digital acquisition framework is suffi - cient for earnest leadership adoption. Without a near-perfect technical strategy of designing a system using a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) and open API controls, there is still a risk that assumptions may change if low-level models do not speak machine-to-machine. For ex - ample, structural engineers of a fu - ture bomber aircraft may certify the wing design for four engines, only for a cost analyst to pressure the program to rescope to two engines. Nothing inherently triggers a call to the low-level statics and dynamics models to reexamine wing integrity without communication. However, as modeling tools moved toward SysML v2 with fully
transcribed natural language syntax, there is an opportunity to run auto - mated machine audits using tools like Artificial Intelligence (AI) Large Language Models (LLMs) to identify these disconnects, whether well evi - denced or suspected. MOSA data in - teroperability with rich assumption metadata is the platinum standard for alleviating the burden on humans by leveraging AI. Summary The Secretary of War’s Acquisition Transformation Strategy is now in the implementation planning phase by the secretary’s staff. Multiple tech - nical software IT configuration stacks are suitable for federal IT hosting. Two current WarU workshops, WSE
032 and WSE 006, provide the acquisi - tion community with comprehensive digital acquisition management train - ing using Dassault Systèmes’ CATIA V5 and Teamwork Cloud. The findings in - dicate that an IPT can effectively em - ploy a Technical Management Stack for complete life-cycle management. Note: Acknowledgment is ex - tended to WarU faculty members Tin Tran, Robert Raygan, Brian Kozola, James Howell, and Ty Theriot for their contributions in modeling artifacts for course instruction. HAVLICEK is a professor of Engineering and Technical Management at the Warfighting Acquisition University and an early author of the digital acquisition policy in the U.S. Air Force Office of the Chief Engineer. His back- ground includes a combined 32-year career as an Air Force officer and federal civilian of engineering and operations research. He holds a B.S.E. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, an M.S. degree in Acquisition Logistics from the Air Force Institute of Tech- nology (AFIT), and a graduate certificate in Operations Research (Human System Inte- gration) from the Naval Postgraduate School. He also earned doctoral candidacy at AFIT in Operations Research. The author can be contacted at Jeffrey.Havlicek@waru.edu. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not the Department of War. Repro- duction or reposting of articles from Defense Acqui- sition magazine should credit the authors and the magazine.
The focus is on concept exploration, evaluation of alternative designs, rapid prototyping and testing, and source
selection considerations. Participants are required to track planned and executed cost, schedule, and performance updates within a single, cloud-accessible database.
SEPTEMBER –OCTOBER 2026 | DEFENSE ACQUISITION MAGAZINE 25
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