Digital engineering transformation across the Department of Defense

TLDR

Digital transformation across industries drives affordability, agility, quality, and efficiency, and advances in digital technologies are opening opportunities to transform engineering practice. The Department of Defense’s Digital Engineering initiative aims to overhaul the design, development, delivery, operation, and sustainment of complex systems through an integrated digital approach that unifies authoritative data and models across disciplines. The paper defines this integrated digital approach and details ongoing initiatives across the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Air Force, Army, and Navy that operationalize the vision. Initial benefits have emerged, but the paper also identifies challenges and outlines next steps needed to fully realize the digital engineering vision.

Abstract

A digital transformation has been implemented across a range of industries to drive affordability, agility, quality, and efficiency. Advancements in digital technologies are unleashing innovations that provide an opportunity to transform the engineering practice. Digital engineering is the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) initiative to transform the way it designs, develops, delivers, operates, and sustains complex systems in a formidable and changing threat environment. It is defined as “an integrated digital approach that uses authoritative sources of systems’ data and models as a continuum across disciplines to support lifecycle activities from concept through disposal.” This paper sets the strategic direction for the digital engineering vision, in which five strategic goals are presented to guide DoD’s transformation efforts. This paper also describes the digital engineering initiatives that are in progress across the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Air Force, Army, and Navy. While these efforts have begun to realize initial benefits, challenges and next steps are also presented in order to realize the vision.