Digital engineering tools and methods are becoming firmly entrenched in the way in which military equipment is tested and certified.
02 AUGUST 2023. Digital Mission Engineering can deliver warfighting capability faster than ever before.
Our region is facing the most challenging set of circumstances in decades. Speed to capability is paramount, and a procurement mindset that prioritises achieving a minimum viable capability in the shortest possible time, while still demonstrating value for money, must be adopted.
Fortuitously, we are also in the midst of a digital engineering revolution which is offering real opportunities for accelerating capability realisation. One outcome of this digital engineering revolution is the emergence of a discipline known as Digital Mission Engineering as a genuine enabler of force integration at the systems, and system of systems level.
Digital Mission Engineering combines the power of physics-based simulation with model-based systems engineering to enable a data-driven evaluation of systems, and systems of systems, against key mission metrics at every phase of the system lifecycle.
It enables experimentation to discover meaningful relationships between mission inputs and mission outputs.
Digital transformation in the pursuit of accelerated capability realisation requires investment.
Nova Systems is implementing and advancing a truly digital transformation of our world-leading Test and Evaluation (T&E) expertise, as part of ensuring our critical sovereign role as an independent assurance partner for industry and Government evolves in lockstep with technological possibility.
This facilitates Nova System’s adoption of digital engineering methods including Digital Mission Engineering. It requires both an extensive and prolonged commitment in the form of digital upskilling of its engineering workforce, investing in tools and process, and the forming of partnerships with recognised industry leaders and academic institutions in the field of digital engineering transformation.
Digital engineering tools and methods including the use of modelling, simulation, and digital twins are becoming firmly entrenched in the way in which military equipment is tested and certified. While traditional approaches to testing physical systems remain relevant, achieving the level of force integration across the five domains described in the DSR necessitates the use of digital assurance methods such as Digital Mission Engineering.
A key focus of Nova System’s investment in Digital Mission Engineering has been on our ability to provide assurance of electromagnetic warfare (EW) systems and capabilities in an agile environment, utilising a digital toolset which is scalable, effective, and offers ongoing cost-effectiveness for stakeholders over the life of a program.
As such, our Digital Mission Engineering environment enables our experts with deep electronic warfare and electromagnetic spectrum engineering skills to deliver advanced spectrum mission planning, mission data operations support (MDOS), and electromagnetic spectrum operations (EMSO). These capabilities are a necessity on the battlefield, where information dominance and electromagnetic manoeuvre assurance is crucial for survival.
Underpinning our digital engineering transformation is the establishment of the new Nova Systems T&E Centre of Excellence. Now entering its second year, it brings together defence, industry, and academia to deliver Digital Mission Engineering expertise, synthetic methods for testing systems of systems and providing mission assurance. It also provides advanced T&E practitioner training focusing on emerging technology such as synthetic environments and uncrewed systems.
The Nova Systems T&E Centre of Excellence aims to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Australian T&E workforce. Delivering the objectives of the DSR will require the generation and sustainment of a workforce of Australian T&E professionals who have the practical skills, knowledge and experience to test the integrated systems and disruptive technologies needed to ensure our national security.
As sovereign leaders in T&E for more than two decades, Nova Systems recognised that there was no single integrated training solution available in Australia that used real-world mission systems to teach T&E practitioners how to apply scientific test and analysis techniques (STAT), design of experiments (DoE), digital engineering skills, and validated modelling and simulation tools in the context of systems-of-systems T&E.
Nova Systems therefore elected to invest heavily in the creation of an Advanced Test and Evaluation (T&E) Practitioners Course.
This in-country training solution reflects best practice in T&E and covers the skills, knowledge, and practical experience for those with responsibilities to assure complex systems of systems. The course is world-leading in the way it integrates modelling and simulation with T&E skills training and will create true sovereign capability directly aligned to meeting our stated national ambition. Details on the first course intake, scheduled for February 2024, will be available soon.