​​In 3D printing we can only work in the digital world with a 3D "Digital Twin" model of the desired component. Now we can build the part, according to the 3D model, take that physical component and carry out our own 3D scan, creating yet another 3D model.

Digital Twin of the actual part can then be sent back to the designers to compare what we have manufactured to what the model wants, and even use the actual part model to simulate its impact, digitally, in the final design.

In the case of a 3D printer, we’re building a Digital Twin of a build process and recording the slightest defects, deviations and other build characteristics. With Digital Twins, models will continually be updated with each new build and become ever smarter in recognizing and troubleshooting any potential issues that might arise.

Not only will there be a Digital Twin of the component, showing the internal and external requirements, but also a Digital Twin of the process that made that part; the process parameters, how long did the build take, how many layers were built, were there any issues.. all of these aspects building a digital picture of the part enabling further analysis and confidence in final applications of components.

Next generation of Digital Twins incorporate information from other sensors monitoring the 3D printing process, such as the shape of the pool of metal rendered molten by the laser. In addition, this smart, real-time quality control will not function in isolation.

The power of Digital Twins is their ability to share insights with each other. So you can imagine many 3D print machines sharing unique build insights with each other that makes them each more informed about what to watch for during a build process.

Through the Digital Twin process, you can accelerate the production of mission-critical equipment. Using Digital Twin technology, we’re aiming to rapidly speed up the time that parts could be re-engineered or newly created using 3D printing processes.

The key challenge with 3D printing is being able to additively build a part that mirrors the exact material composition and properties of the original part that was formed through subtractive measures. With operation of mission-critical parts there is no room for deviations in material performance or manufacturing error.

Properties and serviceability of 3D printed components are affected by their geometry, microstructure and defects. These important attributes are currently optimised by trial and error because the essential process variables can’t currently be selected from scientific principles.

A solution is to build and validate a Digital Twin of the 3D printing process capable of predicting of the spatial and temporal variations of metallurgical parameters affecting the structure and properties of components.

In principal, the Digital Twin of 3D printing process , when validated with accurate with experimental data would replace or reduce expensive, time consuming physical experiments with rapid inexpensive numerical experiments. In the initial phase, the Digital Twin would consider all the important 3D print process variables as input and provide a transient 3D model

“Creating “Digital Twins” Work Space for 3D Print Materials”

To ensure digital networking of production systems and the optimisation of material-specific requirements, we need to measure, assess and replicate the changes in material properties in a process where "Digital Twins" of materials are created.

The materials digital space has laid the groundwork for this process. When a finished part rolls off the production line, this is one of the first questions always asked: "Does this component have the properties we want?"

Often, even the tiniest of variations in the production environment are enough to alter a part’s material properties – and throw its functionality into question.

Manufacturers avoid this by close inspection of samples throughout the production process. Breaking down the samples into their composite parts and measuring them separately is an extremely time-consuming process.

"The outcome of the sample testing process branches out into an array of different subsets, each with their own specific measurement results. While experts may be able to keep an overview of the complex interrelationships in their heads, until now there has been no way to take the diversity of resulting data and portray it in a coherent digital format."

Now, for the first time, a proof of concept has been developed demonstrating that it is possible to digitally represent many such material processing cycles with a materials data space for test specimens produced using additive manufacturing.

"The data space concept allows us to integrate any type of material information into a digital network – a really valuable tool. We want to use the materials data space to automatically generate a digital twin of each material that will mirror the current state of the physical object under examination."

Data spaces can be used to integrate all types of materials information into digital networks. The advantage of the materials data space is that it provides an overview of all relevant parameters at a glance, whereas formerly data on different material parameters was scattered among numerous data repositories in many different formats.

But the real promise lies in the future. "In the years to come, the materials data space has the potential to become the production command center. Whenever component quality isn’t up to the expected standard, you can compare it with information on previous components stored in the materials data space to determine whether the present component can in fact be used or whether it must be rejected.

In the future, these results could be automatically integrated into industrial decision-making processes: whenever component quality dips below the required standard, production automatically comes to a halt.

Creating the data space –and managing the diversity of materials data – calls for a corresponding information model. "In this case, the model reflects the natural material world, in which material states and properties are assigned to defined categories.

The best way of thinking about it is in terms of a social network where each user is a node in the network. And in turn, these nodes have their own subject matter associations. What we do is to create semantic relationships between the individual material objects and their associated processing steps.

Then there are also interrelationships among these communities. What would be a “follow” on social media is represented in the materials data space by details on the chronological sequence of production or work steps, for instance "leaving the additive manufacturing process" or "this laser is part of the 3D printing process".

The new demonstrator for additively manufactured metal components has the capacity to generate samples, characterize the materials they contain, conduct subsequent data analysis and determine material properties. Thanks to the logic underpinning the model, users can make extremely complex queries of the data space that simply wouldn’t be possible with the same degree of flexibility in the case of a conventional database.

“Demonstration of Industrial 3D Printing used in Series Production with Automated Process Chain in Combination with Digital Twin”

Digital Twins are learning digital models of physical assets, parts, processes and even systems. The purpose of the Digital Twins is to relay data about the performance and properties of a physical counterpart. With this information, Digital Twins will achieve complete repeatability of a 3D printed part, and greatly improve process reliability.

The entire production process runs itself, without operating personnel, from a central, autonomous control station. Fundamental to the system is the way all the machines used are networked. The order data are transmitted to the control station, which then prioritises the various build requests and allocates them to the 3D print system. During the build process, the manufacturing status can also be retrieved on a mobile device, independent of location.

Once the full production chain has been completed, the quality reports are sent back centrally to the control station. All the data necessary for the production of a Digital ‘Twin’ can be accessed here, so allowing complete traceability, amongst other things.

The aim of the pilot project was to develop a next-generation "Digital Twin" manufacturing line which would be able to produce aluminium components for the automotive and aerospace sectors significantly more cost-effectively than is currently possible. The successful outcome of the project means that in terms of the overall production process, manufacturing costs could be reduced significantly compared with existing 3D printing systems.

"As far as the aircraft industry is concerned, the aim now is to build further on this expertise and to bring it to bear in other sectors as well.”

The secret lies in a scalable additive production chain, which is fully automated right through to the point where the printed parts are mechanically sawn off the build platform. This means that no manual work is now required at any stage of the process, from the data preparation and central powder supply through to the 3D print build process itself and including heat treatment, quality assurance and separation of the components from the build platform.

The technical heart of the system is the four-laser system for industrial 3D printing using metal materials. A driverless transport system and robots ensure the smooth movement of the parts through every stage of the production line.

A continuous 3D data string with integrated quality management makes this production system one of the first examples of the benchmark for the future networks. The manufacturing process is completely scalable: the production lines can simply be duplicated to extend the capacity of the plant. This brings the promise of further substantial savings in the future as the numbers rise. Today, the pilot facility is already capable of the automated manufacturing of components to series-production quality standards.

Parts are already being produced on the new technology line: the truck unit, for example, is already using the first replacement part – a bracket for a diesel truck engine.

When it comes to replacement parts, 3D brings the advantage, going forward, of saving warehousing costs – because parts can instead be produced ‘on demand with the ‘Digital Twin network’, in other words the centralised availability of digital manufacturing data to allow the decentralised production of replacement parts using 3D printing.

1. Requirements should be mapped digital products/definition and requirements using top-down and validated bottom-up for conformity

2.  Model-based thinking: Helps simplify the complexity of a multi-disciplinary product and its system of systems
 
3.  Shift to maximising confguration management in the customer domain representing the set of connected systems and their structure, behaviour/requirements 

4. Enhance effectiveness of product development by increasing responsiveness and ability to accommodate multiple refreshes in the product to meet changing customer demands.

5. Secure the pipeline of data and builds the configuration thread to manage info across the lifecycle of product components in conjunction with the digital twin.

6. Analytics and insights: Converts the abundant data available across the digital thread into meaningful information to provide insights for smart run time updates in product configuration. 

7. Identify Configuration Item processes and develop method to uniquely identify each individual item

8. Create configuration control activity of managing project deliverables and related verification throughout the lifecycle of the product

9. Execute configuration Status verification to involve recording and reporting of all the changes status to the configuration items
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10. Verify configuration of  product and its components in order to ensure conformance to requirements by verifying the correctness of Status account information. 

​The Digital Twin represents the sum of all data digitally linked to form a single, contiguous definition of all value-added decisions made during a product’s manufacturing timeline. This includes the definition of a product, its configuration, manufacturing and repair processes, logistics, and operational support. For a manufacturer, the Digital Twin provides a single reference point for design, engineering, and manufacturing, ensuring they act in concert.

The Digital Twin is incredibly valuable for complex manufacturers that are faced with the challenge of managing a complex and often distributed supply network. An end product may have hundreds of individual components or assemblies, some of which the manufacturer may produce and others that are sourced from a range of supplier levels. 

The supply chain can become incredibly complex to manage, as a single design change can affect the manufacturing of multiple components. By providing a “single version of validation,” the Digital Twin helps manage this complexity to transform manufacturing, and extend to product lifecycle execution.

A genuine Digital Twin cannot exist without a Product Lifecycle Execution platform to provides “the what” ie modeling, process planning, process simulation, and engineering change management. Enterprise resource planning  provides “the when, where, and how much” ie scheduling, financials, and inventory.

To have a fully developed model-based enterprise—and a fully functioning Digital Twin—manufacturers also need “the how.” That’s what product life cycle provides through process execution, process control, quality assurance, traceability, and deviation handling.

Digital Twin in the Model-Based Enterprise: Today’s connected digital enterprise is all about leveraging 3D models across all operations. In the model-based enterprise, there is much greater use of 3D models and more structured handover of model-based definitions from one department to another in the Digital Twin.

As these changes continue, manufacturing is moving from illustrations to simulations to augmented reality as a means of delivering information. As new technologies develop, these tools are increasingly practical to deploy and connect, using the Digital Twin.

To tap the power of Digital Twin, all facets of the organisation and all lifecycle phases are reliant upon the Enterprise Configuration Management process. Activities driven through networks impact the Digital Twin with a constant barrage of changes making the ability to manage the Digital Twin that much more complex. How an organisation identifies, structures, links and assigns ownership to its requirements and internal processes directly affect its ability to successfully and efficiently perform the intended mission or achieve its business objectives.

If activities are done incorrectly, an organisation pays severe penalties in the form of intervention resource expenditure. Those expenditures are the unplanned time, money, and resources expended to compensate for quality and schedule problems.

When quality and schedule problems dominate the energy an organisation expends on a daily basis, corrective action becomes the standard “way of working”. Changing that environment requires an understanding of how current processes relate to best practices and the culture change that is needed to make the transition.

Most organisations struggle with the ability to manage information accurately for the enterprise or throughout the product/solution lifecycle. How to maintain the Digital Twin from the baseline to the planning bill, then from the planning bill to the order bill, and finally from the order bill to the actual as-built record is a major challenge.
 
Knowing which requirements, at which revision level, to use at any point in time is another challenge. This failure creates a high level of intervention resource expenditure and an inability to track fielded configurations. This drives significant warranty, recall, and concession costs that can have devastating impacts on the business.

A structured and effective methodology for documenting, validating, releasing, and changing requirements is paramount. Requirements management is the foundation for the Digital Twin. Organisations struggle with the ability to define and maintain the digital architecture needed to support Systems, Facilities and Infrastructure throughout the entire lifecycle. 

Inability to effectively manage the Digital Twin creates a high level of corrective action in every phase of the lifecycle. Configuration management is the major backbone of requirements management and requirements management is a major building block in the creation and management of the Digital Twin. Understanding that relationship is imperative when defining the future mode of operating.

When properly applied, this improved business model enhances the development, structuring, and managing of requirements throughout the enterprise. Organisations continually struggle to define a fast and efficient change management process. Many organisations have changed or replaced their change process multiple times without understanding the dynamics of change or the building blocks needed to facilitate change management.
 
Struggles with item re-identification decisions and the required level of visibility of changes directly impact the ability to develop and maintain the Digital Twin. The management of change includes understanding it’s impact throughout the entire organization and the total product/solution lifecycle.

Intelligence systems for configuration tasks have recently become an important application of artificial intelligence techniques for defense industry selling products tailored to customer needs. Several approaches to configuration are based on relatively well understood general concepts, such as constraint satisfaction, its extensions, and variants of description logistics. 

Configuration tools allow a user to define a product that meets certain given criteria by combining a number of parts, features or functions. In practice, a configuration tools are an application used in industry to enable quotation, marketing, and rapid manufacturing of customised products. 

Industry is being forced to move towards increasingly customised and individual products. In order to do this cost effectively, the engineering phase needs to be accelerated. The use of configuration tools decreases the engineering work required in the sales phase, but also empowers the product development of platform derivative products.

Configuration tools can be used for structural dimensioning or design verification purposes. Manufacturing may use configuration tools to create customer tailored embedded systems for the customer. After sales may check the sold configuration and verify the compatibility of new installations or spare parts with the current system. 

Product configurators capture a lot of information related to engineering and product pricing. Updating relationships between parameters takes a lot of time and effort. Implementation of project requires mapping the elements and their interactions.

In competition space product customisation is one of the most important enterprise goals. Must satisfy customer needs to offer reliable product suitable for client. Product customisation is necessary to increase enterprise competitiveness. Quality and costs requirements cause the need of product configuration with well known product core and redesign of only chosen product 

Configurable products are important in domains where standardised components are combined into customised products. A configuration task takes as input a model which describes the components that can be included in the product and a set of constraints that define how components can be combined, and requirements that specify properties of the product to be configured. 

The output is a description of a product to be manufactured, a configuration. It consists of a set of components as well as a specification of how they interact to form the working product. The configuration has to satisfy the constraints in the model and the requirements. 

Product platforms are widely used as a tool for product configuration defined as a set of subsystems and interfaces developed to form a common structure from where stream of derivative products can be efficiently developed and produced. In product platform, customer requirements are given as inputs and the solution is a product variant or a range of several variants that satisfy customer requirements and constraints while optimising performance and/or economic objectives.

Different product platform customisation strategies such as: scalable, configurable, adaptive. The scalable product platform approach means a family product variants composed of particular components where differences between are represented in parameter values. The optimisation problem in this case is a parametric design optimisation problem under the fixed product platform architecture.

Customer requirements towards a configuration system can be clustered in different categories. These generic categories contain a number of different approaches and guidelines to describe design rules of customer orientated product configuration systems responsible to assure the success of a configuration system. 

But a large problem in this context of customer requirements is that neglecting only one small factor can disturb the whole configuration experience. A system has not to be perfect in only one of the categories. Customer scenarios are very sensitive and every even small obstacle can cause the termination of the configuration process and the selling process. 
 
Customer orientation in product configuration is very important for the growing market of self configurable products and service in interaction systems. The imperfect customer orientated design of many product configuration systems is a major reason why business concepts like mass customisation or made-to-measure products are behind market forecasts and expectations of industry.

Customer needs are divided into two categories: revealed - related to product trade features which can be satisfy in proportion like low price, fast delivery, period and expected - related to products technical characteristic which decided about products utility and their functions.  

The design problem includes, among others the problem of product decomposition. Product configuration issue needs information related to product’s functions and components that implement the function. Product physical component elements are assembled together to accomplish product functions.  

Customer-oriented product design procedure is developed based on user’s characteristics. This procedure includes design input and output parameters, and their relationships. The designer first identifies design input and output parameters and values for the targeted product. Based on a specific set of user requirements, the approach will identify possible design output parameter values that can meet these requirements. A random assignment procedure is then employed to generate feasible design alternatives.

In order to achieve Integrated Process Excellence an organisation must break the many paradigms generally associated with configuration management’s limited role, only applying it to design information. The phased transition from that limited approach is a major behaviour change that must be carefully planned and managed
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The foundation of organisation change is the ability to change faster and document better. The application of that ability is extended beyond design information to include all requirements for the enterprise, and the enterprise deliverables throughout all of the lifecycle phases. Keeping all of those requirements clear, concise, and valid at all times is the goal…a very achievable goal. 

1. Specify digital reference architectures down to the last configuration detail and use it as a digital requirements set for integrators and vendor

2. Increase in mission success result of Cost Avoidance. By reducing corrective action, unnecessary costs will be avoided leading to increased profit.

3. More room for creativity thru less rework. Most organizations spend a lot of resources on fixing problems. If corrective action declines creativity will increase.

4. Reduced lead time for changes. Lead time for changes will be reduced dramatically by using the unique “fast-track” capability of the Configuration Management change process. 

5. Competitive advantage thru shorter development cycles. Products will be released into the market earlier using Configuration Management principles in product development — with better quality and less failure

6. Increased robustness and control by improving visibility and tracking of information at the right place/time

7. A means to anchor configuration drift and prevent configuration change through more efficient change management by knowing what the prior structure is 

8. Enhanced reliability through more rapid detection and correction of improper configurations that could negatively impact performance/security

9. Design changes that do not produce new incompatibilities and problems due to side effects. 
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10. Automate enables continuous automation across the development, operations, and information security and compliance teams.

​​Digital twin technology implies creating a virtual representation of a physical asset or a system, e.g., an industrial machine, a production line or even an entire factory, to model its state and simulate its performance. Digital twins are continuously learning systems, powered by machine learning algorithms, which makes them adaptive to the changes in the state and configuration of a physical twin.

In an industrial setting, digital twins are used to improve product design, monitor equipment condition to identify potential degradation, simulate manufacturing operations, and more.

To understand how digital twins enable predictive maintenance, let’s consider a simplified example of predictively maintaining a centrifugal pump. Creating a pump’s digital twin requires building its accurate 3D model; and powering the model with networked data.

To build a 3D model, modeling experts collaborate with mechanical, electrical and process engineers to describe and virtually present physical properties of the pump and its components e.g., an impeller type, the number of suctions, etc. Then, the 3D model is powered with network data relayed from sensors attached to the pump. This data includes records about a pump’s performance, condition and environment e.g., temperature, voltage, inlet pressure, etc.

To improve the model’s functionality, the digital twin network is integrated with enterprise and shop floor management systems. Fetching contextual operational data the digital twin could predict how a pump will function under varied external conditions.

The digital twin-based predictive maintenance network takes in real-time sensor records about the working conditions of a pump and analyzes it against historical data about the pump’s failure modes and their criticality, and contextual data transmitted from enterprise and shop floor management systems  e.g., pump’s maintenance data.

A functionally connected network detects abnormal patterns in the incoming sensor data and reflects the patterns in predictive models, which are then used to predict failures. This way, if a pump’s current configuration is likely to lead to a failure, the digital twin network localizes the issue, assesses its criticality, notifies technicians, and recommends a mitigating action.

Along with the prediction of failures, digital twin technology provides the ability to calculate maintenance-related performance indications. Combining historical data about failures, risk factors, machine configuration and operating scenarios, a digital twin can calculate maintenance-related metrics like performance indicators and mean time between failures. 

So digital twins provide ability to forecast the behavior of machines under different circumstances. Being an accurate real-time model for an object’s condition and performance, a digital twin is used to run simulations and predict how an object will "behave" under certain factors, e.g., runtime, exposure to severe operating conditions, etc.

To simulate different maintenance scenarios. technicians use digital twins to test maintenance scenarios or particular fixes and see how they work for a piece of equipment before applying them to the physical twin. 
Although digital twin-enabled predictive maintenance offers many benefits, its deployment may pose several challenges.

An accurate model should precisely reflect the physical twin’s properties. A digital twin should precisely reflect all the properties of a physical twin, including mechanical eg suction pressure, design temperature, etc. and electrical eg, capacitance, conductivity, etc. ones. It requires input from facility managers, process engineers, electrical engineers, equipment vendors, and other parties, which adds complexity to the deployment.

Detailed blueprints of a machine's failures are required. To predict failures, a digital twin should be fed with data about equipment failure modes. This data should be gathered for an extended period of time to observe a machine throughout its degradation process.

A digital twin requires remodeling with any change in equipment’s configuration or element state. Any modification affecting equipment performance requires a change to its model and underlying algorithms. 

Such modifications – at a machine level eg, replacing original parts with made-to-order ones or at a factory level eg, changes to the operational policy are not always reflected in factory specifications, thus, cannot be precisely simulated, which escalates the risk of errors.

Although deploying a digital twin-based predictive maintenance is time-consuming and labor-intensive, the technology offers the ability to timely recognize disruptions in asset performance, forecast potential problems and simulate various maintenance scenarios. It helps enterprises eliminate machine downtime, reduce equipment maintenance costs, improve equipment reliability and extend its lifespan.

Soon, the level of enterprise digitalization is expected to make big gains with predictive maintenance leading the investments race inspired by the improvements arising from applying network driven predictive maintenance solutions. However, some limitations remain to be overcome before fully deployed.

Supply and service chain partners value ability to make the complex as simple as possible; especially when it comes to configuration management tools used downstream of product engineering to manage the as-delivered and as-maintained real world configurations of in-service equipment and long-life assets deployed in the field.

It’s no secret that manufacturers and their supply chain partners are being crushed by an avalanche of complexity along nearly every axis of their business. The unrelenting complexity of ever-increasing customer requirements, product performance expectations, new technology absorption, system integrations, and lengthening product development and use lifecycles is overwhelming. 

Added on top of this is a constantly changing layers of organisational complexity in program management, contract funding, business processes, and supply chain partnerships that increasingly have design authority, not just build-to-order responsibility.

To help manage all of this intricacy we have added yet another layer of complexity from the network system architectures, implementations, and integrations of digital applications, and many were created to save ourselves from the pitfalls of complexity. In doing so it seems we have now created a whole new parallel digital world where every element and process must be modelled in exacting detail with all things instantly connected.

Despite all the value of digital technologies to product development and system performance, it has indisputably injected more complexity and cost for the program office who must now manage both physical and digital versions of processes and products. The evidence speaks for itself in the number of new weapons programs which run over budget, are late, or miss performance goals-- even after massive spending on digital automation/integration

While enterprise product lifecycle management systems can improve upon many important functions critical to  industry, most systems were initially acquired to start out as a more simple solution. They were often sold as a means for getting control of all the many different materials used across the aerospace manufacturer, then providing for change control and configuration management over the design-to-build part of the lifecycle. 

Unfortunately, by the time design data management, application integration, variant management, collaboration, visualisation, digital manufacturing, workflow management, simulation data management, supply chain integration, requirements planning, project planning, cost management and more functions were added onto the product lifecycle construct it is no surprise that many implementations collapsed under their own weight.

The first victims of a delayed or failed product lifecycle strategy are often configuration management professionals working outside of engineering design who are responsible for creating, checking, distributing, maintaining, and enriching product configuration data for others further downstream to consume. 

There are typically far more users of configuration management tools and consumers of product configuration data in these down-cycle functions than those found in product engineering. These data users include those in logistics, test, quality assurance, tech pubs, service, and the partner supply chain.  Without instant access to “live” configuration data of the as-built or in-service product planners often resort to elaborate spreadsheets and homegrown legacy tools that only specialists fully understand.

Nowhere is the live as-maintained configuration data more important than in the supply and service chains who manufacture components or perform maintenance, repair of in-service assets and equipment located in the field.  

Some contractors often do not need or want or afford enterprise-level product lifecycle platforms. If not enterprise product lifecycle management platforms, then what do these configuration management system do users want? 

1. Capable and efficient in production use, offering the deep configuration management functionality required to support configuration planning/ identification, status change control and traceability 

2. Intuitive and easily mastered in everyday use by the expert who creates data as well as in occasional use by program managers and others who consume or repurpose data.

3. Deployable quickly and rolled out with minimal demand on network resources, no programming and little site customisation required.

4. Compact and right-sized for contractors who must often acquire several solutions to support all their different customers and program contracts.

5. Affordable and maintainable with a low initial cost followed by a low total lifecycle cost of ownership.

6. Flexible to accommodate unforeseen new requirements, uses, projects, workflows, and digital connections.

7. Durable and resilient over the life of long programs and product use, regardless of the original design requirements or the initial contract stipulations.

8. Portable and adaptable across different program contracts at different stages of maturity and deployment.

9. Scalable and robust to accommodate the elastic business cycles of growth and contraction as requirements change throughout the partner chain.
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10. Secure and protected in both standalone and connected modes of operation.

​Digital hangar will act as a virtual repository containing digital surrogates of aerospace systems that have been gated through rigorous validation and verification processes. A goal of the hangar is to research and identify high-value data that need to be maintained, or curated, to produce an enduring set of digital artifacts for aerospace platforms. 

The Digital hangar strategy defines digital engineering as an integrated digital approach that uses authoritative sources of system data and models as a continuum across disciplines to support service life activities.

Digital Hangar continues to be developed and will eventually house high-value design information for digital representations of aerospace systems that will inform decision-making across the services.

The strategy defines digital engineering as an integrated digital approach that uses authoritative sources of system data and models as a continuum across disciplines to support lifecycle activities from concept through disposal.

Goal is to “Discover, develop, and deliver air vehicle technologies that revolutionize the capabilities of next generation air vehicles and affordably sustain and enhance the fleet.”

Digital Hangar continues to be developed and will eventually house high-value design information for digital representations of aerospace systems that will inform decision-making within stakeholder organizations.

The Digital Hangar is focused on the design and analysis phase of the acquisition life cycle. “It’s a lot cheaper to address problems or to look at physics-based questions through simulation as a project moves up the scale to ground testing or even a flight test, where it becomes more and more expensive.”

“We want to know what types of information we should be generating and using to make decisions during early design phases because that’s where a lot of the costs for an aircraft get locked in. We want to know what types of information we should be gathering over the life cycle of the airplane. The idea is to identify what data is worth keeping, and reuse that data.”

It’s a good idea to give decision makers the options to explore concept development through digital means rather than going all the way to flight tests, We want to look at the  preliminary concepts in terms of transitioning technology as early as we can to transition our technology more efficiently.”

The services plan to add new aerospace systems to Digital Hangar strategically, based on a set of rigorous validation and verification criteria. “We are taking a few candidate test cases and maturing those to see how it looks and is received. It really isn’t just a digital description of a model – it’s all the data that goes along with that model.

Navy could make better use of ship-readiness data if the service could adopt a faster process to write and field software, eyeing the upcoming launch of a new readiness-monitoring system as an opportunity to be more agile in software development.

Navy is pushing out an Enterprise Remote Monitoring sensor system that will capture data on how engines, turbines and other hull, mechanical and electrical systems are performing on a ship. But that data is only as good as the Navy’s ability to crunch it and use it to make decisions about ship maintenance, so Navy is “all in” on a faster way to generate questions and then write software code to mine the data for answers.

Any plane you fly on, there’s sensors on the engines, they’re talking to the ground, passing all kinds of parameter data from the engine. And they have environmental data – temperatures, altitudes, pressures – and they have actual performance data from the engines, power output, fuel inputs, the pressures and flows. All that. And it goes to the ground. And it’s being analyzed by algorithms that are looking for anomalous behavior.”

New Apps can compare actual system performance data with the ideal performance data – as determined by a virtual twin of the system running on the ground – and when an engine starts running too hot, for example, the app could suggest to pilots and maintainers on the ground that there might be a lube oil leak.

The launch of the Enterprise Remote Monitoring system – which a destroyer tested out earlier this year – will provide the performance data. Now, we need to start  working on the apps to leverage that data and gain an understanding of whether the systems are functioning correctly, if they’ll need maintenance actions soon, if the operators could use them more efficiently, and so on.

There’s any number of ways that data from the Enterprise Remote Monitoring system could be crunched and contribute to readiness at sea and condition-based maintenance back ashore, both at an individual ship and a class-wide level. Different apps would be developed with algorithms to look at specific aspects of system performance. That’s where the “DevOps” model of continuous development, testing, fielding, monitoring, and improving software products comes in.

Industry has figured out how to write, validate and push out software updates for apps very rapidly in a denied operating system update or other event that forces them to act or lose customers. The Navy can’t react that quickly under its current systems engineering model, but effort is underway to change the mindset to one of continuous improvement, mirroring the DevOps model in the tech industry today.

“They’re continually developing software, testing it, releasing it, deploying it. You operate with it some, you monitor it, you learn things from it, you go back and change again. And that’s a continuous process.”

“This makes a lot of folks uncomfortable; Navy operators are not used to it since they like things that are predictable, things that can be tested rigorously and get … the data proving, yes, that’s going to work. 

But there is some indication that leadership loves this new stuff.”

It will be a challenge for the Navy to push out software updates and new apps rapidly while also ensuring that the software would not harm ships and their ability to conduct real-world operations. 

Sometimes the fleet needs enhancements in how sonar data is processed, and sometimes they ask for more complex things like software to integrate their combat systems with new torpedoes. 

“Ideally, the first ones we want to try to do are mostly your reduction gears, your turbines. … Once we prove the concepts and get this thing kind of going, get the production line going, then we want to scale up to other things like weapons systems.”

See how easy it will be for your customers to drag-and-drop add-on items and accessories to customize products across a range of industries: build anything from strength equipment, heavy equipment machinery and play systems equipment. 

I was wondering if there is a way to quickly create multiple drawings from a single part that has multiple configuration? In application, there is a drop down menu that allows you to chose the configuration. The only way I've gotten this to work was to freeze the drawing, update the part to a different configuration then update a copy of the first drawing that is unfrozen. I was hoping maybe someone knew of a simpler and faster method.

I was simply providing an example. My models are not so simple. I use a design table to create dozens of different configurations which are all similar, but have different dimensions from hole pitch, hole size, part thickness and etc. What I'm trying to accomplish here is creating multiple sheets in a single drawing of each different design without the need to freeze to the sheet.

In today's digital world, your customers expect a seamless product purchasing process--one that gives them confidence to order what they want, how they want it.

 3D Product Configurator is a configure price quote tool is solution that boosts business efficiency, productivity, and quote accuracy while helping sales reps close sales more quickly, and enhance the customer experience.

Your sales reps’ busy schedules require them to manage customer accounts, develop prospective customer relationships, field product and model questions and deliver timely and accurate quotes.

A brand new scheduling system streamlines test and maintenance planning. Resources needed for testing are loaded into the Integrated Scheduling System to predict and manage project performance through appropriate integration, deconfliction and optimization, allowing digital hangar to meet its strategic, operational and tactical priorities.

Ensuring resources such as utilities, facilities and personnel are available to accommodate high-priority test and maintenance projects is essential to the success of the digital hangar mission.

In an effort to reduce work impacts and delays due to resource unavailability and conflicts in testing schedules, a new single master schedule has been developed to improve near- and long-term planning, decision making, efficiency and effectiveness.

The Integrated Scheduling System is a set of databases designed to collect project management information for test, repair and investment, and maintenance projects to plan and analyze the most effective way to approach and complete these projects.

“Better planning and scheduling will optimize our testing capability. We’ll be able to do more. It’s all about when we hear that whir from the Propulsion Wind Tunnel facility. That’s a great sound. When you hear the engines being throttled and pulled back, that’s a good sound. We want to hear those noises more often than silence. We can optimize the testing, have more air-on hours, with better planning and scheduling.”

The schedule system can also create implementation plans. The system is loaded with mission capabilities, capacity and resources for numerous projects. The system then uses this information to predict and manage project performance through appropriate integration, deconfliction and optimization, allowing digital hangar to meet its strategic, operational and tactical priorities.

“There are many competing interests that can impact the mission. Schedule conflicts can develop between multiple high-priority test customers. There are multiple competing users of utilities such as high-pressure air, cooling water and power. Facilities require maintenance that can impact testing.

“Funding alone cannot solve all of these conflicts, so what the scheduling system process does is it adds time as an additional resource that can resolve operational restraints by finding the best sequence to perform the priority work to maximize test time in the most responsible way possible.”

The schedule system can also project adequate staffing levels to serve projects slated to begin weeks, months and even years in advance. This information can be used to line up the completion of the steps necessary to move resources around, bring the new hires onboard, and get these new employees trained and up to speed to get started on the test or maintenance undertaking when needed.

“We have seen an increase in the craft work being scheduled, which optimizes the productivity of our workforce. We have measured a significant increase in identifying the work ahead of time and having the work ready for our workforce to execute. This is good progress, but we have a lot of work yet to do.”

The schedule system views projects in four distinct time horizons which can be accessed by users to serve different project management needs.

The first of these, the tactical horizon, includes projects up to two weeks out. This horizon is used primarily for sequencing and de-confliction of near-term test and outage work.

The focus of the short-term planning horizon, which includes projects up to six months out, is the integration of opportunistic maintenance work with priority test and outage work.

The mid-term planning horizon includes projects six months to two years out and focuses on resource allocation and staffing.

The long-term planning horizon, which includes projects two to seven years in the future, focuses on digital hangar capacity and capability.

“The work process of plan, de-conflict, test has been in operation here at the digital hangar is effective in reacting to near-term change as it occurs to ensure advancement of the mission. To fully implement the mid- to long-range planning with the schedule system requires a forward-looking mindset that will ensure that the work marches into the near-term in a well-planned, de-conflicted and organized manner.

“This will allow the digital hangar to maximize mission capability and provide greater schedule adherence for the test customers.

Happy customers stick around: Increase customer retention by delivering a quick and user-friendly customer experience with the 3D product configurator. Your sales team will enter calls more confident and be able to focus their attention on the customer rather than the time-consuming quoting process.

With 3D Configurator and repair quote suite, sales reps will be empowered to sell better and faster. Some of the key benefits they will enjoy include:

1. Virtual showroom 

Visually communicate and showcase the competitive differences of your products to your customers using 3D product models. By doing so in a realistic and engaging manner, your reps are enabling customers to order with confidence.

2. Improve business operations

Streamline the sales process and accelerate the conversion of sales opportunities into revenue with automation tools that simplify complex configurations, speed quoting time, and ensure ordering accuracy.

3. Customized configurations

Your customers will be able to customize their order, receiving a real-time rendering and quote. With this product configuration tools, there are no more quoting delays or seeing the product the first time when it arrives at their door.

4. Instill confidence

Encourage customers and partners with little-to-no knowledge of your products to become less apprehensive and more engaged in designing and ordering.

5. Real-time interaction

As your customers configure their order with the responsive drag-and-drop functionality, shopping cart and product model instantly update as new items are added or removed.

6. Close sales faster

Product configuration tools help by mitigating common obstacles such as product combination errors, miscalculated costs, and quoting delays, your sales reps will be able to streamline the ordering process and dramatically shorten the sales cycle.

7. More cross-sell and up-sell opportunities

All of your products and accessories will be stored in one menu, which creates increased opportunities for your sales reps to sell additional products based on what the customer is ordering.

8.Work closely with customers 

Educate, present, customize, and interact with your "virtual" products using near-realistic 3D models display the floor plan and room design, configuring products quickly, price and quote accurately, and order efficiently.

9. Streamline the sales process 

Accelerate the conversion of sales opportunities into revenue with automation tools that simplify complex configurations, speed quoting time, and ensure ordering accuracy.
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10. Improve sales efficiency

Shorten sales cycle and eliminating common obstacles such as product combination errors, miscalculated costs, and quoting delays.

​In Live-fire excercises we’ve noticed is units tend to under invest in simulation training for expeditionary logistics/sustainment. That creates a whole host of problems. What we don’t want is for aircraft to “turn into bird nests in five years or a paperweight down the road, and the only way that we can fix that is by making sure we’re having good, candid conversations about Expeditionary Simulations up front..

Marines are pushing partners to focus on upkeep of existing goods, rather that getting “enamored with chasing the shiny object,” the fact that our equipment comes with a long tail of sustainment and logistics training is a traditional selling point Pentagon officials use when discussing deployment of weapons systems.

Our office now has a system in place where “we can see the kind of sustainment we’re providing to every partner we can see the sustainment profile of each which is going to allow us to then have the dialogue with them to show them ‘this is what you look like, this is what you bought into, this is the performance level, or this is where you need to contribute more to planning of expeditionary exercises.

Part of that pitch involves arguing that sustainment logistics isn’t just about maintaining what you have, but opening up future opportunities. Marine leadership has emphasised increasing capability for existing systems. The argument is such that as those capabilities come online, the better maintained your equipment is, the better chance you have to load new technologies onto older platforms.

“What we’re trying to do is make sure you have a sustainment portfolio in place that goes out 10, 15, 20 years. If we can get them investing in sustainment right, that is going to take it to the next level.”

“In other words, you may think you need 20 aircraft, but if you buy 18 then you can buy the sustainment for the next 10-15 years. So we’re trying to have these meaningful discussions early by participating in Life Joint Exercises.”

Marines must work early with service partners on defining requirements before a request for weapons system support is submitted. if a partner is not going to be purchasing a piece of equipment, there is no point in letting them ask for it and then starting that process. In addition, partners often do not know what piece of gear would be best for a specific mission set.

Logistics Centre Repair Engineering Team is dedicated to creating new upgrade/repairs techniques and reliability enhancements to increase fleet readiness.

Logistics Centre large portfolio of repair capabilities is constantly growing, thanks to the Repair Clinics and engineer teams—innovators who are constantly looking for solutions to emerging materiel stress conditions.

Logistics Centre provides site planning services so DoD can establish its own equipment maintenance facility, test cell or expansion program. These services can range from a simple Logistics Centre summary review to an on-the-spot detailed analysis.

As a result of these reviews, Logistics Centre can provide DoD with a site layout showing team locations, work flow and equipment placement. Logistics Centre can also recommend required site equipment and estimate costs.

Training is offered to DoD for intermediate level and depot level maintenance. The advantage of providing training at other location is that DoD can avoid extended time away and the expense for its maintainers.

Training at the Logistics Centre offers a world class Site with modern training aids and training equipment support. Areas covered in maintenance training include equipment orientation, inspection, test cell operation, test and repair of equipment controls and intermediate maintenance procedures.

In addition to providing Site planning services, Logistics Centre provides additional trainer services to suppliers that improve their capacity and efficiency. Logistics Centre also creates logistics programmes that best satisfy DoD readiness requirements.

Logistics Centre publishes equipment maintenance manuals, service bulletins, special instructions, illustrated parts catalogs, other technical documents and training materials. All reference materials are continuously updated to incorporate the latest configurations, repair processes, and operating recommendations.

Logistics Centre takes care of your aircraft so you can focus on flying.

Logistics Centre Work Centers have developed state-of-the-art materiel management and supply line systems, which offer complete Contractor Furnished Materiel supply capability. By using Contractor Furnished Material, DoD can take advantage of Logistics Centre unparalleled strength in supplier relationships to minimise delays in part delivery and improve cost/benefit equation.

Understanding the pain points: What do you not like? What takes up your time? What do you want to change? Storyboarding that out to understand how it might be fixed, turning that into a development back log; so what am I going to attack and when? And then having the user touch products before they become final.

Army has developed a way to repair a pesky problem on a key part for mounted patrols — wear and tear on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle turret gun mounts.

The small piece of the larger weapon system that carries grunts into combat isn’t cheap. A new gun mount can run about $25,000. Repairs also take away manpower and vehicles from both training and the fight when they’re being fixed. “Cold spray process” can do the job in less time and at a cost of about $1,000.

“This project demonstrated the ability to apply new manufacturing technologies to bring components back into service that would otherwise be scrapped during depot maintenance operations. Until the team began working on the problem, worn gun mounts were mostly just trashed.

“Cold spray is an emerging technology that will enable the Army to reclaim worn components that were previously replaced with new parts. This new technology reduces life-cycle cost and improves systems availability.

The 25mm gun mount supports the gun barrel on the M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle. When the mount begins to wear unevenly, the barrel becomes less stable. The Army is evaluating if a cold spray process can be used to repair the gun mount. 

The 25mm gun mount supports the gun barrel on the M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle. When the mount begins to wear unevenly, the barrel becomes less stable. The Army is evaluating if a cold spray process can be used to repair the gun mount. 

The process takes micron-sized particles and accelerates them in a high-velocity gas stream, spraying it through a nozzle onto the surface that needs to be fixed. Those particles bond to the surface, repairing worn layers of the existing mount.

And though Army started with the Bradley, the same process might be able to make quick repairs to other vehicle mounts such as those on the Abrams tank. The plans call for repair and overhaul instruction work on tank mounts and four to five tank gun mounts repaired over the next six months.

And beyond repairs, Army sees potential for the process to be added to make existing, working parts more durable. That includes corrosion repair and also coatings for the inside of cannon barrels.

Using the cold spray process, the team restored the internal diameter of the gun mount exit throat to its original drawing dimensions, demonstrating the ability to return worn gun mounts back into service. 

A specific compound called tantalum, for example, can be used to coat the inside and extend the life of that barrel. As the command develops new weapon systems, there will be more opportunities to leverage the cold spray process to augment or repair components that may otherwise be labeled unusable.

And those fixes help bridge gaps as the Army begins a long-haul modernization process that will see core platforms from the Bradley to the Abrams to the Stryker replaced with newer vehicles. But as those new vehicles are being developed the larger Army still will operate on often upgraded versions of the ground vehicles that have been in service for three to four decades.

For example, the Next Generation Combat Vehicle will most likely see its first incarnation as a Bradley replacement that will also include “robotic wingman,” or other Bradley-like vehicles in the formation controlled from one central battlefield node.

A robotic breaching exercise demonstrated short-range control of a vehicle from an upgraded Bradley. Next year a platoon-sized Bradley formation will conduct a more complex assault, nearly all of it controlled remotely.

1. Can the maintenance process be made more efficient for determination of condition/function reporting, transit, work load assign?

A maintenance process flow diagram should be created to show the different steps that an unserviceable asset experiences until it is fully repaired. When examining the maintenance process, must consider the average number of maintenance days required per unit, and the quarterly demand rate for maintenance. Another consideration is how many of the candidate assets are in inventory and are subject to sustainment fiscal obligation. Assets with a larger number of units in inventory typically present a greater opportunity for cost savings. Must identify any inefficiency that could potentially be eliminated by introducing performance-based incentives.

2. Are there any substantial delays in the repair process?

The team should review the current maintenance and repair processes and identify any delays, issues, or opportunities for improvement that could be addressed by introducing a performance-based arrangement. The team should focus on identifying bottlenecks in the process step where the duration is the greatest and resolve that issue first. When identifying issues in the repair process, the team should also investigate the root causes to better understand the reason for delays. Even when Warfighter requirements are being satisfied, it is possible to deliver greater efficiency leading to improved process agility and/or reduced cost.

3. Can sustainment planning and demand forecasting be more accurate and efficient through the introduction of performance incentives?

Under a performance based logistics regime, if the provider is held accountable for an outcome that is impacted by the accuracy of the demand forecast, there will be an incentive to assist in improving this forecast. If the product support team provides maintenance services, for example, the provider may have more detailed information about failure rates and system reliability across the fleet that will improve the demand forecast.
4. Is the supply support strategy satisfying Warfighter requirements?

The team should verify whether the Warfighter requirement metrics are being met from a supply perspective. If they are not being met, the team should try to identify the percentage of non-mission capable assets due to supply shortages. This should give the team a starting point to assess opportunities to resolve these shortages through performance-based arrangements.

5. Can the supporting supply chains be made more efficient through the introduction of performance incentives?
The current state of supply support should also be analyzed to find opportunities to increase readiness and reduce cost when pursuing a change in sustainment arrangement. A well-structured performance based logistics agreement would provide incentives for the product support integrator to reduce supply chain inefficiency. A long-term contract would provide the product support integrator the opportunity to recoup investments in process improvements, lay-in of spare parts, and redesign of components for improved reliability. Depending on the scope of a potential performance-based agreement the integrator could be responsible for reducing delays and inefficiencies across the entire supply chain. Based on these opportunities, the timing and current state of their program can be determined to allow a smooth transition into a performance-based arrangement.

6. Are there any substantial delays in the procurement process for spare parts or new units?

One process that impacts the system’s availability may be the lack of repair parts. For example, delays, packaging issues, and poor inventory management are potential causes of materiel availability problems. Performance incentives will encourage suppliers to reduce their internal transaction lead time, particularly improving their make and delivery processes to mitigate the shortages of the Warfighter.

7. Are there any significant inventory build-ups at any stage in the supply chain or are parts no longer made available?

Significant inventory build-ups are a sign of supply support inefficiencies, potentially a bottleneck in the process. The process right before may be overproducing, or perhaps the process right after is unable to keep up due to quality issues. In order for material to flow smoothly, the entire supply chain must be leveled. There are problems with supply chain, as technologies change and some sources or materials are no longer available. These issues can be mitigated through active management and monitoring efforts, which should involve the relevant industry participants. A performance-based arrangement could be structured to hold the provider responsible for ensuring the availability of parts that are subject to shortage concerns, which would require  actively management of these concerns.

8. What is the scope of opportunity for repair teams to get access to system technical specs?

A repair part or repairable used on multiple systems or an end item used by more than one military Service provides the opportunity to evaluate an enterprise-wide arrangement. There is a potential to save in terms of maintenance spend and inventory costs by aggregating the requirements and improving supply chain efficiency. Generally, the larger aggregated requirement improves the negotiating position of the Government during contract discussions. An enterprise-wide performance based logistics strategy for multiple systems or Services should be pursued whenever doing so will satisfy Warfighter requirements and reduce costs.

The status of data rights should be examined to help determine the feasibility of an arrangement change based on technical data availability. If DoD owns the technical data, the program has more options to pursue performance based logistics agreement because it can choose among multiple potential providers. If the technical data package or data rights are not purchased as part of the initial acquisition, limitations can occur for that particular program. If a lack of technical data rights exists, Services will be limited to the removal and installation of units. This also places limitations on conducting diagnostic testing and work against organic or other alternate repairs. If contracts with subcontractors exist, restrictions in independently selling technical data to that Service also confine the Service’s range of future sustainment options.

9. Does the available contract mechanism not conflict and allow for a long-term performance-based arrangement?

Must determine if performance based logistics is feasible under the current funding mechanism used for sustainment, or any alternative funding mechanisms that are available. In particular, must determine whether the funding mechanism allows for funding of long-term contracts. Ability to pursue perfomance based logistics arrangement may be limited by existing contractual arrangements. If there is an existing long-term contract in place that will not expire by the time a performance based logistics arrangement could be established, the provider should consider postponing the performance based logistics effort. 

10. Is it the right time for a change in sustainment strategy with enough time remaining to benefit from emerging technology and the performance based logistics business model?

Performance based logistics works best when it can be implemented through a series of long-term contracts, allowing the product support provider enough time to recoup investments in process improvements and product modifications. Additionally, a series of long-term contracts allows DoD to recoup the realized cost savings during the renegotiation phase of each contract cycle. 

Defense industry has repeatedly emphasized its preference for long-term contracts. The stable and predictable revenue streams they provide are desirable to both shareholders and capital markets. As a result, DoD is typically able to negotiate lower costs in exchange for increased contract length. Assets with longer expected service life in the inventory present the opportunity for greater savings from performance based logistics sustainment strategies.
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Team should consider the technology base for system in terms of potential performance based logistics risks and benefits. The life cycle technology insertion/refreshment and the associated challenges, risks, and benefits to supportability should also be addressed, along with the risk associated with achieving performance requirements. 

​New sources of supply have gained an early following in the military because it is seen as a solution to the perennial problem of shortages of spare parts for aging weapon systems. The Marines have embraced the technology, which they see as compatible with their core mission.

“Imagine being in a forward deployed environment, and you can ‘order’ the weapons and equipment you need for the next day’s mission from an entire catalog of possible solutions. These solutions can all be upgraded literally overnight, in order to integrate new components or adapt to new requirements. 

The goal is to have a “small manufacturing capability” locally.  All that would be needed is a desktop printer, a box of components, and a spool of plastic 3D printing filament for a “near infinite set of different equipment items that we could produce from those basic elements.”

Logistics Centre provides new parts for DoD operating both current/future equipment in mission pipeline. DoD requirements for new equipment parts stem from the normal wear and tear associated with military missions to planned maintenance intervals to perform equipment overhauls so mission success is ensured.

Spare parts are ordered by DoD through a variety of contractual agreements to support flight line, intermediate and depot maintenance needs.

To ensure availability, Logistics Centre maintains a large supplier base with the expertise to provide semi-finished items for final processing at Logistics Centre. All suppliers to Logistics Centre must satisfy stringent quality standards established by DoD for uncompromised war fighter readiness.

Logistics Centre Repair Clinic process is typical of aggressive approaches to lowering the cost of ownership. With Repair Clinic, high volume/high value items in DoD scrap bin are evaluated and repairs are performed that produce reliable, quality parts.

Must look at non-standard, non-programs of record requests, special requests since some equipment in inventory are easier to clear more quickly and address questions of technology transfer and the rules over who can and cannot have access to.

We recommend DoD conduct site visits of Fleet Equipment Upgrade/Repair Sites on regular basis to determine patterns of replacement part sourcing techniques on work orders subject to scripted conference call connections with suppliers. 

Site visit executive has determined decisions made based on field-level mission requirements often impose Schedule restrictions influencing determination of best suppliers to source from for equipment upgrade/repair jobs.

Project management tools used in the schedule system provides the scheduling engine that defines the scope of work and predicts future outcomes by defining activity durations and required sequences for that scope. Additional tools utilized by the system provides the daily and hourly work planning and crew management that allows near-term work to be integrated at a more granular level. 

“The dramatic increase in workload demand and change in priority of the types of programs digital hangar tests requires a level of integration across capabilities that has not been required for many years. “It is imperative that we have an integrated schedule that can be viewed by all personnel as a trusted source of information for the planning and execution of test operations, maintenance activity and capital improvement projects.”

“We use the tool to monitor progress on key projects, including the projects we review during ‘watch list’ meeting. It assists us in planning and de-conflicting resources – people, equipment and facilities. 

Along with the establishment of necessary work processes, a handbook that identifies the scheduling tool framework, process inputs and outputs, horizon schedule definitions and review cycles has already been issued. Introductory training on the system has been provided to key stakeholders, and plans are in place to roll out a more detailed system training for project managers and operations officers to enhance inputs and outputs.

“When you have a good plan and you execute that plan well, you’re optimizing our testing time here, and that’s a huge advantage that we need to give the digital hangar.

“You have to work at it. You have to get the whole team used to the battle rhythm of good planning and scheduling, good schedule reviews and updates. That’s necessary to make sure we maximize our time testing for our customers.

Follow the scientific method: build equipment reset models to determine schedule use & then test the models. When in doubt about equipment reset requirements, make an estimate and test the estimate for validity by visiting key Upgrade/Repair Sites.

Making sustainment cost/use calculations is easier when relevant supplier/field use information is present. It is difficult to find information predicting requirements for equipment reset and other details involved in sustainment. 

You need reliability engineering upgrade/repair simulation details from users in field units to find out when reset is required. Time-sensitive upgrade/repair schedules must be converted into simulation model format required for determining reliability profiles for supplier capacity as well as other variables that factor into sustainment operational success.

This tool is based on a single repair/upgrade Job site tour and can be carried out in a few hours, including some Q&A. It is not necessary to have deep insight in the operations as Visiting Executive.

The main objectives of the tool are to discern strengths of repair/upgrade job sites after some basic training on how to use the tool. The tool can also be used to evaluate operations of logistics service suppliers.

This is not to say that the tool can be a substitute for due diligence when assessing fiscal performance, which is not part of the tool. However, all too often, executives ignore vital visual signals that can be easily acquired in favour of what would seem to be objective requirements, like equipment quantities processed, item turns or subsequent mission success.

During our Executive equipment repair/upgrade site visit, DoD administrators were talking about the money a technician had saved purchasing a particularly expensive piece of equipment:

“I wonder if anyone else knows about this?”

Chances were slim that anyone else at repair/upgrade site knew about that particular deal. At that time, technicians were each responsible for sourcing their own parts & there was no formal system in place at DoD for sharing information.

We recommended DoD undertake a comprehensive reorganisation of the sites processes and work needed to commence immediately to meet mission requirements. As part of that effort, the entire parts ordering process was revamped, resulting in huge benefits to the entire repair/upgrade operation.

With technicians spread across multiple installations with no  parts procurement system at DoD, there was no easy way for technicians to share information about good deals on parts or problems with suppliers.

“One technician may have found a good source in terms of pricing or quality, but that information was rarely shared beyond that one Site. “Across our system, we had lots of technicians doing the same type of work, but weren’t getting the same information.

It was clear DoD had deficits in their repair/upgrade operations and were missing an opportunity to share information.

Beyond that, each technician was doing it all—sourcing and buying parts, plus expediting, tracking, & invoicing-- spending lots of time on the procurement process every day.”

Another problem was overstocking of parts. “Technicians who want to provide as much uptime as possible tend to over-order parts. That leads to a huge cache of excess parts at each repair/upgrade site.

We recommended DoD reorganise its entire upgrade/repair site processes and parts procurement process was a key target for improvement. We undertook a study of the process, which revealed that “big chunks” of technician time per day was being spent on parts procurement. We found consistent overstocking of parts & fragmented communication among technicians regarding the best sources for parts on cost/quality.

It was clear that a new process was needed if sustainment operations were to live up to capacity and potential so equipment is returned to users in field as soon as possible for use in mobile operations.

“We were mandated to take advantage of those opportunities to cut costs, free up wrench time for our technicians and have specialists focusing on parts procurement.”

“Step one in the process was to recruit and hire a quality Executive who knew DoD sourcing/sustainment business as a direct result of extensive reviews of the organisation and was excited about Visiting Equipment Upgrade/Repair Sites so Evaluations could Start. “Step two was to collect, catalogue, and coordinate our spare parts”

Initially, front-line technicians resisted this shift, particularly those in long-standing upgrade/repair regimes. “We had to go back multiple times to get the stuff that techs did not have tracking processes in place.”

DoD must identify the upgrade/repair simulation work order space and set up information systems with high fidelity, creating a verified cache of parts that is now accessible across the system. DoD had to look at the equipment parts system as a whole to determine what was still useful, what to throw out and what to move to other installations.

We recommended setting up systems where techs were not required to order on their own. Most requests go directly to purchasing & are immediately approved; only questionable items are flagged for administrative review.

“We didn’t want to create a supplier capacity bottleneck. It’s critical to get parts ordered and turned around, so we’ve made the Upgrade/Repair process as streamlined as possible.” Supplier Capacity Parts modules were created to provide an interface between disparate information systems.

The new process has the technicians enter the required part directly on their work order, ensuring that all parts & associated sustainment costs are captured. The parts request, identifying the urgency, then goes directly to the parts team who communicates back to the technician with notification at several steps of the purchasing process.

This flow of information cuts technician follow-up time and keeps everyone in the loop on parts status. At any point in the process, parts details are available on the  work order screen to anyone needing an update on equipment status.

The new information systems allow technicians to plan their time more efficiently, resulting in huge productivity gains with clear benefit to executing sustainment missions.

Automated systems let the team track/trend supplier capacity details on equipment parts, which can then be applied to making better sustainment decisions.

“We’re able to monitor sustainment costs and identify which technicians are ordering parts and not installing them right away. These lead to opportunities for retraining our technicians.”

Entry into new information systems allows for identification of problems with suppliers in terms of speed, specialisation and quality of parts. For example, suppliers whose parts are routinely not in good order are removed from the supplier list. “Our preferred supplier lists are very fluid. We may have particular supplier at the top of a list, but if we encounter problems, they may not stay there."

The parts procurement specialists monitor the work order screen for new part requests, process a part to be moved from the working cache, or create a purchase report. For specialists, level of parts sourcing expertise has grown with experience. They are able to predict the need for parts in high demand based on upcoming periodic upgrade/repair work site checks and service history, keep stocks of key items for immediate use.

Specialists are also learning to consolidate purchases and reduce the total number of purchase orders processed, leading to even greater mission success critical for sustainment missions.

Since implementing the programme, DoD has seen consistent advances in parts operations and significantly increased technician satisfaction/productivity. Plus, results show better parts tracking contributes directly to increasing subsequent equipment uptime so critical mobile field operations can be executed in theatre.

Much of the wrench time saved is due to the more efficient parts ordering process. While technicians initially had a hard time letting go of their procurement tracking responsibilities, they now trust the system. “I need a part, I find it the next day. I just request a part, and it shows up. We have seen equipment downtime greatly reduced due to the new sourcing policy.”

Increased collection of key supplier information made possible by the changes was of clear benefit to scheduled sustainment operations. We recommended DoD address the need to share information among the technicians, including information on lowest cost suppliers, best quality and best delivery time.

“By collecting and evaluating supplier information, we can make better decisions and that effort will help us continue to get better at the critical equipment upgrade/repair work orders we have been tasked with.”

In all, our revamp of the parts ordering process is part of the overall aim to allow technicians to focus on their core competencies essential to sustainment missions.

“Is their core competency fixing equipment, ordering parts, generating reports, or answering phones? We want to optimise our investment in the technicians. By focusing on the parts function, we’ve been able to do exactly that.”

1. Satisfaction of Equipment Mission Agents

2. Use of Work Order Job Space 

3. Condition of Technical Installations

4. State of Materiel Contact

5. Teamwork & Motivation

6. Storage & Order Picking Tech

7. Equipment Inventory Strategies

8. Supply Line Coordination

9. Level & Use of Information Systems
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10. Commitment to Quality Services

​Multi-domain operations are the most recent version of what began as multi-domain battle several years ago. It is how the Services envision a joint warfighting concept that will bring to bear all of the firepower, both kinetic and non-kinetic, to help the military regain superiority in what is increasingly becoming a contested, access-denied world.

Multi-domain operations, at the core, recognise the six domains the military operates in – the electromagnetic spectrum, space, air, land, maritime, and the human domain – and the vulnerabilities and opportunities that exist in each. 

They call for a more inclusive understanding of these domains and networking of effects in two or more domains towards mission objectives. Because of advances in technology in every domain, war has become even more complex. As a result, the established paradigms of combined arms and joint warfare alone are not enough to deal with this complexity.

An exercise offered a glimpse of what the multi-domain operations concept will look in practice like when applied on the battlefield. The 1st Infantry Division, for example, achieved some success in its ability to rapidly erode enemy defenses through the integrated use of fires, aviation attacks, tactical deceptions, vertical envelopment by light infantry, and armored penetration. 

These complementary tools, when applied rapidly and in close network link, exchanged mass for tempo and forced the enemy into multiple dilemmas across multiple domains. What follows is an explanation of how the division accomplished this, what we learned, and how we got better along the way.

In our initial command post exercise, the division commander challenged us to reframe how we defined risk to the force. Received experience from previous Warfighter exercises suggested that the most dangerous of all courses of action in the face of this peer enemy would be to do nothing, or worse, to halt and await favorable conditions to be set while our very limited armor capability sat within range of the enemy’s long-range artillery. 

In this fight, audacity—when properly seasoned with a prudent understanding of the risk—is a critical combat multiplier. Must decide up front “how we would enter the digital battlespace”; how we would identify its forward edge; and once in it, how we would proceed audaciously with the simultaneous commitment of all forms of contact that the division could generate. Once in the digital battlespace we realized that the most dangerous and risky thing we could do was to stop attacking.

Our goal was to ensure we were prepared to exploit this window of opportunity either with the timely application of attack aviation or through the insertion of light infantry forces who would then move, often many kilometers, to block the exits to these underground facilities at the opportune moment.

Operational frameworks are difficult to but in concept, yet they are fundamental to a logical plan. Divisions utilized operational frameworks as a digital  tool to clearly visualize and describe the application of combat power in time, space, and purpose. It provided a logical digital architecture and foundation on which the subsequent detail, resource, permission, responsibility, effort, operation, concept, and task were built. Through a clearly articulated concept of operations, the division ensured that actions that it and the brigade combat teams executed were in pursuit of the commander’s end state.

During planning, dividing an area of operations into parts categorized as deep, close, support, and consolidation only explains the plan by time and space. Meanwhile, assigning operations as either decisive, shaping, or sustaining and units as the main or supporting efforts explains actions by purpose. Combining all three frameworks achieved what the division and brigade commanders needed: to explain actions and responsibilities in time, space, and purpose.

This is also where a strategic perspective is essential, but remember good tactics cannot overcome bad strategy. And one of the most compelling elements of this concept may be the least appreciated and understood. Multi-domain operations forces planners and commanders to think higher in the levels of war because it requires the networking of effects far outside their component, service, and domain. 

This requires a strategic perspective that is challenging to acquire. Strategic design’s focus goes far beyond a region or joint operations area. The primary reason for this geographical spread is that the problem and/or solution may exist far outside the confines of a distinct region or area of operations. 

Strategists must be able to recognise global system linkages, understand the effective use of instruments of power, and evaluate actions that impact the long-term attainment and preservation of force objectives.

For example, a multi-domain operation where the objective is to disrupt an adversary’s command-and-control network could combine networked actions in the electromagnetic, air, land, sea, space, and human domains, which would require a host of entities to work together at a very high level. 

“Pentagon’s AI Center is Developing Tech that Could Revolutionize Disaster Response”

In the several years since the Pentagon started bringing artificial intelligence to the battlefield, the algorithms still need human help.

The technology is getting better at identifying people, cars, and other objects in drone video. There is also promise in other AI applications, like predicting when parts on planes will break.

“We’re still in the process of teaching the algorithms to be able to predict what’s there from the data and be as reliable as we would like it to be or as reliable as our teams of people doing that.”

“Those tools are there. We’re starting to use them and experiment with them. “ In general, they’re at the point yet where we’re confident in them operating without having a person following through on it, but that’s where we’re going.”

“We’re at the point where we really have to get them out there to start understanding how tough are these things, how robust, and how are they going to integrate with the fleet, what kind of policies are going to surround these systems when you start talking about potentially separating weapons from humans.

“So we’re cautious on that side, but we’re very aggressive in getting it out there, so we’re trying to run these parallel paths and illuminate these challenges and start resolving them in parallel.”

While Air Combat Command is best known for its high-performance fighter jets, there are also drone programs and intelligence centers that process the video and other data collected from high above the battlefield.

Artificial intelligence “a big part of our future and you’ll continue to see that expanded.” 

“You have to teach it and it learns and it’s learning, but it hasn’t learned yet to the point where you still don’t have to go back and have supervisors looking over the shoulder of the analyst to say, ‘Yeah, those really are cars.’ Or ‘those signals really are green’.”

“If you’ve ever experienced wildfires or heard about them, you know they move quite fast over the course of several days. And keeping track of where they are and where they are headed is a real challenge for first responders in disaster situations.”

Defense has troves of sensor data, digital video data, digital infrared data and sonar data—all of which are attractive environments for machine-learning algorithms. Through this disaster-relief initiative, the plan is to fly airborne sensors over the disaster area collect full-motion video data of the activity. 

At the same time, they are going to be automatically using a computer vision algorithm to detect which frames of the video have active wildfire. 

“We believe we will be able to cut significant time distributed over an app. “By switching to this airborne sensor, applying an AI computer vision algorithm and converting that to geolocation data that is useful for a map application we are also developing, we’ll really be able to make an impact for our users in a short time frame.”  

One area expected to make an important impact is with sensor digital battlespace that generally collect “an extraordinary amount of data” and usually require humans to follow them around and support the work.

 In the case of airborne video imagery, the services have been growing at a rapid pace to try to match the volume of video imagery data they are collecting, but it’s quite challenging to keep up. 

“If we did not have access to this automation path, we would never keep up with the data daily that we are doing this with.”

Technology advances will eliminate most, if not all, current operational constraints. The emergence of this new generation of aircraft will satisfy the requirements of persistence, precision and time contraction across the full spectrum of defense missions. 

The significant increase in endurance will offer “occupation of the airspace” over a target and its digital battlespace, as time on station will be counted in days and no longer in hours. However, it should be noted that “There is nothing more manned than an unmanned system.” Therefore, the introduction of automation will first affect data analysis, then assistance in flying multiple aircraft. 

“Can swarming drones map battles in real time?”

With air and ground robots, DARPA tested autonomous systems built to scout and map an urban environment. The swarm maps the neighborhood below, with buzzing and plotting, sharp angles and short orbits, creating in real time a blanket of surveillance over the selected objective. 

Quadcopters are pieces in a greater whole, an incremental step to providing an expansive robot’s-eye view to humans fighting on the ground working with ground robots to identify locations of interest and then create a perimeter around that objective, in a process DARPA likens to “the way a firefighting crew establishes a boundary around a burning building.”

Firefighting looms large in the modern conception of swarm tasks. A project was launched for drone swarms to model wildfires, with lessons applicable to military and battlefield uses. Finding danger and plotting a path for humans through it is an ideal task for robots.

In an exercise, the swarm had to find a mock city center, an objective inside that building, and then provide situational awareness over the area in runs that lasted 30 minutes. The program wants to create in real life as close to the kind of real-time tactical information a person might find in a strategy video game.

The schedule is to have new exercises and new updates with the goal is for swarms of up to 250 drones to operate autonomously, providing real-time information to humans who can then move through the battlefield confident that the area has at least been robotically scouted and monitored.

Building tactics from the new capabilities, and machines specific to swarm-human teaming, will have to come later. 

It’s worth looking at the swarms as a possible component of future battlefields, and when designing technologies to meet the needs of the now, keeping an open mind to how swarms might change or hinder those same functions.

The challenge of mapping digital battlespace is further complicated by the presence of underground facilities throughout the exercise’s area of operations. How troops effectively employed underground facilities to deny coalition forces what has traditionally been our greatest asymmetric advantage—the ability to shape and attrite OPFOR prior to the advance of the main body. 

We observed a very carefully calibrated set of triggers for the OPFOR decision to uncover its artillery from underground facilities and a period of extreme vulnerability as the OPFOR exited those facilities—often in single file. 

1.  How is Multi domain operations both a joint and Army-driven concept?

You can’t effectively prosecute a campaign using MDO if it’s not joint. Different domains can be applied to create the window of opportunity. Contrary to the sequencing we may have been used to with Air Land Battle, where Air Force might go in initially to prep an objective followed by a significant campaign of ground maneuver, the opposite may be true in the future with Army effectively securing airspace and waterways by long-range precision fires or air missile defense. It’s turning everything on its head. At different times a certain domain or multiple domains can be leveraged in order to create space for another service or another capability. That validates the joint concept of all of this.

2.  What does the work of a battalion- or even company-sized element look like in 2028, when much of this concept should be implemented? And who’s job looks the most different from today?

It’s fair to say in the future MDO is at the tactical level. The company, battalion level maneuver is still about shoot, move, communicate. It’s still about combined arms at the very lowest tactical level. What MDO gives you is the opportunity to maneuver in the way we have trained for decades.

3. How do you rely on the tactical level to assess and employ all domains when necessary?

We need tactical-level commanders to see opportunities for all domains to be integrated or leverage the benefits of other domains in their tactical space. But in the end a battalion will maneuver like a battalion. It’s more dispersed and leaders are calling on support from a much wider area.

4.  How does the operational force adopt MDO?

After we get these MDTFs out into theater and then geographic combatant commanders will recognize the virtues that they bring to their capacity and as we learn and as we go through total digital battlefield analysis. So what you’ll see is that we’ll start building out those echelons we’ve talked about. You’ll need to have a theater fires command, you’ll need to have an operational fires command. You’ll need to have network capacity at echelon. You’ll need to have access to space assets at echelon.

5. How does organisational learning validate MDO design?

To the degree resources present themselves validates the concept. We’re already doing that. Theater fires command is one we’re prioritizing. Getting capacity back into the theater that is accessible is all part of the sequencing of decisions we have.

6.  Can you expand on the theater fires command concept?

The Air Force and Army are well aligned in that this future design is going to have to be increasingly joint, we’re talking 10 years out. Any sensor, any shooter, through any command and control node in near-real time, with sufficient authorities. 

7. How can you source your sensor data into combat network capacity?

Data can be accessed by any shooter, you’re consolidating your sensors. And the right shooter through the right C2 node can be sorted or synthesized through artificial intelligence, as an example. So now you can imagine that’s a more information age approach.

8.  Is there a single process by which a commander can call up shooters from land-based missiles, ships, submarines, aircraft?

We can use AI to help decide what’s the most effective weapons system, effective tool given the priorities of targets that might have been previously identified. The benefits of this is it gives you the opportunity if targets present themselves to better quickly respond with a different tool. Imagine a scout on the reverse side of a tactical slope. That soldier knows they need to go across that terrain feature to somewhere else. They have certain organic assets to be able to determine what’s on the other side of that slope.

9.  How is the scout going to get access to air fact  data without waiting for a direct point-to-point communication with that aircraft? 

If that data can reside in a place that you can get common access to you can imagine there are sensors that are ubiquitous. They’re all over the battlefield. So if you synthesize that, you can imagine that you can get a rich set of data that all can access in one manner or another. You won’t necessarily have access to that all the time. Bandwidth may be limited. And as a distributed organization we may have to operate off the net for a period of time, maybe go dark. Not unlike the way submarines operate now. They go off the net for a period of time. When you come back up you may have to do a download adjust your algorithms, adjust your data. You’re going to have to balance both cloud computing and computing at the edge.

10.  Where do Army Futures Command and the Cross Functional Teams fit into the MDO work?
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It takes this description of how you’re going to fight and make it a reality across the enterprise. Futures Command has the responsibility to choreograph across the enterprise what changes need to be made over time in order to make that a reality by 2028. That’s why you have to have a modernization strategy coordinated with the concept. After you write strategy then you have to have annual modernization guidance to adjust as you go.

​Conducted simultaneously, force power penetrations, turning movements, and tactical deceptions enable troop divisions to achieve a degree of irreversible momentum against the enemy.

The armor penetrations kept the enemy’s sensors engaged. The turning movements avoided the enemy’s principle defensive positions and seized objectives behind the enemy’s current positions causing the enemy to both dislocate from its positions and to divert forces to meet the threat. The tactical deceptions kept the enemy fixed on sizable threats, which influenced the enemy’s decision to prematurely unmask forces in sanctuary inside its underground facilities.

Additionally, the combat aviation brigade was employed as an independent maneuver organization focused on destroying enemy high-payoff targets—in particular long-range artillery. Synchronizing all of these actions in time, space, and purpose became a tremendously complex task and the primary focus for the division main command post.

We managed this effort with a centralized division digital battlespace coordination matrix that was incredibly detailed, included all subordinate, adjacent, and functional unit actions, remained prominently posted on our current operations floor, and printed in placemat form at every major digital battlespace event, especially the targeting working group and the target decision board.

The digital battlespace matrix allowed us to forecast time out and visualize the timing of the dilemmas that would be presented to the enemy as we fought through the typical frictions of a large and complex operation.

The division ensured that the targeting process was nested within the plan and that the plan was flexible enough to adapt with the targeting process. From the beginning, targeting was aligned with the commander’s intent—to “cause the rapid erosion of the enemy’s defenses and will to fight.” The division’s targeting imposed the commander’s will, in the form of physical, temporal, and cognitive effects, on the enemy.

The division simultaneously employed multiple defeat mechanisms to accomplish its mission, while at the same time removing the ability for the enemy to present dilemmas to the division. The targeting process integrated all warfighting functions, but specifically integrated the enemy plan, the maneuver plan, tactical deceptions, lethal effects, and non lethal effects to exhaust the enemy’s ability to make sound and timely decisions.

Targeting was assessment-driven, and therefore required specificity in information collection and digital analysis to evaluate the effects. In the deep fight, this process disintegrated the enemy—disrupting and degrading the enemy’s ability to conduct operations while leading to the collapse of enemy capabilities and will to fight. In the close fight, this process prevented the enemy from massing combat power in the battlespace.

Our experience in this Warfighter exercise confirmed practically the conceptually central idea of multi-domain operations—that competitive advantage emerges from the skillful integration of complementary capabilities, sequenced in time, space, and purpose to create multiple dilemmas for an adversary.

When we achieved this effect, we found success. When we failed, the very capable enemy we faced quickly overwhelmed and defeated our exposed forces. Presenting multiple dilemmas required the divison staff to redefine its understanding of prudent risk and to develop a natural bias toward action rather than inaction.

Once in the “digital battlespace,” the most dangerous and risky course of action was the failure to act. This required a very clear intent from the commander and a staff that could coordinate, integrate, and anticipate actions in time, space, and purpose, with higher, adjacent, and subordinate unit headquarters.

Simultaneus actions across all domains and irreversible momentum can only be achieved through a well-trained and experienced team of teams. “Presenting multiple dilemmas to the enemy” is more than a catchphrase. Achieving it requires clear intent, a culture of empowerment, a capable staff, and a level of risk tolerance that many of us may be uncomfortable with. But, when properly and digitally executed it can yield a signficant competitive advantage on the modern battlefield that ultimately saves lives and produces decisive results.

The services are finalizing a new, digital battlespace modeling app that will allow soldier equipment officials to see how hanging new pieces of kit on close-combat troops could affect a squad's performance.

"For a long time, we have struggled with the ability to be able to show in a quantitative manner how a new component or an upgraded component will affect the effectiveness of a soldier and squad.

The plan is to lead to a new digital framework developing future capability sets for dismounted soldiers that are far lighter and more streamlined than today's assortment of tactical gear.

While still in its early stages, the Digital Architecture Assessment Tool is designed to be a collaborative tool for project managers and requirements officials to view digital models of soldiers kitted-out in current-issue gear to form a baseline.

Digital battlespace tool will act as a virtual repository containing digital surrogates of weapons systems that have been gated through rigorous validation and verification processes. A goal of the digital battlespace tool is to research and identify high-value data that need to be maintained, or curated, to produce an enduring set of digital artifacts for weapons system platforms.

The Digital battlespace tool strategy defines digital engineering as an integrated digital approach that uses authoritative sources of system data and models as a continuum across disciplines to support service life activities.

Digital battlespace tool continues to be developed and will eventually house high-value design information for digital representations of weapons systems that will inform decision-making across the services.

In a quick demo, Troops made a digital copy of the squad leader configuration baseline and then replaced M4A1 with an M249 squad automatic weapon and the accessories needed for it.

"This is where you start to get into a little bit of the quantitative assessment piece showing how the digital app immediately calculates the weight added from the change. "What you notice immediately is that this special squad leader now weighs 30 pounds more."

It's a simple example, "but just to get to this point is quite a big step. "In order to treat the soldier as an integrated weapons platform, this is the kind of thing you need to be able to do."

Adaptive Squad Architecture is the latest attempt by the Army to treat the soldier as a complete system, breaking away from the long practice of developing individual pieces of equipment and fielding them.

"We build the soldier out like a tree and our products are like ornaments, and we just continue to hang products off our soldiers until the soldier gets so heavy, they can't move.

The Army needs a new approach to developing capability sets of equipment that are much lighter than the roughly 120-pound loads dismounted infantrymen carry today.

So you get a digital architecture ... you can look at this and say, 'You know what? here we have the idea that I can combine three of those capabilities into one. "Those three capabilities might weigh 4.5 today and you go, 'You know, I can bring it to one and I can bring it to you for 2.75 pounds.

In addition to the digital assessment tool, the Army is also conducting evaluations that involve running infantry squads through tactical lanes, to build a digital database of performance data.

"We are doing a correlation of data on squad performance, how the individual data on that soldier relates to the individual performance and how it relates to the entire squad's performance.”

"We want to be able to make data-driven decisions on some of the places we are going for in materiel development in the future.

The Service is developing advanced new kit such as the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS, a technology that will let soldiers view their weapon's sight reticle and other tactical information through a pair of tactical glasses.

The Army is also developing the Next Generation Squad Weapon, a replacement for the M4A1 and M249 that promises to offer significant weight savings on the weapon as well as the ammunition.

But it's still up to commanders to decide how much weight their soldiers carry into battle. "A commander may believe that if we gave him 20% lighter ammunition or 30% lighter ammunition and he feels like the fight he's going into ... means he can take 20 or 30% more ammo, that's a commander's call.

On the other hand, a commander may decide "I'm going up a hill at 90 degrees; I'm going to take that 30% weight savings because that's what I think is the most important thing to me."

"I think what we are going to do is give commanders more options on what they can do with their formations that they have never had before, because the basic load that we will provide through the architecture will be lighter.

As we draw down the weight of our body armor, draw down the weight of our ammunition, draw down the weight of our automatic weapons, you are going to free up digital battlespace in there that's going to make it lighter.

“The Army Is Building Avatars that Can Fight Infantry Soldiers”

Infantry squads will soon experience combat training simulations that feature a digital enemy capable of learning soldiers' tactics and habits, so the battle is never the same twice.

Army modernization officials are counting on this type of realism from the Integrated Visual Augmentation System IVAS, which is scheduled to be ready for fielding soon.

IVAS will equip infantry and other close-combat units with a sophisticated set of tactical glasses that will display a soldier's weapon sight reticle and other key tactical information they will take into battle.

The advanced system will also offer a digital battlespace that allows soldiers and small units to set up an augmented reality training scenario almost anywhere.

"Troops need to be able to set up their own training. ... They can walk in, they can digitally scan a room and they can download that scan. And troops can go in there and put the avatars -- however big a force that they want to go against -- and they can populate that room and have a four-man stack go in and clear that room.

Many younger soldiers are used to playing high-quality, first-person shooter games, but what's different about IVAS is that it will use machine learning and artificial intelligence to control the "behaviors of the avatars that our soldiers are going to go against.

"You know the way we have done things in the past -- you learn behaviors and finally you realize every time you go in to a room, the same digital avatar is in the same place ... and your finally realize you can just stick my weapon around the corner and shoot it

"AI is going to ensure that those avatars will begin to learn how you clear a room, so the second time you go in there and you think that avatar is going to be behind the door just like he was the first time, he's not. "He is going to have moved himself and given himself a position of advantage."

We can technically meet all the requirements, but what we really care about after that, is do the soldiers love it? Do they want to wear it? Is it something they want to fight with? Because if they don't, we just wasted a lot of time and resources. So, our number-one criteria ... is do soldiers love it, and that is what we are driving toward."
“Simulator teaches large vehicle, manual transmission driving”

The services have lot of experience doing digital work on current vehicle platforms … and they got to a point where they needed a custom, purposed vehicle to continue the work in off-road autonomy. “We developed this robotic platform for that.”

The digital simulator puts Airmen into the “seat” of a semi-tractor trailer or passenger bus without leaving the office. Most Airmen arriving from technical school and reporting to the base’s ground transportation element have little to no experience with manual transmissions or operating large vehicles. Many of the large vehicles run using a 13-speed manual transmission.

The SimuRide multi-display unit includes interactive digital tools, a rig seat, steering wheel, three pedals, and a gear shifter. Enhanced driving simulation software allows the user to feel resistance on the steering wheel during turning maneuvers and tremors if the vehicle hits the curb or the road shoulder.

In addition to learning to operate a multi-speed manual transmission, Airmen also practice driving in traffic, taking wide turns, or backing up a long, straight road to a dock. The SimuRide’s simulated rear-view and side-view mirror blind spots help perform parallel parking or other activities requiring such views.

“Teaching our Airmen to drive in this type of digital battlespace promotes key driving traits that will reduce future accidents and damage to the vehicles thus resulting in tangible savings. Airmen learn by hearing, seeing, and doing. “Being able to incorporate all of the learning styles into one digital training device is incredibly helpful.”

While technical school focused on an overview of large vehicles and maintenance checks, many Airmen don’t have much practice driving the vehicles in a real world scenario.

“I think using the SimuRide will definitely relieve some of my concerns of driving and shifting on the road for the first time. I’ve never driven a manual transmission, so this will be a good way to learn without worrying about damaging the vehicle.

Marine Corps component commanders have responsibilities derived from their roles in fulfilling Service functions. Their primary responsibility is that of a force support provider of assigned /allocated forces.

Marine Corps readiness reporting guidance is unclear and was interpreted differently by the squadron commanders.

Specifically, the Marine Corps readiness guidance is unclear on the definition of present state, silent on how squadron commanders should report the number of mission-capable aircraft in their Mission Essential Tasks assessments and unclear on how squadron commanders are to report their Mission Essential Tasks as resourced.

In addition, Marine Aircraft Group officials did not provide oversight to ensure that squadron commanders accurately reported squadron aircraft readiness.

As a result, Marine Corps officials do not have an accurate assessment of what the aircrafts’ capabilities currently are, which could negatively impact planning for training and operations by assigning a mission to an aircraft that is not capable of performing.

This could potentially put mission accomplishment and personnel at risk. Marine Corps component commanders specific responsibilities are as follows:

1. Command all Marine Corps forces assigned/attached to include all required elements of support for mission tasks in multiple scenarios

2. Recommend the allocation and coordinate provision/deploy of Marine Corps forces planning and execution to support operations

3. Select and nominate specific units of Marine Corps component for attachment to subordinate forces and recommend command relationships.

4. Conduct joint and combined training of Marine Corps components capable in joint combined contingency, crisis action operations component commander is assigned primary responsibility

5. Exercise planning to support missions performed by Marine Corps as directed internal Service functions e.g., discipline, training, logistics, request processing force protection, intelligence in support of assigned/attached forces .

6. Retain Administrative Control and create plans/procedures for effective/efficient utilisation of Marine Corps forces attached to Service component or subordinate joint force command

7. Provide and/or coordinate Marine Corps logistics support and relay plans or changes in logistics support that would significantly affect operational capability or sustainability.

8. Establish and maintain resource evaluation function to ensure effective/accurate control/use of Marine Corps resources provided for mission accomplishment.

9. Coordinate, and execute strategic assigned/attached Marine Corps force plans for interoperable Command/Control systems in joint/combined scenarios ensure planning, coordination, and execution of information operations.
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10. Plan and provide support for special technical operations conducted by or in support of Marine Corps forces and establish critical infrastructure program to meet Service requirements.

​The purpose of Digital Battlespace Simulations is to determine if and how well new technologies can help address warfighter needs and gaps including complementing current fielded technologies and those under development by others.

Simulations are meant to teach airmen about these new weapons and help the Services develop new tactics and procedures.

Supply/Fire support teams can operate without having to deploy artillery units out to the field or have tank hulls to shoot at, they can put on those goggles and they can send a call for fire. It will insert targets, potentially even moving targets – which we typically don’t get, we’re usually just shooting at old rusty tank hulls that are sitting on the ground.

In this particular Warfighter exercise, the division observed that the terrain limited options for ground maneuver. A single penetration, though conservative and often effective, would not achieve the commander’s intent. The penetration presents the enemy with one problem—a problem that other units have presented repeatedly. Dilemmas are not the same as problems. A problem is a situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful that must be dealt with and overcome.

A dilemma, by contrast, is a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially equally undesirable ones. To present the enemy with multiple dilemmas across multiple domains and in multiple locations, the division combined penetrations with audacious turning movements and tactical deceptions, complemented and reinforced with nonlethal effects.

The turning movements were achieved by conducting air assaults across the coordinated fire line and up to the fire support coordination line. To avoid enemy air defenses, these air assaults were often offset by several kilometers and at least a major terrain feature away from their intended target.

The targets were often key points of overwatch for particular underground facilities suspected of housing long-range artillery, or points of domination that could cover major avenues of approach. Timely execution of these air assaults forced the enemy to divert resources and attention from the advance of our armored formations along heavily defended avenues of approach and thereby dislocated the main enemy defenses.

In the cases where we were successful, the division forced the enemy to react to our operations and enter the fight on our terms. More importantly, we were able to achieve tempo not just through the sustained geographical advance of the forward line of troops.

By persistently presenting complementary dilemmas to the enemy in unexpected ways to diminish adversaries decision space and disrupted their understanding of its own plan. By the time the enemy observed and oriented on one dilemma, the division sought to present another, thereby causing the enemy to not render a decision on the initial dilemma.

Sustaining both momentum and tempo against a capable enemy required the division to reframe how we achieved integration of digital battlespace during sustained and dynamic combat operations. Too often our decision-making process in combat operations mirrors the activity of a football team on the gridiron.

In the midst of a long offensive drive, we seek to impose periods of planning i.e., the huddle, an approach march, a decisive operation where synchronization is optimized, and a culminating point that leads into a period of disengagement and another planning session.

This “battle period” model, thankfully obsolete at our brigade training centers with the advent of open phasing, is equally inappropriate in a Warfighter exercise. Instead, we needed to think like a rugby team, where synchronization occurred rapidly and unexpectedly with fleeting moments of opportunity quickly identified and exploited by individual players who then become the supported effort as the team synchronizes around them.

This required a different and more dynamic approach with near/long term tactical planning and targeting cycles all occurring constantly as conditions changed on the ground.

Every so often, after a weapons system is fielded, we’re bringing it back into the building and reviewing all of those integrated product support elements. What did the Marines demand in terms of design work and performance? How did the system perform in tests? And how’s it actually proving out in the operational theatre.

Through the simulations and wargames, the Services hopes to educate airmen on what to expect, as well as learn more from them about how the military should be adjusting to fight with and against these weapons.

“Distributed wargames provide a method of working with warfighters to develop tactics, techniques and procedures—TTPs—and concept of employment—CONEMP—to utilize these new technologies to meet the warfighter needs and gaps.

Program must develop digital models that run at accelerated speeds while maintaining real-world conditions and results. The digital models should use artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve over time.

Using those digital models, simulations will be developed for airmen to train on, including scenarios that enable users to mix and match tools, techniques and resources to different effects.

Digital tools should collect data and return results on trainee performance, as well as the fidelity of the models and simulations to real-world situations and physics.

Participate in mock digital missions to further research into future weapons. The evaluations will look to “identify what questions need to be answered, what modules are required, what simulations need to be run for specific missions and what analyses need to be performed to answer digital mock-up questions.”

All this culminates in “distributed wargames” that will be used to determine whether emerging technologies are ready to be transitioned to the battlefield. Services expected to “facilitate and participate in” these events, as well as manage the upkeeping and development of the platform.

While the concept of operations for digitally driven autonomous vehicles are still very much under development, the general idea is the vehicles could expand not only the fleet’s sensor reach by adding more nodes to provide data to commanders but also deepening the fleet’s magazines by fielding additional missile cells that could fire on remote at the direction of a manned vehicle.

It is now possible to deploy a multi-sensor intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance [ISR] capability thousands of miles from its home base. With the only requirement being a small team of technicians on the deployment field, there’s no longer a need to dismantle the aircraft and ship the entire system. This facilitates the availability and initial ISR capability in emergency missions.

Autonomous vehicles can be equipped with an airborne detect and avoid system that includes an air-air radar and a traffic collision and avoidance system that offers a significant alternative to the traditional rule of see and avoid.

The redundancy of the primary beyond line of sight BLOS link with a secondary satellite link operating in another frequency band ensures the continuation of the mission by permanently maintaining the piloting capabilities, even in the event of interference. Satellite data links are used to control the vehicle, operate on-board sensors, and disseminate the ISR data collected from the aircraft to the cockpit.

The disconnection of this link, although rare, reveals a true weakness, especially when the aircraft operate in a non-segregated environment or during bad weather. However, with a second satellite link, the aircraft will now remain in control of the remote pilot and will either continue its mission safely or land without issue.

Modern autonomous vehicles will allow more digital modular sensors to be integrated according to customer needs. The ISR omni-role platform will be plug-and-play and “sensors agnostic.” As aircraft allow for constant monitoring of a target and its digital battlespace, it is necessary to capitalize on that through the modularity of sensors ideally without hampering endurance.

The challenge is to provide the operator with the opportunity to be able to quickly obtain integration of his own weapons and sensor suites. This flexible plug-and-play capacity to perform missions with a wide variety of sensors will be a considerable step forward.

Services have tested a digital robot kit that can turn virtually any plane into a self-piloting drone, through a program called ROBOpilot. Systems interacts with flight controls just like a human pilot, pushing all the correct buttons, flipping the switches, manipulating the yoke and throttle and watching the gages.

“At the same time, the system uses sensors, like GPS and an Inertial Measurement Unit --essentially a way for a machine to locate itself in space without GPS for situational awareness and information gathering. A computer analyzes these digital details to make decisions on how to best control the flight. Once the flight is done, the kit can be pulled out and the plane reconverted to one requiring a human pilot.

Small drones are becoming a big problem. Here’s how next-generation digital networking techniques could help.
Pentagon has been highlighting the difficulties of fending off small unmanned aircraft. The farther away you can spot them, the better. But as drones get smaller, detecting at distance isn’t easy.

It’s now possible to detect incredibly small disturbances in radar returns that could indicate the presence of small drones, perhaps as far as three kilometers away — enough to give militaries a big hand in stopping them.

An active electronically scanned array, or AESA, radar is paired with a digital networking tool. AESA radars, which steer its multiple radar beams electronically instead of using physical gimbals, have been around for years. The real innovation lies in training digital tools to detect objects, including objects in radar imagery.

But there’s very little imagery data to train a machine learning algorithm on how to see something that small. What’s needed is a dataset of extremely small modulations in the echoes of radar signals.

Team turned a small bit of available training data into an abundance by pitting “Digital Twin” networks against one another. For instance, one network might learn how to recognize an object by looking at many slightly varying examples. The second network reverses that process.

So if a conventional network learns that a certain combination of white pixels against a dark background represents a particular objects, the system starts with the finished image and then learns about the combination of white or dark pixels that the first network to its determination.

As the second network does its work, it creates slightly varying versions of the data — which themselves can be used for training. That’s how the researchers turned their small mini-Doppler dataset into something robust enough to be useful.

“To train a deep digital network, we need to use a large training data set that contains diverse target features. If the data is lacking, then an overfitting issue occurs. The system was used to augment the data set by producing fake data that have similar distributions with the original data.

“It is reasonable to say that our system can ‘detect’ a drone more than 3km, However, it will not be a fact if we say we can identify a drone with the help pf this system at this point. The fact is that we have constructed a platform/idea to be used for the classification, but diverse tests are needed to be done in the future.”

Modern networked logistics systems would also go a long way in helping warfighters be more efficient. In the longer term, that could look like a digital barcode system that in real time tracks people and goods on the battlefield.

Since significant levels of loitering time is common for helicopter lift time, a clearer sense of where people and things are could cut down on that.

If you can track everybody moving around the battlefield with a networked system that cant be compromised you could create digital movement tables for people and cargo nearly real time.”

Simulations must consistently implement mandated system digital security controls for safeguarding operational information.

Requirements include digital controls for user authentication, user access, media protection, incident response, vulnerability management, and confidentiality of information.

Security incidents included unauthorised access to mission-critical networks, stolen equipment, such as laptops and cellular phones; inadvertent disclosure of information; data exfiltration; and the exploitation of network and system vulnerabilities.

We identified deficiencies related to:

1. Using multifactor authentication

2. Enforcing the use of strong passwords

3. Identifying network/system vulnerabilities

4. Mitigating network/system vulnerabilities

5. Protecting info stored on removable media

6. Overseeing network and boundaries

7. Configuring user accounts to auto lock after extended periods

8. Implementing physical security controls

9. Creating and reviewing system activity reports
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10 Granting system access based on user’s assigned duties.