sis” provides insights into the balance between this reduction in administra - tive burden and the increase in the burden of human-AI oversight. Another aspect of the AI discussion is security. As AI reshapes the war- fighting acquisition system, the ar - ticle “Securing AI-Enabled Systems” offers a timely look at how model- based systems engineering (MBSE) and System-Theoretic Process Anal - ysis for Security (STPA-Sec) can un - cover hidden security risks and pro - vide a more proactive way of securing AI-dependent warfighting systems. As AI reshapes defense acquisition, this article offers a timely look at how MBSE and STPA-Sec can uncover hid - den risks and provide a more proac - tive path to securing AI-enabled war- fighting systems. This special edition builds upon the legacy of the Apollo program. That program used emerging tech - nologies and developed new port - folio/program management and sys - tems engineering methodologies to get humans to the moon. Today, the warfighting acquisition workforce can take the mantle of its Apollo pre - decessors to explore and find ways of using digital technology and con - cepts that support the DoW mission and warfighter success. ESPARZA is a Professor of Systems Engineer- ing in the Warfighting Acquisition Univer- sity (WarU) Department of Engineering and Technology Management. He was formerly an assistant program manager for engineer- ing at Marine Corps Systems Command. He holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from Capella University and an M.S. in Electri- cal Engineering from the Naval Postgradu- ate School. CONLEY serves as the budget analyst at WarU’s South Region. She has spent 18 years working in DoW and previously served as a professor and university administrator in academia. The authors can be contacted at jorge.esparza@waru.edu and laronda.conley@war.edu . The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not the Department of War. Repro- duction or reposting of articles from Defense Acqui- sition magazine should credit the authors and the magazine.
U.S. Naval Test Pilot School students Michael James and Lt. Cole VonDerOhe perform a simulated hand-flown, manual re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere after a return trajectory from the moon during a recent technical exchange with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Source: U.S. Navy photo
Core Solution” reviews how mission architectures are a dynamic, model- based foundation that connects mis - sion needs to acquisition decisions. To support these acquisition needs, acquisition reference architectures traced to the mission architectures are needed to ensure that the ma - terial solution has engineering con - sistency across the DoW acquisition enterprise and aligns with laws, regulations, policy, and standing op - erating procedures. This topic is dis - cussed further in the “Acquisition Ref - erence Architecture” article. If the warfighting acquisition workforce is aligned with the digital acquisition enterprise environment as described across the various lev - els of architecture, we can make ac - quisition faster, more efficient, and operationally relevant. Digital threads and digital twins allow us to understand how changes in one competency can affect other competencies and their associated parts of the system. What system functions must be dropped or de - layed due to budget shortfalls, and how does this affect operational ca -
pabilities? How does a proposed en - gineering change from a warfighter affect overall system performance, maintainability, and sustainability? WarU has made inroads on facilitating this acquisition workforce alignment through cross-functional training. A manifestation of this type of training is the Digital Acquisition Management Workshop (WSE 006). Two articles in this special edition, “Validating an IPT’s Use of a Techni - cal Management Stack for Engineer - ing and Data” and “A WarU Workshop Bridges Digital Engineering and Ac - quisition,” delve into the context and concepts of this workshop. Any discussion of digital acquisi - tion must include AI. Three articles are devoted to this topic. “Leverag - ing AI to Fight Complexity” explores how integrating the new modeling language and AI can mainstream digi - tal engineering, enabling nonengi - neering competencies to accomplish their acquisition work. It is widely believed that AI will help the acquisi - tion workforce reduce its administra - tive burden. “A Test Case: Leveraging Co-Pilot for Data Ingestion and Analy -
52 DEFENSE ACQUISITION MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER –OCTOBER 2026
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker