can do it on grounded projections.”

What would it look like if a “red” force launched a massive air-ground invasion? The blue team would consist of Combatant Commanders making decisions in response, taking adversary tanks, missiles, drones and weapons into account.

“How many combat vehicles does an enemy have? Or let’s say an enemy has a bullet that goes 1000 miles - let’s wargame what that means. Just because their weapons may be able to shoot a certain range, that does not mean they can hit a target. What kinds of sensors do they have? What kind of network?“

Unlike computer simulations which rely have more specifics embedded, wargames better address situations with more unknowns and assumptions. Both wargames and simulations are designed to test an ability to respond to specific actions and attacks made by a “red” force playing the enemy role
“Wargames include evidence based analytics. Eventually you have to apply experience. You cannot simply opine around a table.

For example, what should the response be if the adversary closes off a port, cuts of supply lines or uses air assets to destroy long range weapons? The amount of equipment, details about weapons capability and the exact configuration of an adversary force are replicated by the wargame.

Wargaming offers distinct models for decision-making. “One model is based upon adversary capabilities and the other on adversary intentions.

Battle damage assessments are of great significance in wargames. For instance, what happens if large portions of a force are wiped out by an attacking force? What kinds of options does that leave a commander?
The wargames are designed to encompass the full range of factors.

Losing a wargame is seen as a great development.

“If the red team outdoes you or comes up with something you are not prepared for, that’s a successful wargame because you want a realistic adversary. In this case you learn something you did not know.”

Navy is expanding its attack submarine war game strategy to further emphasise enhanced “spy” missions like intelligence, surveillance reconnaissance missions to quietly patrol shallow waters near coastline - scanning for adversary enemy submarines, surface ships and coastal threats.

Improved undersea navigation and detection technology, using new sonar, increased computer automation and artificial intelligence, enable quieter, faster movements in littoral waters where enemy mines, small boats and other threatening assets often operate.

Virginia-Class submarines are engineered with a “Fly-by-Wire” capability which allows the ship to quietly linger in shallow waters without having to surface or have each small move controlled by a human operator.

With “Fly-by-Wire” technology, a human operator will order depth and speed, allowing AI tools to direct the movement of the planes and rudder to maintain course and depth.

The ships can be driven primarily through AI code and electronics, thus freeing up time and energy for an operator who does not need to manually control each small manoeuvre. Previous Los Angeles-Class submarines rely upon manual, hydraulic controls.

This technology, using upgradable and fast-growing AI applications, widens the mission envelope for the attack submarines by vastly expanding their ISR potential. Using real-time analytics and an instant ability to draw upon an organize vast data-bases of information and sensor input, computer algorithms can now perform a range of procedural functions historically performed by humans to increase speed of manoeuvre and an attack submarine's ability to quickly shift course, change speed or alter depth positioning when faced with attacks.

A closer-in or littoral undersea advantage, Navy strategy documents explain, can increase “ashore attack” mission potential along with ISR-empowered anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare operations.

“We are uniquely capable of, and often best employed in, stealthy, clandestine and independent operations-- we exploit the advantages of undersea concealment which allow us to conduct undetected operations such as strategic deterrent patrols, intelligence collection, Special Operations Forces support, non-provocative transits, and repositioning.”

The Navy is implementing elements of this strategy with its recently launched Virginia-Class attack submarine engineered with a host of new, unprecedented undersea technologies.

Many innovations are underway and tested as prototypes for many years and are now operational as new subs enter service; service technology developers have, in a general way, said the advances in undersea technologies built, integrated, tested and now operational to include quieting technologies for the engine room to make the submarine harder to detect, a new large vertical array and additional "quieting" coating materials for the hull.

While firepower and attack weapons are naturally still a major area of focus for Virginia-Class submarines, the expanding ISR mission scope made possible by new technologies has provided key inspiration for senior Navy developers and members of Congress who have been working vigorously to increase the size of the attack submarine fleet.

Land weapons, port activities and other adversary movements in coastal or island areas are more difficult for deeper draft surface ships to access, often complicating surveillance missions – without giving away their position. Surface ships and the drones or aircraft they operate could, in a variety of operational environments, be more “detectable” to adversary radar and sensors when compared to attack submarines.

“The most important feature for manoeuvre in littoral waters is the fly-by-wire control system, whereby computers in the control center electronically adjust the submarine's control surfaces, a significant improvement from the hydraulic systems used in legacy subs.

Next-generation sonar technology, woven into Virginia-Class subs, is engineered to work in tandem with “Fly-by-Wire” technology to better identify threats operating at various depths and speed.

The new submarines also have what’s called a Large Aperture Bow conformal array sonar system – designed to listen for an acoustic ping, analyze the return signal, and provide the location and possible contours of enemy ships, submarines and other threats.

To understand autonomous weapons, think about electronic warfare. Parsing what detected signals matter is an electronic warfare skill that can possible be designated to artificial intelligence.

For as much as conflicts have been defined by drones and drone strikes, those missions are only possible because the sky is empty of hostile aircraft, and because the electromagnetic spectrum is free of interference. This permissiveness, however, is hardly a guarantee in the future and even in certain theaters in the present.

If the machines that are today remotely operated are to take part in future conflicts, they will need to operate on their own, with only minimal human control. The technologies that will make that possible are broadly grouped together under the subject of autonomy,

Automated defenses are used to counter automated attacks and speeds faster and scales larger than humans can work on their own. There is autonomy in guided munitions, especially loitering weapons, which operate on their own from launch until impact. Waging electronic warfare will require both approaches: machines that can automatically counter the actions of other machines, and vehicles that can navigate through fields of interference on their own.

“There's no way that a human is going to be able to keep up with these new generations of cognitive electronic warfare systems that are constantly scanning the electromagnetic spectrum and jamming software where it can. Humans just won't be able to keep up with that. The expectation is once again, for electronic warfare, machines will fight against their machines.”

Electronic warfare is a data-rich field, as signals can be captured, recorded and studied in a way that most information on a battlefield cannot. That data, combined with machine learning that trains AI on how to interpret, understand, and counter those signals, makes cognitive electronic warfare an area where iteration on software is likely to yield outsized results
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Having enough bandwidth available to allow pilots at the base to directly control drones flying in remote spaces is already something of a logistical triumph. As cognitive electronic warfare gets better, and the cost of putting that interference in place gets lower, directly piloting is going to be hard, especially from across the planet but even from closer bases.

Autonomy greatly reduces the amount of data an uncrewed vehicle needs to send back to the humans supervising it. As sensors get cheaper, collecting that information will be easier, but the bottleneck isn’t in the collection. It’s in the transmission.

“Getting the bandwidth to send it back will be an enormous challenge. No question about that. The communication environments of the future battlefield, will really be challenged by congestion and it will be challenged by active and probably effective interference by the adversary. So teleoperation is a challenge.”

Lower bandwidth in the field encourages autonomy, and autonomy in vehicles then means that the humans move from a dedicated pilot or sensor operator role into a sort of supervisory position, a commander of robots who can only reliable communicate in low-data messages.

Contested and denied electronic spectrum make areas once open to remote vehicles now hostile and possibly outright impossible. Designing machines that can get around those barriers, that can perform military tasks and missions even if they are out of contact from the humans that ordered them into action, is an adaptation to the environment.

It is a way to preserve the utility of uncrewed vehicles, without sending humans into that same danger. Or it a way to make sure that, when soldiers or marines find themselves trapped in a fight, rescue can still come in robotic form.

Autonomous machines are the tangible edge of what future war might look like. It’s the electromagnetic spectrum, invisible and always present and causing interference.

Pentagon imagines automation as seamless as in a strategy game

With a switch click, unknown tanks and infantry are clear, as our tank-commanding avatar holds a tablet with the adversary positions illuminated in red. Finding these adversaries are an array of systems, from satellites to drone swarms to uncrewed reconnaissance vehicles on the ground.

Another click, and the hostile forces on the screen are replaced by scorch marks, the tank commander’s tablet illuminated with the range of strikes called in from air and land forces.

While it exists in simulations and in games, perfect information on a battlefield remains an impossibility. Creating a “red force tracker;” that is, an intelligence collection process that provides real time information on where enemies are at all times, is a stretch for current technology. But it is one that could get closer to reality with autonomous robots scouting and providing information. This would take a great degree of information integration and distillation at the point of collection to work.

Rather than remote-control or teleoperated machines, future machines could be autonomous enough to require little human supervision, employ complex tactics, and to allow for a high degree of coordination with little need for communication.

“If we want to reduce load on soldiers, we have to get the equivalent of Siri for robots. We have to get the same interaction from a human-computer interface that a tank commander has with its driver, where it can maneuver in that space.”

Consider example of the tablet-commanded robot scouts and called-in strikes. This is a vision of military command where a human sits at the center of an autonomous body of sensors, perhaps gives them objectives but not specific targets, and then lets the machines process information to convert objects recorded with cameras into coordinates for where airplanes and artillery should place explosives. It’s a vision of war almost as seamless as a round of Command & Conquer real time strategies.

“The concept of the future Navy control room that we are working with is that it will not actually be on-board the ship. We think this will work because we know that you can have pilots anywhere controlling drones that fly over conflict space. So why not have the officers somewhere safe, instead of on-board?”

Control rooms, or operations rooms, on warships are where all of the information that is continuously collected by the vessel’s equipment, including radar, sonar and cameras, is relayed to captains so that they can make tactical decisions.

Unlike on-board control rooms where officers are usually seated, in case the ship is struck by a munition that would knock them off their feet, in an on-land control room officers could be allowed to walk freely around the room.

The AI in the process of development for the new control rooms could spot incoming threats to a warship and instantly prioritise them, so that commanders know which adversary vessels to take out first.

These technologies have the potential to transform warfare and greatly increase the situational awareness and efficiency of crews on board ships.”

Navy is seeing first-hand that data collection and analysis can go a long way in addressing lingering readiness problems, as the “Digital Twin” Office continues to roll out a set of pilot programs meant to introduce the service to the benefits of data science.

While its ultimate goal is to create a smarter data environment – much the way industry has used big data to better reach its customers, create efficiencies in production and more – the office’s first major action is to create awareness of its mission through a series of pilots that tackle readiness problems in the aviation and surface ship communities that have not been solved with traditional approaches.

The new organisation will assist systems commanders, type commanders, fleet commanders and others in identifying problems that can be solved using data analytics as a tool; facilitating a discussion between sailors and data scientists to create an approach for solving the problem; and then finding ways to apply that new approach to other parts of the Navy where applicable.

One pilot project looks at making surface ship maintenance availabilities more efficient, particularly as the Navy tries to embrace predictive maintenance, only fixing or replacing components as needed instead of on a fixed schedule.

Supply officers today focus on reactively replacing parts that are consumed from their inventory, instead of proactively predicting what parts will be needed and when, which would be more useful in a predictive maintenance environment.

“We want to look at one of our top surface readiness degraders and say, can we be more predictive of the supply side there, reduce the supply chain time and get better accuracy around how we provide parts for those types of repairs?”

“You might have to replace a blade on an engine, but you don’t necessarily order the bolts with that part. So can we create the relationships so that so whenever blade is replaced usually you have to have to also get this or that component – it’s kind of like e-shopping, if you bought this you may also want this – so can we create that kind of predictive supply system that would say, you just requested to replace the blade on the engine, you might also need these other parts because we find that there’s a high rate of these types of repairs with that as well.

And then it’s over to the user. The machine and the data have presented some courses of action; the user can say you don’t need that, you already checked, or you didn’t check that, maybe you need to do that, let’s go see. And hopefully then you can kind of compress these maintenance cycles a little more and speed up the time.”

Another pilot optimises operations of the ships’ power plants through a “Digital Twin” effort, where a virtual replica of the power plant is created so simulations can be run to understand how it will perform and require maintenance under various conditions.

“We wanted the communities to show that this wasn’t just some tech kind of application, but when you combine the digital and the physical expertise together, you could get outcomes that you otherwise couldn’t get if you tried to solve it on your own.

We wanted to expose the different aspects of the Navy to the tools and techniques, the language – a big part of this is, our users, our commanders have to be able to say, ‘We think there’s a data problem,’ instead of, ‘There’s a problem and let me go solve it in a traditional way.’

It’s a little bit different to say, ‘We think we have a data problem and we think we can get at this if only we had better access to data, or had the ability to analyze it differently, or had a different toolset.”

Office is addressing a major component of the Navy and Marine Corps readiness challenge: “non-mission capable, supply” aircraft that cannot fly because maintainers are awaiting the delivery of the spare parts needed to fix them. Both the maintainers and the supply community have separately tried to address this problem, which has only gotten worse in recent years due to insufficient funding. But the Office is coming at the problem from a new angle.

To begin the process, maintainers at the air station sat down with supply officers and data scientists to talk about the non-mission capable supply problem in a Digital Mission Space event.

“What we’ve seen at these Mission space centers is, in some cases the maintenance guys say, we can’t solve this problem, it’s really really hard; the supply guys are like, well we can help with that; and the data science guys are like, okay, well what data do you both have and how might we pull it together? And can we automate the process? Can we make it more predictive instead of reactive?

During the Digital mission space center event, the maintenance and the supply experts were asked to think about what data they collect, through what processes, and to what end. Data shouldn’t be collected for data’s sake and they were asked to consider how data collection is actually contributing to their mission.

The data scientists then helped them talk through what data could be shared and how, to assist each community in doing their jobs better, and to ultimately reduce the time it takes for an airplane to come into the depot, maintenance to begin, required parts to be identified, the right parts to arrive at the depot, and the airplane to be sent back out for operations.

Ultimately, the maintainers were given a new data set to work with and new processes to implement on a trial basis, and the mean time to repair aircraft is already down. The maintainers have also identified new policies, training areas and additions to their data environment that they think could benefit them going forward.

In addition to getting aircraft back to mission-capable status faster, the pilot is also sparking the right kind of conversation about using data to tackle problems, with maintainers considering how to pull data from other communities and from open-source documents such as historical weather data, as well as questioning what new data they may want to collect going forward.

Navy is starting to understand the power of data analysis to help address tough problems. It’s a bit unclear now how the office will spend its time and manpower after the first pilots wrap up, though it will likely include tackling more project ideas that come in and “We’re assisting commands in holding their own Digital Mission space events to brainstorm solutions to problems. We’re going to take lessons learned from these first pilot programs and using them to change the entire data environment the Navy has built for itself.

“We want to solve a problem, we want to show the community there’s value here so we can start thinking of, well we also have this other problem that might be something. And then we could start to pull that back and say, once we start to get that predictive supply piece, do we have the right data environment in order to make that scalable outside of surface readiness to other pieces?

“And then start walking the organisations through that and where they need to partner, and how to have the right contracts in place and the right acquisition strategy to go after those types of data environments. And do we have the right skillsets inside our workforce to be able to manage the data once we start collecting it and analyzing it?”

“Part of it is about the technology and the introduction of new technology, but the really big return, that ultra-boost you get, is out of redesigning your processes and streamlining them, making them simpler and making them focus on what the user really needs. And that’s where you get a big productivity kick.

When AI is introduced, new attack vectors are introduced, such as deep learning spoofing and data spoofing.

If the training data is known or manipulation of data is too predictable, adversaries can easily anticipate and predict actions and outcomes.

Adversaries can spoof sensors and also the data collected by those sensors without needing to mess with the underlying model code. Put simply, adversaries do not need to know what is in the box to exploit the box. Spoofing Process Models Efforts Results in Compromise of Sources/Methods:

1. Importance and necessity of AI transparency is application-specific.

2. Trust must be met across algorithms, data, and outcomes.

3. Users must understand the mechanisms by which systems can be spoofed.

4. Robust and resilient digital capability requires balancing development, operations, and security.

5. Network risk management security ownership throughout and across organisations is critical.

6. Applying AI requires a skilled and educated workforce with domain expertise, technical training, and the appropriate tools.

7. Organisations must develop workforce expertise in digital data models

8. Success for users in machine learning requires iteration, experimentation, and learning through early sub-optimal performance.

9. Organisation must build the foundational digital capability to successfully apply AI technologies-- database management, information integration.

10. Gaining competitive advantage through information and analytics is an enterprise-wide endeavor from headquarters to the deployed warfighter.

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Top 10 Auto Flight Line Digital Twin Engineering Construct Feature Identify Excess Network Kits

2/17/2019

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“How do we take best practices from industry and automate parts of our flight line that right now are fairly manpower-intensive?” If we have airmen doing things that can be automated, then we got to pursue it.”

Quest for “smart flight lines” reflects both the desire to accomplish everyday tasks more efficiently and a stark realisation service simply does not have enough people to do all its jobs.

There’s a part of this which means we have to grow, but we also have to be good stewards as well and look at the highest priority missions and look at how we’re using airmen today and find ways to repurpose airmen against the highest priorities.”

Leaders are searching for new types of technology that could help prepare planes for battle.

Must make planes and other weapons all talk to one another with Digital Twins. That would be a shift: much of the arsenal was built by defense firms that used proprietary standards, preventing the weapons from communicating electronically and requiring lots of time and money to modify them.

This is a big challenge for us to be able to change fundamentally the way we think from wars of attrition — sensor, weapons, platforms — to wars of cognition, which is networks that share and learn. “Making that cultural shift and translating that to an acquisition strategy is going to be a big lift. But the faster we do it, the faster we’ll improve our lethality as a joint team

Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resources [BEAR] support shortages in several locations have been identified and commander of excess BEAR assets for redistribution has been notified.

The cost-benefit assessment compares shipping costs with the cost or value of the item being shipped and the Digital Twin identifies instances when it is more costly to redistribute items to bases rather than retaining the assets at their current location.

According to the Digital Twin platform, the automatic re-sourcing function can be used to periodically check for the availability of assets to satisfy requisitions that remain in a backordered status.

The Digital Twin platform identifies eligible orders and if any exist, will prioritise the orders and then attempt to locate and release assets. If the platform identifies that excess assets are sufficient to satisfy a need, the system will automatically process a transaction to fulfill that need.

“Must Upgrade Installed Suite of Engineering Systems so Dismantle/Swap Out Processing Consoles is not Necessary”

What the surface fleet wants is a single combat system that runs on every ship, and runs everything on the ship, and that doesn’t mind what hardware you are running so long as you have the computing power for it.

“That’s an imperative going forward — we have to get to one, integrated combat system so if a sailor who is trained on a big-deck amphibious ship transfers to a destroyer, no extra training will be necessary to run the equipment on the destroyer.

On a ship, that means that if the Navy adds a new radar, missile or laser, the Digital Twin platform that runs the new equipment is developed as an application that interfaces with the single integrated combat system.

This has the benefit of having everything linked by the Digital Twin for operators in the combat information center, sonar control, on the bridge or in the ship’s intelligence-gathering center. It also means that new systems are quickly integrated, skipping the expensive process of ripping out old servers and consoles.

“We need to continue down the path to be more aggressive and get a lot more competition in the Digital Twin space. Not to call it completely open, but as open as we can be, and then share that with people who can come into a common space and apply their expertise to develop products that we may or may not want to buy. That’s where we need to go.”

The grand vision for this operating system from the deck-plates perspective would be the merging what are, today, disparate functions into one unified system.

One of the areas in which this segmentation creates limitations falls between the combat information center — which collects and displays information gathered by ships’ sensors — and the intelligence hub known as the Ship’s Signals Exploitation Space — which uses top-secret sources to collect data on the theater in which the ship is operating.

“We need to break down the barriers-- both a physical bulkhead and computing systems and platforms. “That’s what an integrated combat system is: You have the traditional combat system function, and the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance functions — non-real-time and top-secret information functions — merged into one multilevel security-protected by the Digital Twin.”

In that scenario a watchstander in the combat information center with the proper security clearance could see what information Ships Systems Engineering Station has on the aircraft and their mission while stripping out top-secret information such as sources and methods that the engineering system needs to protect.

And once Combat Information Center has a radar track associated with that intelligence, all the engineering station data will get merged into it so decision-makers in combat have the necessary intel at their fingertips.

But the Digital Twin logic applies to all the ship’s sensors, not just intelligence collection data. The unified combat system would associate every piece of sensor data with the track being displayed in info center. Everyone connects to a single system that gives every watchstander all the information they need on every track, both real-time and non-real-time data.

“The integrated combat system includes all mission areas, “It’s electronic warfare, it’s anti-submarine warfare — we don’t segment out air and missile defense and electronic warfare, they are all just applications within the combat system. The Navy has to stop thinking of the engineering system, sonar, combat, electronic warfare and the bridge as different and separate elements. They have to be part of the whole.”

There’s a number of obstacles to getting the surface fleet on a unified system, but one that could be insurmountable: the staggering cost of replacing the fleet’s outdated computer hardware.

The Digital Twin begins moving the Navy down this path of a single, unified combat system. The library is essentially the iOS of an iPhone: The Navy can use the source library to program applications that run sensors and weapons systems.

So, if the Navy has a new missile system it wants to run, the Digital Twin tasked to run it will be designed to run off of the source library — and ships with the library will be able to rapidly integrate it, just like downloading the latest navigation or gaming software for a smartphone.

But the issue is that source library requires specific hardware to function. “One of the challenges the Navy has, the constraints, is the hardware and infrastructure to support a common integrated combat system.

“So while we are marching forward with the capability to be open and take in apps, there is an antiquated architecture out there and there is hardware that doesn’t support it. … You can’t run integrated operating systems today the standard computer. You’re just not going to be able to do it. So let’s gut them and put some blade servers in, and we’ll work with you.”

The issue with replacing a fleet full of legacy cost over dozens of surface combatants in need of updated computers, you start eating up billions of dollars and lose decades of operational availability.

So while the Digital Twin does give the Navy an interface with which developers can create applications to run various systems, it’s all pointless if the service doesn’t have the right equipment.

Even if the Navy did back-fit all the surface ships with updated servers, you’d need to get all the suppliers to play nice in the sandbox by sharing proprietary information for the benefit of a unified combat system.

Ultimately, however, the Navy must shift to operations that decouple the computer suites that run its combat systems from the system itself.

“You can either upgrade the existing ships on that model, which is expensive and you rip the ship apart to do it or you design the ship with the idea that you are going upgrade the hardware over its time, and you separate the hardware/software layers.

“What we don’t know is how to upgrade the fleet at the pace we need moving forward in the future. We don’t have a structure in place and a process by which we do that upgrades with speed.

To ensure each responsibility is met — and every architect, contractor, and supplier remains on schedule and budget — effective construction project managers must utilise tools and strategies that help them manage their work flows.

"Contractor Creating ‘Smart Shipyard’ to Streamline Workflow”

Contractor in process of establishing several pilot programs aimed at creating a Smart Shipyard that could accommodate Digital Twin plans with no paper or two-dimensional drawings but instead would be all digital and all 3D. taking the lead on this initiative and estimates that creating an integrated Digital Twin shipbuilding system.

The vision for this whole thing is, you’ve seen the Redbox where you can check out movies – … you go down and you can just tell the Redbox who you are and then it gives you an iPad with your work downloaded for the day, and off you go and go do your work,”

“It will have delivered the material to the deckplates. You’ll have everything you need to be able to go to work. And at the end of the day you’ll put your iPad back in and it now knows what progress you made, and it updates it for tomorrow.”

Benefits of Digital Twins in terms of training include having 3D models of the ship would make it more intuitive to build and operate the ship, saving training dollars for the shipyard and the Navy.

Must focus on the impact to the builders by embedding training videos in the digital work packages to refresh you on training for something you’re about to do, show you some safety videos, things that you ought to think about as the mechanic does his work.”

But in creating a digital shipyard that can do that much in aiding shipbuilders, contractor would actually set itself up for something even bigger.

Heart of a 3D Digital Twin Product Model Environment is a Blockchain Backbone that is “the single source of truth” for all activities at the shipyard – all the designs for all the ships being built, the status of inspections, the list of materials needed to build the ship and their status and location, and so on. Once that information is all in the Digital Twin system, everyone working at the yard can find a way to pull information or add in information.

Vision is “having our entire yard wired so that when new things happen like the popups you’re seeing that say ‘work package complete,’ you can instantly get that information,” showing off an interactive map of the shipyard depicting how all the business functions could make use of the Smart Shipyard concept.

“‘Material received,’ you instantly know it’s in. ‘This inspection is complete.’ So you start to streamline your entire process because your information is all flowing from every area.”

In addition to the animated work packages that remind builders how to install parts and embed safety and training videos, this kind of real-time network of information would vastly improve efficiency,, avoiding trips across the yard to check on the status of materials, or pausing for an unknown duration while awaiting someone else to complete their job.

A pilot program involves a laser scanner to help create 3D images of spaces that were originally built using paper drawings – chiefly, spaces on the ships that need refueling and overhauling during a mid-life docking period.

“What we’ve found and had some real success with is this laser scanning, where if you don’t have a 3D product model you will … laser scan the millions of data points, and create Digital Twin model of that space that you can then use in this digital environment” in future ship availabilities.

In the process of everyone using tablets to go about their daily work, the system would end up collecting inspection records, maintenance logs and more that could be analysed to help become more efficient in the future and to create more accountability.

“Once we have all that data, what do you do with it? Once you’re equipped with the Digital Twin, what kind of information can you pull?”

Digital Twin is wired so when new things happen like the popups you’re seeing that say ‘work package complete,’ you can instantly get that information w/ interactive map of the shipyard depicting how all the work functions could make use of the Smart Shipyard concept. “‘Material received,’ you instantly know it’s in. ‘This inspection is complete.’

Videos show how Digital Twin tablets can allow shipbuilders to “see through” a ship’s hardware and overlay designs and other information onto a real space as technicians move around.

It’s part of a larger plan to make shipbuilding paperless, Digital Twins can also contain training videos, safety films and other instructions for shipyard workers. In coming years, the concept may expand even further.

“The vision for this whole thing is like Red Box. “you can tell Red Box who you are and it hands you an iPad with your work downloaded for the day.”

At the end of the day, workers can return their tablets to the central “Red Box” location, where they will be reset with the next day’s work and information.

“Our goal is to be drawing with Digital Twin technology to be the first drawingless ship, and we think that the savings associated with that are tremendous. Leadership is helping us when we look at how we go do this, how do we do this efficiently, what are the savings associated with that.”

The demonstration gave a glimpse of how Digital Twin applications can aid in providing an enhanced experience to Airmen preparing aircraft for combat missions.

Aircraft armament systems Airmen are responsible for maintaining launch and release devices on aircraft. This means that when a pilot pulls the trigger, the devices successfully launch away from the aircraft toward the intended target. Munitions systems Airmen are responsible for the assembly and processing,, store, transport, arm and disarm weapons systems to ensure the safety of all Airmen involved in preparing aircraft sorties.

These two groups of Airmen operate in a complex work environment where aircraft up-time is paramount. Digital Twin technology may present a unique way for the Air Force to ensure every Airman can get the training they need, catered to the individual’s preferred method of education.

“It’s a way to build the readiness and experience level by leveraging advanced technologies. In the past, we received this level of experience because the weapon systems were in need of constant repair and maintenance. Now, our systems are more advanced, and it’s hard to practice difficult repairs.

“We can build our skill sets and proficiency faster by not having an aircraft break to perform the training. We could break one virtually at any time, any place. Digital Twin is a unique way to fully train while still maintaining our mission capable rate.”

The immersive Digital Twin scenario allowed users to walk inside a hangar with a piece of munition positioned for maintenance. The user could look around the hangar, interact with the munition, pull up the technical order in a full-view mode or even watch a video of someone successfully installing that specific item on the munition. Essentially, the person could take apart and reassemble a bomb in the middle of the conference room.

If Digital Twin platform is fully implemented into its training processes, workforce could have virtual hands-on experience much earlier in their careers, which could bridge the training-to-experience gap challenge the Services now face.

The in-garrison mission may be different from the deployed mission. That gap can become noticeable if an Airman who has a home-station duty on a certain airframe or munition deploys and must work with unfamiliar equipment or in a joint environment. Digital Twin could be used as recurrent or just-in-time training to bolster the combat capabilities of those deploying Airman.

Fortunately, construction management has become more technical with the development of new platforms to simplify many processes. But simply purchasing tool or platform is not enough — project managers must also figure out the best way to implement and sustain those tools. Here are strategies to help construction PMs become even more successful:

1. Create a Flow of Communication

Communication is essential to every phase of any construction project. Establish a flow of communication with everyone on the ground — and every stakeholder and supplier in the plan. This transparency will make the process smoother and will reduce the number of messages and phone calls whenever a problem arises.

One of the simplest ways to create a flow of communication is a work execution platform. By linking comments, photos, documents, and calendars in a single location, you can monitor updates, budgets, and scheduling changes as they occur.

A robust platform also allows you to relay these changes to other managers and accounting offices in real time through instant alerts, automated actions, and easy-to-visualise dashboards, providing a nearly email-free and paperless method of project management. That means more time for you to spend at the construction site meeting contractors to coordinate the next stage of work.

2. Make a Habit of Continuous Planning

Planning is an important phase of project management, but construction project managers should start planning long before actual construction begins, and continue revising and developing plans until the project ends. The design, pre-construction, and procurement stages of a construction project each require extensive planning — and each may need to be revised as the next stage unfolds.

Anything can happen at a construction site. If you encounter unexpected environmental problems during the pre-construction phase, the design may need to change. Even slight adjustments can affect the overall plan and timeline.

This remains true during the actual build. While you will be working with experienced professionals in engineering and other disciplines, they still need a focused direction to coordinate their efforts with each other.

Manage stakeholder access to processes so that the different business owners and contractors only see what you want them to see for example, if a contractor needs to share fixture measurements they can submit an update and without delving into a sheet with details that aren’t needed to complete their work. Construction PMs can provide limited access to specific columns and rows to contractors, maintaining full control over permissions.

You’ll often need to work with stakeholders throughout the timeline to develop and refine plans as delays and equipment failures arise. Like any PM, you will execute and monitor developments, but plans often change in construction project management.

3. Observe and Ask Questions

Field elements can dramatically impact the workflow of construction projects. There will be many times when you need to actually see an issue in person before you can resolve it.

Being familiar with the construction site and the duties of every professional working under you will make you a better project manager. Construction is a constantly evolving industry, with new equipment, practices, safety requirements, and advancements every year.

Administering and managing a successful project requires continuous improvement and learning. A great deal of communication may be streamlined, but the work still requires regular site visits and conferences with the contractors and designers on the ground.

4. Budget Projects With a Work Execution Platform

In construction, the permits, materials, and equipment needed for projects are often exchanged between an array of vendor sources. From the initial bidding process to the project closeout, construction PMs are responsible for tracking and monitoring all costs, especially as they relate to initial budgets.

Even relatively small construction projects contain hundreds of moving parts and individual costs, so to remain effective you need to use apps that can also help you manage costs as you move through the key phases of construction budgeting. In addition, through your platform, you should have access to templates for construction project management.

A best-in-class work execution platform can enable you and all of your stakeholders to input costs, budget changes, and other calculations to keep track of your project constraints, alleviating the need to coordinate with every participant or to calculate your budget. Additionally, spend time collecting Blockchain signatures for every invoice, which means you and your contractors can devote more attention to the task at hand.

5. Embrace Automated Reporting Systems

No construction project manager has the time to reply to hundreds of emails a day — or use the phone to call and address every question about budgets and progress. In addition to concentrating comments and schedules, you can cut down further correspondence by implementing automated reporting systems.

Construction project management requires the weekly distribution of many status updaate reports, and automated delivery tools will save significant time over the span of the build. This automation will ensure the right reports go to the right people on time, allowing you to focus on other tasks and communication. Other reporting systems, such as safety management, can track incidents, and streamline worksite analysis when issues do arise.

6. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

The first step with automating your construction business is to start small. To begin, focus on time-wasting processes you can improve to ease your business into automation. Time management is a great start because it can provide a high return of investment. You get great results by maximising your efficiency and, in turn, your bottom line.

From here, you can slowly but steadily reduce the number of processes involved with running your business. Once you start automating certain processes, others become obsolete.

7. Hire experts and purchase tools.

You aren’t expected to be the expert in automating your construction business, so at some point, consider hiring one to ease the pressure off of you and your employees. Outside experts can take a fresh look at your business and analyze each process to find ways of increasing efficiency.

You should purchase tools to help automate your business. From resource scheduling to inventory management to capital allocation to digital marketing and customer service, the right tools help simplify and ease the transition from manual to automated. For example, with scheduling tools, you schedule posts in advance. You can create the post and schedule it ahead of time, so you can focus on your current projects out in the field.

8. Build your organisation around automation.

Your employees may feel threatened by automation. They may worry their jobs are in jeopardy. However, while automation may remove some jobs, it also provides new jobs and more opportunities for employees to grow in their fields. Let’s say you have a marketing manager. Instead of creating posts every morning and afternoon, they can now spend more time focusing on strategic marketing campaigns to acquire new clients and projects.
Automation develops higher efficiency and even higher-paying jobs for your business. Sit down with your employees to discuss why you’re moving from manual to automated processes, why it’s beneficial, and address any concerns they may have.

9. Work with data.

Embracing the role of data is important automation. While large companies can afford to hire departments to gather, sort and analyze data about customers and company performance, small businesses don’t always have this advantage, but there are tools to help you monitor and analyze the information from various sources.

10. Look toward the future.

While it’s important to ease into automation, you should also keep larger goals in mind. Think of what larger processes you’d like to automate. Larger automation goals for your construction business can include drone builds, semi-automated robots, artificial intelligence and 3D modeling and printing..

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Top 10 Digital Twin Presents Tech for Maintenance Training Drive Individual Learning Adaptive Skills Construct

2/17/2019

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We have provided a demonstration of how Digital Twin can benefit training processes was geared toward Marines within the aircraft armament systems and munition systems, and gave a glimpse of how VR applications can support in providing an enhanced experience to preparation of aircraft for combat missions.

Aircraft armament systems Marines are responsible for maintaining launch and release devices on aircraft. This means that when a pilot pulls the trigger, the devices successfully launch away from the aircraft toward the intended target.

“It’s a way to build the readiness and experience level by leveraging advanced technologies. In the past, we received this level of experience because the weapon systems were in need of constant repair and maintenance. Now, our systems are more advanced, and it’s hard to practice difficult repairs.

“We can build our skill sets and proficiency faster by not having an aircraft break to perform the training. We could break one virtually at any time, any place. VR is a unique way to fully train while still maintaining our mission capable rate.”

In this demonstration, Marines experienced an immersive VR training scenario, put on a head-mounted display for VR application and used hand-held devices for training scenarios.

The immersive VR scenario allowed users to walk inside a hangar with a piece of munition positioned for maintenance. The user could look around the hangar, interact with the munition, pull up the technical order in a full-view mode or even watch a video of someone successfully installing that specific item on the munition. Essentially, the user could take apart and reassemble a munition from the barracks.

“In a controlled setting, VR allows for instant immersion into the field to help Marines understand the content better, faster.”

If VR is fully implemented into its training processes, Marines could have virtual hands-on experience much earlier in their careers, which could bridge the training-to-experience gap challenge the Service now faces.

The in-garrison mission may be different from the deployed mission. That gap can become noticeable if a Marine who has a home-station duty on a certain airframe or munition deploys and must work with unfamiliar equipment or in a joint environment. VR could be used as recurrent or just-in-time training to bolster the combat capabilities of users when they are deployed.

Demonstrations like these are designed to combat today’s challenges through innovation and collaboration among top subject matter experts. It’s a way to increase combat capability and solve complex security issues by partnering with experienced organisations to create platforms to house the application.

Redacted version of the report is made available to serve as a reminder about the importance of uncovering operational risks and the planning, briefing, executing and debriefing process. The Troops say that it’s a useful process for them to go through and identify what went wrong and to ask the most important questions of why did this happen.

It’s useful because it provides examples for training on their own equipment, so if one deployed unit had this issue, and then they go over with their teams in training sessions, it's a great tool to highlight potential recurring traps and do we have processes in place so we’re not going to run into this?

What Is Digital Twin Technology and Where Is it Really Going?

Digital twins—virtual replicas of a physical product, process, or system—bridge physical and digital worlds. Here is a guide to walk you through some of the most promising current and future use cases for digital twins.

For the past several years, the internet has been ringing with a new buzzword: digital twin. And, more recently, the term “digital twin of an organisation” has been added to the mix.

As digital twins grow in complexity and move from being digital representations of single items to models of systems of interconnected things, Marines are seeing the technology as an opportunity to connect people, processes, and things in a useful way, resulting in better operational outcomes. But is digital twin technology really here to stay? And where do its biggest opportunities lie for the future?

Here we look at what a digital twin really is, how to decipher true digital twins from the buzz, and where the technology is headed—especially as digital twins mature and expand in scope.

At its simplest, a digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical product, process, or system. Digital twins act as a bridge between physical and digital worlds by using sensors to collect real-time data about a physical item. This data is then used to create a digital duplicate of the item, allowing it to be understood, analyzed, manipulated, or optimised. Other terms used to describe digital twin technology over the years have included virtual prototyping, hybrid twin technology, virtual twin, and digital asset management.

Although digital twins have been around for several decades, it’s only been since the rapid rise of new network capabilities that they’ve become more widely considered as a tool of the future. Digital twins are getting attention because they also integrate things like artificial intelligence and machine learning to bring data, rules, and context together, enabling organisations to test new ideas, uncover problems before they happen, get new answers to new questions, and monitor items remotely.

Now that we’ve addressed the often elusive question, what is digital twin technology?, we can now explore how digital twin technology has been used to improve business processes. Digital twins were traditionally used to improve the performance of single assets, such as jet engines.

In recent years, however, digital twins have become more sophisticated. Now, they connect not just one asset but rather systems of assets or even entire organisations. As digital twins bring together more and more assets and combine them with information about processes and people, their ability to help solve complex problems is also increasing.

A good example of where digital twins are being used at the organisational level is in military manoeuvres. By creating a digital twin of the mission space, Marines can get powerful, real-time insight into combat workflows.

Using sensors to monitor troops and coordinate equipment, digital twins offer a better way of analyzing processes and alerting commanders at the right time when immediate action is needed. As a result, operational wait times can be reduced and workflow can be improved, decreasing operational costs and enhancing mission outcomes.

The term digital twin is becoming a popular buzzword everywhere. Is it really here to stay? The consensus is a resounding yes. In fact, trends suggest that we’re on the verge of a digital twin explosion.

Where variation exists is in how digital twins are implemented. Digital twin technology can be used in new and mature ways, integrating sophisticated sensors, AI, and machine learning, to solve the biggest organisational challenges. In order to maximise their usefulness, digital twins need to be powered by high-performing databases that can pull together and process many data sets in real-time.

Where digital twins offer new and remarkable possibilities is at the organisational level in the built environment. Implementing digital twins offers the potential to create beneficial outcomes not only for administrators but also for the manoeuvre troops. In this way, digital twins can be used to take a troop-centric approach and then look at problems and context, and finally adding network systems and connected devices to try to solve big problems and create long-term value.

For organisations that already use advanced networks, digital twins are the next step along the digital journey. Digital twins can be used to improve efficiencies, optimise processes, detect problems before they occur, and innovate for the future. If your organisation is interested in producing better operational outcomes digital twins must be explored

Digital Twins can be used to check machine status at a glance, or as a visualisation tool in planning out installations. Perhaps most intriguing of all, VR can be used for remote expert support, giving the engineers at HQ the ability to “see” through the eyes of workers in remote locations.

The advantages of VR have been demonstrated in the context of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul MRO applications. For example, the ability to enter information via voice input in place of pen-and-paper checklists can streamline inspections and maintenance routines.

Experienced workers equipped with VR devices can narrate routine maintenance and inspection tasks as they perform them, enabling companies to build up libraries of instructional materials over time with relatively little effort.

Eliminating the need to switch back and forth between a task and a checklist for that task could also reduce the risk of error by keeping inspectors and maintenance technicians more focused.

The ability to overlay a worker’s visual field with step-by-step instructions—including animations depicting the proper assembly or disassembly of parts—offers the potential to reduce lead times and error rates in MRO operations.

Remote expert advice is an obvious application for VR in MRO. Field service often requires experts to travel to remote worksites, but the telepresence afforded by VR means a single expert can service multiple sites without ever having to leave the office.

It’s been said that there’s no substitute for a hands-on education, but whoever said that hadn’t see what VR can do. Many of the biggest players in manufacturing have begun to take advantage of what this unique technology can offer.

Simulation for industrial robots is a valuable tool for robotic system integrators and robot programmers, allowing users to design robotic work cells and generate robot programs through offline programming.

However, simulation requires accurate digital models of each piece of tooling and equipment in order to be useful. In most cases, users must export files from CAD tools, then import them into the simulation space. However, as any professional user knows, exporting, importing, and managing different file types and compatibilities can be a headache.

VR plugins are designed to make tasks easier when programming for welding, drilling, machining, setting approach angles, and for importing many parts from CAD to simulation more rapidly.

For example, when welding assembly is loaded into the simulation, knowing the exact position of welding joint start and end points can be challenging. Using the plugin, the user selects the surfaces, points and edges surrounding each weld. Next, the assembly automatically appears and the welding program is generated. This generated program can then be edited.

Next, the video illustrates how a common workflow for importing a CAD model into simulation involves saving the part in a different file format before it can be imported. With the plugin, the user can click a button in the toolbar, and the model will automatically load.

"Maintenance Troubleshooting Determine Effects of Malfunction/Discrepancy on Airworthiness of Aircraft"
Whenever a Mechanical Malfunction/Discrepancy is reported or comes to the attention of the technician, no matter how simple or complex, must determine appropriate time & location for the corrective action to be taken, identifying the cause of the discrepancy.

In one scenario, a landing gear position-indicating switch may fail because of its frequent usage, or failure may be premature, with the true cause of the failure being a voltage regulator or perhaps a leak in the hydraulic system allowing fluid to drip on the switch. It is important that the technician identify the true cause of the discrepancy when determining the corrective action to be taken.

Another example of troubleshooting is illustrated by considering the following scenario: Aircraft system is experiencing low pressure, the fluid level is adequate, and no leakage is evident, but contamination is found in the system. According to the troubleshooting chart, the technician is to clean filters & flush the system. But this does not complete the troubleshooting process. Additionally, the source of the contamination must be determined, with corrective action to include elimination of the source.

Marine maintainers are always ready to employ and sustain combat ready suppression of enemy air defense and develop combat ready equipment to win our nation’s wars. In order to stay combat ready, Maintenance Squadrons must find every nook, crack and cranny in mission critical equipment, both small and large parts.

Non-destructive inspections make it possible for Maintainers to discover small cracks on the surface as well as beneath the surface of the part. To discover cracks on the surface, parts are dipped into a penetrant which seeps into the cracks causing them to glow when put under a black light. Using penetrant chemicals is not the only way to expose a crack. Another way is to use a magnetic field to draw out cracks.

A stationary magnetic particle unit is able to put a magnetic field into a part alternating its current, so cracks beneath the surface can be visible under a black-light. After each piece is magnetized and demagnetized, it is measured to ensure the magnetic field is fully removed from the part.

While performing all these tasks maintainers at times, wear full Mission Oriented Protective Posture gear during exercises “Wearing all the MOPP gear while doing our job is very difficult, but it is good practice,” Doing the job while fully suited up is very complicated, but was still very rewarding..

Maintainers continue to stay focused on their mission to win the current fight, be prepared to win the next fight and remain influential in generating lethal combat ready air power.

In another example, maintainers are additional maintenance work to lengthening the life of the fighter jet low observable coating. The leading edges of the aircraft need to be recoated, with a number of near-term modifications to keep the existing coating in good shape,

“The gaps on an airplane are what raises the signature of an airplane, so by putting these coatings or these gap fillers into the airplane, you’re helping the low observability of the airplane. It reduces the amount of corners and things that are picked up by radar.”

We’re experiencing low observable coating reversion problems. Basically, in high flow areas, what’s essentially happening is there’s a gradual deterioration of the coatings. If the LO coatings aren’t doing what we need them to do, then the platform loses its ability to do its primary mission, which is get behind enemy lines without detection.”

Planners expected for the LO coating to gradually degrade, and it is doing so on pace with the predictions. “If you leave it out in the sun long enough, eventually that paint is going to crack, and if you don’t do anything to fix it when it cracks, eventually it’s going to start to peel off in chunks.

In this case we knew it was going to occur about this time in the aircraft’s life, so we are starting to see the coatings on the airplane start to wrinkle and crack just like you would the paint.”

A stealth jet’s inlets are the most critical part of the plane to recoat because, if the LO coating begins flaking off, it could be ingested by the engine, causing permanent damage.

“When we do these fixes to the inlets, and we will continue this as we do the edges, we’re actually using a different compound than we had used on the production airplanes, which has significantly stronger, lasts much longer, so it’s going to be giving the squadron a longer time in the next interval where this might become a problem.”

Different types of fighter jets have low observable technologies, the composition of the LO coatings are completely different and require separate application processes.

“We would very much like to go towards, as best we can, the way the F-35 coats their airplanes for a number of reasons. single or more similar coating would lower material costs, enable the squadrons to have a set of maintainers to sustain the coating and simplify the inventory.

“If we could get closer to something common, it would be a great savings. We’re trying to work that. Our engineers are very busy trying to see where that is possible.”

Digital Twins are already telling us things that we need to look at before they become critical.

But even though 70 percent of the money the military spends on acquisition goes to "sustainment, few people talk about the issue. “There are rarely hearings on aircraft sustainment, but it's the reason we're able to go fight and win a war. There are amazing men and women that keep airplanes able to fly, but here's the thing: They're using technology that is decades old.”

We need to bring new tools to the military and in this age that means data mining. “We've brought in a lot of artificial intelligence experts to advise us on how to use AI to predict when planes are going to fail, and we're on of the first squadrons to have AI operational on its flying fleet.

Digital Twins are already doing amazing work, telling us things that we need to look at before they become critical. The data is there but it's not in a discoverable format that you can layer in machine learning on top of it. A lot of what we had to do was reverse engineering, so that that data can be exposed in an algorithm friendly way.”

Digital Twins are parsing the information generated by specific systems, like the landing gear, wheels, temperature sensors, and anything that is deemed mission-critical. These new tools have helped us find maintenance actions that we wouldn't have found through traditional processes.

The larger the fleet, the larger the time and money savings. This year’s test focused on large aircraft with small fleets, which are easier to handle. We are excited to bring AI scrutiny to all aircraft in the inventory.

”We're working very hard to make sure that our newest fighter is going to be able to do the same kind of smart maintenance approach. “The more that we can see into the future the better.”

Efforts to keep existing Digital Twin handbooks current would greatly enhance Troop confidence in improving impact of field-level missions. Keep track of all your tasks from your mobile device. Digital Twin technology lets you track responsive product support tasks from your mobile device to enable solutions for operational problems encountered by Marines for all types of equipment.

1. Product Support Schedule Monitor

Solution for complete scheduling, tracking of asset maintenance. You can establish scheduling for all types of maintenance. Part component consumption in the maintenance process is automatically tracked and recorded location tracking feature allows you to match technicians with tasks, ensuring rapid response to critical product support requests.

2. Service Success Track Platform

Save time, boost efficiency and increase customer satisfaction by taking your mission mobile. Mobile device can easily track technicians & assign work orders using high performance tools and track daily Job Site Events with unparalleled ease and efficiency. Streamlined workflows employ intuitive dashboards, calendars, and alerts to speed the maintenance process and ensure that you provide consistently outstanding service/solutions to your customers built into platform-wide mobilisation plans.

3. Streamlined Workflow Task System

Optimise control over administrative tasks, streamline workflows, by providing a straightforward, systematic way to process work orders from initial contact through completion and maximise efficiency with mobile solutions utilised by field-level units. Location-independent access ensures faster processing and the ability to run up-to-the-minute reports/solutions for all types of assets

4. Work Order Status Create/Update

Maintenance Mobile conveniently allows technicians in the field to create, update, and close work orders from a mobile device, with results in automatically updated status. Workers can use search bars to quickly and easily sort through and select work orders through a variety of fields. Other features include work order status editing to indicate priority of work order settings. Technicians can also view problem descriptions and access entry notes in a work order.

5. Access to Schedule Locations

Location-independent access to equipment ensures faster processing and up-to-the-minute reports. View detailed reports on inspection history including technician notes and findings. Inspection facilitates communication about product support scheduling and results with merge memos that can be sent via mobile device emailed using the notifications feature.

6. Enter Inspection details Into System

Inspection Mobile enhances the functionality of Inspection with the ability to access and enter inspection details from mobile device. Assigned inspections appear on device instantly, and completed results update the record automatically. Inspection Mobile even operates in field-level areas, scheduling links once the connection is reestablished.

7. Item Type Summary Access Screens

Fixed Assets reports provide assess tech as well as summary and detailed information about your assets. On-screen reports allow you to drill down to related screens. Report categories include Asset assess, Item Type Received, Make Ready, Work Order and Purchase Requisition.

8. Purchase Assign Control Schedules

Accurately coordinate purchase requisitions and work orders. Efficiently assign and schedule work orders Track pending work requests, alerts, and exceptions. Parts Control is the ideal solution for impact stocks transferred among multiple locations. You can track impact of parts transit as well as use location transfer of purchase issue.

9. Labour and Materials

Product Support Control Solution lets you monitor labour and materials used to complete work orders, quickly reconcile physical count of on-hand stock items, and automatically reorder parts as needed. You can also update pricing based on amounts paid on purchase orders.

10. Real-time Parts Stock Reports

Parts Control includes detailed reports that help you keep stock levels optimised to make better parts decisions. On-screen reports allow you to drill down to underlying information. For example, you can drill down from the Activity on Parts report to Transit Track, Item Type, or Location screen.

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Top 10 Logistics Process/Capable Readiness with Sustainment Providers: Unknowns, Controls, Risks

2/1/2019

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Readiness is contingent upon having spare parts and trained aviation maintenance Marines to fix our aircraft. Our focus is on if have the right people with the right leadership and skill sets in positions of authority and responsibility. kind of this notion that sustaining weapons systems is a pure heavy lifting game. But you look at some of the places you can apply technology now that you have a digital weapons system from the start” — meaning one that was designed and to some extent modeled and simulated digitally.

Service contract will enable DoD to predict vehicle maintenance failures from billions of historical and real-time input points of on-board sensors directly from military assets to better understand the condition of its vehicles and predict mission-critical failures to enable intervention. By stopping failures before they happen, DoD will increase prioritisation of resources, efficiency, and provide key intelligence around logistics, asset service life product support, technical advice, assistance to soldiers, and provides asset visibility for timely and proactive decision-making when it comes to top priority – readiness.

Leaders can help us get to that point, they will be very, very interesting to meet…There’s a large opportunity space for folks to help in that, who have not traditionally been able to get into that market,” Companies who make AI tools, machine learning tools, unmanned tools. We must think more broadly than we have for some of the more traditional problems.

If the Navy and the Marine Corps can’t solve and fundamentally drive some of the risk out of weapons systems over the long term, both in construction and in repair, we’re not going to be able to achieve availability targets crucial for mission success.

Every military activity or exercise is an opportunity for assessing logistics performance, but it is rare that military exercises comprehensively test and assess operational sustainability and logistics readiness. Fewer still are those exercises that test logistics readiness through a major deployment performed at short-notice; a phase of an operation that demands all supporting agencies are ready.

There must be a high state of materiel readiness across the force. In addition to appropriately funding the sustainment of equipment, and the establishment of appropriate stocks in appropriate areas to enable operational contingencies, the means of sustaining equipment must be as appropriate for support operations as they are for efficiency in garrison.

Failures in materiel readiness are often replicated in major sustainability issues on operations, and necessitate consequential actions such as switching parts between aircraft to achieve desired operational readiness outcomes.

For example, information from H-60 Black Hawk helicopter airframe condition evaluations was provided to officials on a periodic basis to select appropriate helicopters for maintenance & modernisation. Officials did not compare H-60 fleet inventory list to the evaluation results to determine which helicopters were not evaluated. Officials could have prevented the helicopters from not being evaluated for multiple years if they had compared the fleet inventory list to the evaluation results

H-60 Black Hawk helicopters unit maintenance officials stated airframe condition evaluations benefits their units and identified structural defects that the unit might not have otherwise identified. For example, evaluators found a helicopter where the beam that holds the engine and transmission in place was cracked. As a result of not conducting helicopter evaluations, officials may select the wrong helicopters for maintenance & modernization

“It’s not intuitive that at a tech conference, we’d be talking about sustainment. But there are so many technologies that could fundamentally shift the affordability curves in weapons systems sustainment those that can make the connection first will have great market opportunities

Weapons system repair is traditionally capital-intensive endeavor that must become far more efficient if we to succeed. For example, right now, the Navy surface fleet alone requires an average of 100 major ship repairs each year — and that’s only going to increase as the fleet grows.

We have to drive out costs of weapons system repair; otherwise, we won’t be able to afford the fleet we have. The mission was delivering lethal combat capability depending on several elements that do so at different speeds and cost.

DoD Sustainment Centers are completely focused on delivering global logistics and sustainment effects for joint and coalition teams. This enormous enterprise delivers combat power through an organic industrial base, which serves as the nation’s war-sustaining insurance policy, setting and supporting theaters and weapons systems when others can’t or won’t.

DoD/industrial base is comprised of air logistics complexes, supply chain wings, and air base wings spread across operating locations around the globe. We provide logistics and sustainment support to our joint forces via a global interconnected system.

Depot maintenance accomplished at using constraints principles and guided processes, with the complexes themselves operating in a interdependent manner, forming a logistics and sustainment network that underpins readiness factors such as availability. These, along with the supply chain wings, form the logistics target chain needed for a modern military to deter our adversaries and reassure our allies.

strong sustainment programmes is challenging. Today’s changing war-fighting concepts demand a fundamental change to the logistics strategies to enable global logistics command-and-control capacity that ensures the effective employment of resources. In short: the ability to manage availability to meet multiple demand streams and repair streams in multinomial contested mission space.

Only recently, the focus of logistics command and control was directed at task-organising and logistics-mission assignments. Command and control was not automated and was functionally centric and nonintegrated. It also assumed that warfare was linear — that the complex notions of hybrid warfare were not in the forefront of emerging logistics doctrine.

Information was derived from after-the-fact reporting focused on transactional activity and outdated whiteboard displays of assets and resources. The predominant characteristic of logistics was achieved by maintaining large stockpiles to meet every possible availability requirement. Simply put, that world no longer exists.

As technology becomes increasingly pervasive throughout our weapon systems, test systems and support equipment, our ability to manage and sustain it organically will be critical. One of the tools to mitigate risk with inducing new manufacturing technologies in our processes is to employ and grow a technical, modern workforce. Many of the weapon systems sustained within the Logistics Center require a vast amount of technology to operate.

The Sustainment Center is leaning forward as a team to provide increased aircraft availability to support a surge in fighter pilot production. At the same time, DoD is working to extend the life of aging weapon systems through aircraft maintenance and modification.

That’s ‘how much stuff do you have. How do we most affordably and predictably build/sustain the ships the Navy needs? How do we get exponential capability growth on all the ships currently in the inventory? Networking can increase total capability faster than shipbuilding alone can grow the fleet.

The fastest way to grow capability is to increase operational availability so you can use all that you currently have. That’s where great opportunity space, because traditionally we haven’t applied the same level of technology to try to get at that.

Logistics may not win a war for you, but it can certainly cause you to lose one. In every instance of crises, the organic industrial base has responded by providing solutions to meet availability goals required for unanticipated demands. We must continue to invest now in the organic industrial base if we expect its performance in the future to meet the needs of an increasingly tested and lethal battlespace in the 21st century.
Pentagon wants to launch round of acquisition improvement initiatives focused on the sustainment phase of program life cycles--where the bulk of costs are realised and the sustainment enterprise in general.

Many initiatives have focused on sustainment, including in general a large number focused on more effective management of all contracting for services, and specifically items such as increased use of performance-based logistics contract incentives.

Emergent technologies include: automation, adaptive manufacturing, interconnected sensors and others. The maturity and the implications of the emerging technologies are becoming clearer quickly, although much remains to be discovered and the potential for new applications is endless.

We are just seeing the beginnings of the transition to autonomous vehicle delivery systems, but this is now obviously the route we will follow. “Just in time,“inventory management has been around for decades, but the big-data analytical tools and the explosion of connected information sources needed to take logistics and sustainment to a whole new level are ready for widespread use geared towards meeting availability targets.

None of this is invisible to the Department of Defense, and the current leadership is taking steps in the right direction, but there are obstacles to progress. They should be confronted and eliminated, or reduced.

The application of emerging technologies to sustainment and logistics will happen quickly in the commercial world where the forces of competition demand efficiency, where time to market is critical to establishing a winning position and where there are fewer structural obstacles to innovation.

The DoD, on the other hand, moves at the pace of budget appropriations, must comply with and implement an overwhelming set of statuary directions in its business procedures, has to live with unstable funding and within capital investment constraints, cannot cease operations for a transition period, and must overcome institutional resistance to change.

Unintended consequences lurk in many seemingly attractive areas of innovation — defense business practices included. One route to bringing commercial technology into defense logistics is analogous to the use of the other transaction authority for new product development. An exception from procurement rules that would make this easier to do is an attractive concept and should be pursued, but with some caution.

Commercial sustainment contract vehicles should be examined as a way to bring new sources for logistic support and new technology into the department; but the expectation is that commercial contract vehicles, to the extent they are standardised, will not meet all DoD requirements, including some critical needs.

Considering the department’s long-term, as well as short-term, needs should also be an important part of any business deal. All of this argues for traditional and nontraditional contractors to work together, as they often do today when a commercially based product or service is acquired by DoD.

Getting to some DoD-standardised, commercially based templates for business deals outside the normal constraints should be the first step. Once that is in hand, several pilot contracts should be implemented as a learning exercise. Recent events have demonstrated some of the pitfalls of rushing into commercial-like contracts.

Upfront investments are almost always required to achieve significant efficiency improvements in any business function. This is certainly true for defense sustainment and logistics. While the department has frequently been criticised, especially in the information technology area, for not being a faster adaptor of modernisation, the underlying problem has not been the knowledge of the opportunity or the willingness to change — it has been the lack of the necessary investment capital.

DoD keeps dated business systems and old weapons systems in configurations that could be upgraded because within all the competing priorities, these investments fall below the line after paying our troops, training them, deploying them as needed and buying more modern weapons at a minimum rate. Congress compounds this problem by taking cuts that assume or direct efficiencies, while providing no upfront resources to implement those efficiencies.

The key to reducing costs and improving productivity is the application of emerging technologies to DoD sustainment and logistics. We are at the early stage of revolutionary changes that will impact how goods and services are produced and delivered to meet availability and readiness targets..

congressional testimony, Air Boss summarised the issue: “That strike fighter inventory management, or shell game, leaves non-deployed squadrons well below the number of jets availability required to keep aviators proficient and progressing toward their career qualifications, milestones, and availability with detrimental impacts to both retention and future experience levels.

Program offices create plans, known as aircraft availability improvement plans, based on these projections to forecast improvements that can facilitate increased availability and reduction of costs, among other things. DoD provides guidance in the form of a template to ensure consistency of plans, typically including improvement initiatives with milestone goals. This information includes projected aircraft availability rates for mission capable, units possessed not reported, not mission capable for supply, not mission capable for maintenance, and depot possession.

Demands for Maintenance and Supply Support depend on intensity of system use. Operating hours per day, miles per day, flight hours per day, portion of operations conducted at high speed conditions, ratio of mission types, etc. are all important factors for estimating intensity of operational use scenarios.

Must specify plans for mission parameters in operational mode summaries. Determination of system use rates is used during operation tests is critical to constructing realistic operational suitability demos.

1. Available

Degree to which a system, subsystem or equipment is in a specified operable and committable state at the start of a mission, when the mission is called for at an unknown, i.e. a random, time.

2. Compatible

Capacity for systems to work together without having to be altered to do so--user should be able to open orders in either product-- products of the same or different types, or different versions of the same product.

3. Transport

Quality of equipment, devices systems permits ability to be moved from one location to another to interconnect with locally available complementary equipment, devices, systems or other complementary facilities.

4. Interoperable

Condition achieved among communications systems or items of communications-electronics equipment when information or services can be exchanged directly and satisfactorily between them and/or their users.

5. Reliable

Measure quality, time and speed performance-- want to operate as long as possible without losses; and when you have losses, you want to fix them as quickly as possible.

6. Field Use

Service support embedded with field agents to ensure equipment readiness and mission success-- utilise expertise in supply/logistics support, assures parts availability & repair services.

7. Maintainable

Service of restoring failed equipment, machine, or system to its normal operable state within a given inspection timeframe, using established practices and procedures.

8. Logistics Support

Integrated and iterative process for developing materiel strategy to optimises functional support, leverage existing resources, guide the system engineering process to quantify ownership cost over service life and decrease the logistics footprint

9. Training

Uses regular or existing workplace tools, machines, documents, equipment, knowledge, and skills necessary for an employee to learn to effectively perform job assignments

10. Simulation

Mechanical devices enable trainees to use some actions, plans, measures, trials, movements, or decision processes prepare for use with must be designed to repeat, as closely as possible, the physical aspects of equipment and operational surroundings trainees will find at work place.

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