If you think what you see is double, you may be right. Nowadays, digital twins are helping to drive the development of many industries. From pharmaceuticals and semiconductors to unlocking future retail experiences, and to learning more about the sinking of the Titanic, digital twins have many applications.
The defense industry is one of the many industries that benefits from digital twins. One catalyst is the increasing demand for digital engineering in the industry. Steve Bleymaier, Chief Technology Officer of Ansys, a subsidiary of Synopsys, stated that this is driven by system complexity and the urgent need to accelerate the acquisition timeline. In terms of national defense, recent geopolitical conflicts have changed the nature of warfare. We are now facing new challenges, such as countering drone swarms and the US Department of Defense (DoD) requiring all new projects to adopt digital and mission engineering tasks after December 2023. ”
Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy, interoperability, and "design adaptability" are becoming increasingly important for the defense industry. Obviously, rapid innovation and production of new products are crucial, and digital twins are the perfect way to achieve this goal.
What are digital twins? Simply put, a digital twin is a representation of a virtual model or real-world product or process that is synchronized at a specified frequency and fidelity. Although digital twins were originally used for operation, maintenance, and upkeep, today the benefits of digital twins can be applied earlier in this process. For example, digital twins can be used during the design and testing phases to accelerate the development process. Then, after deployment, digital twins can be managed in real-time for analysis, predictive maintenance scheduling, performance optimization, and more.
Vitor Lopes, Regional Sales Manager of Ansys under Synopsys, said, "Digital twins are part of a spectrum. Their value can be unleashed throughout their entire lifecycle, especially in the context of digital engineering. This is not just something happening in the field, but accelerating innovation from day one
This efficiency benefit runs through the entire development cycle and is very suitable for the defense industry, which is developing faster than ever before.
What are the benefits and challenges of using digital twins and digital engineering in the defense industry?
When used in the defense industry, digital twins provide specific advantages that can improve mission readiness, predictive maintenance, and overall system performance.
These measures include: validating and confirming requirements early in the design lifecycle, digitally supporting testing activities, revealing key insights about performance, operational scope, and optimal maintenance intervals to improve system reliability and asset availability, while reducing service demand and increasing revenue, such as by creating high-value service revenue streams.
By implementing predictive maintenance to reduce costs and allowing manufacturers to proactively optimize their products to save on warranty and insurance costs
Lopes said, "Initially, these advantages were limited to the operational phase, but now we see them being introduced into design and testing, making the lifecycle more streamlined and integrated. Therefore, digital twin technology enables the defense industry to more effectively modernize existing systems and design new advanced systems.
The digital twin model of the F-35 stealth fighter jet
As for the challenges in this field, Bleymaier said that these challenges are indeed multifaceted. It may be difficult to introduce new model-based, collaborative, agile, traceable, and interconnected technologies into existing traditional and isolated engineering teams. Bleymaier said, "But this is not a destination, but a journey. The goal is to achieve a permanent agile state that enables the team to quickly adapt to customer needs or constantly changing threats
Therefore, Bleymaier suggests that organizations aimed at implementing digital engineering tools in their processes need to address challenges in four key areas: people and culture, technology, processes, and infrastructure
Bleymaier said, "Digital engineering requires not only the adoption of tools, but also a comprehensive change management strategy. This involves changing the way Chinese defense organizations think, work, and develop throughout the entire company and lifecycle (from conception to deployment).
How simulation software can help build task centric open ecosystems and transform them into Excel using digital twins and digital engineering
If implementing tools such as digital twins involves such a wide range of processes, how can defense companies best achieve this?
One solution is to use Ansys simulation software, such as digital twin platforms based on Ansys Twin Builder simulation and digital twin software based on Ansys TwinAI. Defense industry engineers can use these solutions to link their design requirements with high fidelity simulations and digital twins. Therefore, engineers can efficiently and accurately manage design and process workflows; Integrate with Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Application Lifecycle Management, and Enterprise Data Systems; And achieve multidisciplinary design optimization and model-based systems engineering (MBSE).
Bleymaier said, "Through our open architecture, we integrate with traditional infrastructure (whether it's commercial, government, or internal solutions) to help customers build an interconnected and collaborative digital engineering environment.
Digital twins can enhance task readiness and enable predictive maintenance to help ensure success
Taking the modernization plan as an example. These types of programs typically rely on data sources with known limitations, such as outdated models or data that only covers specific locations or variables. Lopes said, "By combining the two in a hybrid modeling approach, we can fill in the gaps and create more complete images. This integration can better understand the system and support decisions related to operations and modernization. It is the fundamental pillar of today's hybrid digital twin strategy
Regardless of the specific usage scenario, Ansys digital twin solutions have significant benefits, including:
Compared to the manual methods of typical companies, the time required to create accurate product models has been reduced by two times
When using Ansys software to validate and optimize product models, product performance improved by 25%
Once the digital twin is connected to the work product, maintenance costs throughout the product lifecycle will be reduced by 20%
baseline? Bleymaier said, "Ansys helps aerospace and defense (A&D) organizations innovate faster, reduce costs, shorten schedules, and improve readiness. ”.
What is the future of digital twins in the field of national defense?
Digital twins have all the potential benefits, so it's not surprising that they have a bright future. For example, consulting firm McKinsey predicts that the global twin technology market will grow to $73.5 billion by 2027.
In terms of national defense, part of this growth is due to government contracts now requiring the use of digital twins in certain areas. Bleymaier said, "This is good news because building digital twins during the design and testing process is much easier, ensuring seamless state based maintenance after system deployment. This method allows for proactive replacement of parts, reduces downtime, simplifies the supply chain, and lowers costs. But most importantly, it improves readiness and reliability
Although this process is more challenging for traditional systems, it can still be achieved through a hybrid twin that integrates historical data, artificial intelligence, real-time physics, and sensor inputs. Bleymaier said, "This combination improves prediction accuracy from about 80% (solely through analysis) to 98%.
Lopes said that hybrid twins can be used in combat, allowing defense systems to continuously adapt, self adjust, and maintain fidelity, even after many years of mission execution. Another aspect of this growth is the continuous expansion of digital twins from simple operations to the entire product lifecycle. In addition, Lopes shared, "For the new system, you will see greater interoperability, allowing digital artifacts from different suppliers and levels to be connected and validated together
With the passage of time and the development and changes of existing systems, digital twins will become increasingly important. Bleymaier said, "Digital twins are connected through a connected digital thread, tracing back to the authoritative source of truth - your initial design reference task - so that future upgrades can be carried out faster, at lower cost, and with fewer interruptions.
