Raytheon Explores Digital Engineering Concept to Support Next-Gen Combat Aircraft Development; Roy Azevedo Quoted

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.