Digital Engineering Efforts for Munitions Yield Lessons Learned for Possible Fielding

摘要

Last fall, former U.S. Air Force acquisitions chief Will Roper held out the possibility that the service would soon announce an e-series, digitally engineered weapon to follow the Air Force designation of the eT-7A training aircraft as the service's first e-series platform and aircraft. While the Air Force has yet to disclose what its first digitally engineered munition will be and when the latter could field, development efforts are ongoing within the Air Force at Program Executive Officer for Weapons and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and at contractors, such as Lockheed Martin's [LMT] Skunk Works division, which is using internal research and development funding and the company's StarDrive digital engineering process to develop the Speed Racer cruise missile drone. At AFRL's munitions directorate at Eglin AFB, Fla., digital twins of the Gray Wolf low-cost cruise missile prototype have shown promise, Air Force Col. Garry Haase, the commander of AFRL's munitions directorate, said on March 26 during an AFCEA International forum.