A WarU Workshop Bridges Digital Engineering and Acquisition
Digital acquisition is essential to modernizing acquisi- tion processes and delivering the lethality and survivability of warfighting products and services. Meeting warfighting needs requires disciplined acquisi - tion leadership, integrated modern digital architectures, and a modernized acquisition workforce. This special edition is organized in a progression. It begins by establishing why digital acquisition is now unavoidable, then turns to who must lead it and how leadership intent must be structured through architecture and governance. From there, the articles move into how digital acquisition is executed in practice, how the workforce is trained to oper- ate in digital environments, how emerging tools such as AI can augment decision-making, and how AI-enabled systems must be secured and assured. A digital logic thread is deliv- ered while offering readers multiple entry points. Digital Acquisition Leadership: The Problem, the Stakes, and the Core Solution Robert Hannah, Lt. Col. Christopher Balsters, USAF, Jeffrey Havlicek, and Aleksandra Scalco, Ph.D., examine a persis - tent leadership challenge: acquisition systems continue to optimize near-term performance while deferring life-cycle affordability and sustainment consequences. By refram - ing digital acquisition as a leadership discipline rather than a tooling upgrade, the authors show how digital models and portfolio accountability enable executives to govern trade-offs early rather than absorb them later. The authors shift the conversation from transformation aspiration to leadership responsibility. The Acquisition Reference Architecture (ARA) Dr. Anandi Singh addresses a structural tension at the heart of digital acquisition: Programs are expected to move faster and integrate more closely yet lack a common architectural foundation that enables reuse and interoperability. By pro - posing the ARA as a layered, enterprise-level framework, the author offers a concrete mechanism for scaling digital engineering across programs and services and sees archi - tecture as the connective tissue between leadership intent and executable digital practice. Validating IPT Use of a Digital Acquisition Technical Management Stack Jeffrey Havlicek engages a practical execution gap: Policy calls for integrated, mode-based acquisition, but program offices struggle to unify engineering, cost, schedule, risk, and test data in daily decision-making. Drawing on vali - dated outcomes from workshops at the Warfighting Acqui - sition University (WarU), the author offers an experience- based view of how a shared technical stack enabled by Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) functions as an authoritative source of truth for integrated product teams (IPTs). Architectural concepts are grounded by the author in observable, repeatable program behavior.
Lt. Col. Tyrone Theriot, USMC (Ret.) explores a familiar workforce challenge: Digital acquisition concepts are widely discussed yet rarely practiced under realistic program pres - sures. Through a field-tested account of a WarU workshop, WSE 006, the author provides a practitioner’s view of how cross-functional teams apply digital models to real trade- offs such as cost, schedule, performance, and risk. This ar - ticle demonstrates how digital acquisition competence is built, not declared. A Test Case: Leveraging Copilot to Assist in Data Ingestion and Analysis (Caveat Emptor) Seth Shepherd probes a growing tension in AI-enabled ac - quisition: Automation promises efficiency, yet confidently generated outputs can quietly undermine data integrity. Us - ing a simple but revealing test analysis example, the author reframes AI as a junior analyst that demands disciplined hu - man oversight rather than blind trust. The article tempers enthusiasm for AI by reinforcing the need for validation, governance, and judgment. Securing AI-enabled Systems Through Dr. Aaron Jacobson addresses a critical assurance prob - lem: Traditional verification and compliance methods fail to capture the dynamic risks introduced by AI-enabled, software-intensive systems. By integrating MBSE with System-Theoretic Process Analysis for Security and loss- based engineering, the author offers a system-level lens for identifying timing, control, and feedback vulnerabilities that evade component-level testing. As the issue’s security capstone, this piece extends digital acquisition from speed and integration to resilience and mission assurance. Leveraging AI to Fight Complexity and Unlock Digital Acquisition Brian Kozola confronts a foundational barrier to scaling digital engineering across the acquisition enterprise: The workforce is asked to manage growing system-of-systems complexity through modeling approaches that remain too specialized and technically demanding for broad adoption. By pairing SysML v2’s text-based syntax and standardized Application Program Interface with AI-enabled natural-lan - guage interaction, the author presents a compelling path toward making system models much more widely acces - sible, interoperable, and useful. Digital, Model-Based Systems, and Loss-Based Engineering
SEPTEMBER –OCTOBER 2026 | DEFENSE ACQUISITION MAGAZINE 7
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