Air Force Awards $8.6M Digital Contract
The U.S. Department of the Air Force has awarded an $8.6 million contract to Istari Digital. The funding is for an initiative called Industry Øne, which is designed to break down digital engineering barriers. The project aims to accelerate digital transformation across the Defense Industrial Base.
The Industry Øne initiative directly tackles the challenge of connecting thousands of defense suppliers who use incompatible digital tools behind separate, secure firewalls. Instead of manual data sharing, Istari's platform will create an "Internet of Models," allowing secure access and interaction with engineering data without it ever being copied or stored outside the owner's control. This new contract builds on two prior Air Force programs with Istari Digital: "Flyer Øne" and "Model Øne". Flyer Øne, a collaboration with Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, is working to create the world's first digitally-certified airplane, the X-56A X-plane. Model Øne focused on breaking down barriers for collaboration across different security domains. Istari Digital was founded by Will Roper, the former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, and is backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. The company emerged from stealth mode in May 2022 after raising $13 million in a seed round and secured nine government and commercial contracts within its first nine months. The core of this technology is the "digital twin," a virtual replica of a physical object or system that is continuously updated with real-time data. This allows for extensive simulation and testing in a virtual environment, which can accelerate innovation, identify potential issues early, and reduce the time and cost associated with physical prototypes. This digital-first approach is central to major defense modernization efforts, including the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, which is developing a sixth-generation fighter to replace the F-22 Raptor. The Air Force anticipates that leveraging digital engineering could cut time and costs on the NGAD program by 20%. The push for digital engineering aims to transform a traditionally document-based defense acquisition process into one driven by interconnected digital models. This shift is seen as critical for outpacing adversaries by speeding up the development and fielding of new capabilities.
