Air Force Taps Istari for Digital Overhaul
The U.S. Department of the Air Force has awarded an $8.6 million contract to Istari Digital for its "Industry Øne" initiative. The project aims to accelerate the military branch's digital transformation by breaking down barriers in digital engineering. It's part of the Pentagon's broader strategy to modernize its operations with advanced technology.
The "Industry Øne" initiative directly tackles a long-standing obstacle in defense procurement: a fragmented digital landscape. Major defense programs often involve thousands of suppliers, each using different, incompatible software tools behind their own secure firewalls. This separation forces engineers to manually copy and share data, a slow and risky process that hinders collaboration and delays the development of new capabilities. Istari's platform aims to create an "Internet of Models" that allows government and industry partners to securely access and interact with each other's engineering data without centralizing or copying it. This approach, where data remains under the owner's control but is globally connectable, is designed to create a "digital thread"—a seamless flow of information throughout a weapon system's entire lifecycle. This contract builds on previous, smaller-scale efforts. "Flyer Øne" is a program pioneering the complete digital certification of an aircraft, a milestone yet to be achieved in aviation. Another initiative, "Model Øne," focused on breaking down collaboration barriers for models and simulations across different domains. "Industry Øne" scales these concepts to the entire defense industrial base. The CEO of Istari Digital is Dr. Will Roper, who previously served as the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. During his tenure, he championed a "Digital Century Series" concept, envisioning a future where aircraft could be designed, tested, and fielded much more rapidly through digital engineering, a vision the Air Force continues to pursue. The ultimate goal is to move from blueprints to "digital twins"—virtual models of aircraft and systems that are so accurate they can be used for extensive testing and predictive maintenance. This allows for the early identification of potential failures, reduces the need for costly physical prototypes, and enables faster refinement of designs. By creating a continuous feedback loop of data from design through operations, the Air Force aims to significantly shorten acquisition timelines. This ensures that advanced capabilities are delivered to warfighters faster, providing a strategic advantage by allowing the military to adapt to emerging threats with greater speed and efficiency.
