Figure 1.
Current State • Inefficient means of sharing and utilization of engineering data resulting in suboptimal decision-
Future State • Rapid and confident engineering
Using the Pathfinder program we will discover,
document, and share lessons learned in order to build momentum across the Army in the adoption of digital engineering focused along five lines of effort to enable end-to-end digital threads. Reliability Function 1. Workforce 2. Digital Engineering Environments 3. Industy Engagement 4. Engineering Data Governance 5. Policy
decisions informed by digital threads of linked environments, communities, and data resulting in reduced risk and time to deliver program success - Workflow tracked from operational, capability, to requirements, acquisition, test, and sustainment - Integrated, not synchronized (with paper, meetings, or email)—what we do today in separate communities through digital threads
making increasing the time to deliver and risk to successful program performance. - Disparate and siloed engineering data - Nonstandard siloed engineering environments - Nondigital artifacts with manual processes - Lack of digital engineering awareness
Source: G. Camarillo, Association of the United States Army, 2023
Tenet 1. Establish DE focus areas. A focus area is an enduring DE ca - pability to develop and sustain the DE workforce, provide DE experts and services to Army communities, use and develop DE standards and address needed business process changes, and fill DE gaps in services and capabilities. The initial three DE focus areas are Ground Vehicles, Avia - tion, and Sensors, led by three tech - nology centers under the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM). For example, the DEVCOM Technology Center, the Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC), located in Warren, Michigan, leads the ground vehicle focus area. DEVCOM GVSC and their partners in - clude subject matter experts from the Army, the government, industry, and academia. These experts bring their own unique insight and approaches to the Ground Vehicle focus area. For example, GVSC draws from the nearby automotive industry and al - ready has an established DE Center of Excellence involving 28 universities. Tenet 2. Promote Interoperabil- ity and Implementation. Early DE tools have not always worked well together, hindering interoperability. The Army will drive commonality by working with stakeholders across the Army, industry, and standards
communities. Guidelines will be de - veloped to drive interoperability, im - prove access, and reduce costs. Differ - ent environments will be connected through digital threads. Requests for Information were sent to the Path - finder programs followed by deep dives to develop guidelines and ref - erence architectures for DE environ - ments to drive interoperability. The recognition of the lack of in - teroperability isn’t new as an example from the 1980s demonstrates. Prior to 1988, CAD data could not be shared between groups. To address this is - Table 1. Te Six Pathfnders
sue, Product Data Exchange Specifi - cation, Inc., was formed, consisting of five industry groups. Government and industry worked together to cre - ate the Standard for the Exchange of Product (STEP) data file format, a standardized way to share 3-D CAD data; subsequently, the first official STEP file was introduced in 1994. However, STEP files lack metadata such as manufacturing information; likewise, each enterprise Product De - velopment Management system has its own way of handling information. Thus, those files are not interoper -
Program
Life Cycle Stage
XM-30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle
Acquisition
Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA)
Acquisition
Integrated Fires Mission Command (IFMC)
Production
Joint Targeting Integrated Command and Control Suite (JTIC2S)
Early Acquisition
M113 Armored Personnel Carrier
Sustainment
PAE Aviation Logistics Data Analysis Lab
Sustainment
(Black Hawk, Apache, Chinook)
Source: Army Directive 2024-03.
48 DEFENSE ACQUISITION MAGAZINE | JANUARY – FEBRUARY 2026
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