Nichols Martin
Raytheon Technologies’ intelligence and space business is exploring the concept of digital engineering in an effort to accelerate the development of technologies for potential use in next-generation military fighter aircraft.
“We will use our digital capabilities in three ways ““ it’s transforming our products, it’s adapting how we work and it’s optimizing our operations,“ said Roy Azevedo, president of Raytheon Intelligence and Space and a 2020 Wash100 recipient.
Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper told reporters in September that the military service built and flew a new fighter jet demonstrator.
Raytheon noted the digital engineering approach seeks to reduce manual work by using a common reference data set across design, fabrication and sustainment activities.
The method also helps engineers determine how small design modifications can change cost requirements and long-term development timelines, the company added.
Hefty Conklin, chief engineer for advanced mission systems at RI&S, said digital engineering allowed his team to identify requirements based on initial coding, as opposed to the traditional time-consuming approach of listing down detailed requirements before the actual start of a project.
