Jane Edwards
Josh Jackson, senior vice president of the Army business unit within the defense and civilian sector at Science Applications International Corp., said rapid design to prototype, integration of emerging technologies and increased warfighter touchpoints are the three factors that drive the U.S. Army’s adoption of digital engineering to accelerate capability development and modernization.
In an opinion piece published Tuesday in C4ISRNET, Jackson wrote about the Army’s use of digital engineering to speed up prototyping work on unmanned aerial systems, particularly reconnaissance and surveillance drones used for situational awareness on the battlefield.
“Utilizing digital modeling, these systems are meticulously simulated and refined, resulting in optimized designs and a substantial reduction in the time required to transition from design concepts to functional prototypes,” he noted.
When it comes to emerging tech integration, Jackson discussed how digital twins, artificial intelligence and reverse engineering could enable the service to integrate new tech capabilities into legacy systems and how DE is reflected in the Army’s Future Vehicle Lift program.
The SAIC executive mentioned how warfighter touchpoints could help promote and expedite experimentation.
“The dramatic increase of warfighter touchpoints, driven by the strategic convergence of a model-based approach and hands-on experimentation, enables a desired and profound shift in the way the Army approaches capability development. The multifaceted strategy not only revolves around meeting known requirements but also actively encourages experimentation with future operational concepts,” Jackson wrote.
