The Air Force’s new
approach to fighter development harkens back to the Cold War’s
Century Series, which created a
half-dozen jet designs in less than a decade to gain an edge over improving Soviet aircraft. The new “
Digital Century Series,”
brainchild of wunderkind acquisition chief Will Roper, aims to use modular “plug and play” hardware and software, computer-aided design, and virtual modeling & simulation to rapidly field new fighter variants, with less of the cumbersome integration and real-world testing that bog down modern R&D...
...The Digital Century Series will instead fall right in the middle with the worst combination of attributes: aircraft that are too expensive to buy in the large numbers required for adaptability and complexity, but too limited in their functionality to be effective as a small force.
It’s worth remembering that the Air Force bought at least 800 copies of each of the original Century Series variants...
...Unmanned platforms would make the most of the Digital Century Series approach by placing fewer design and testing constraints on developers. Unmanned vehicles would also enable the Digital Century Series to employ and mature technology for small batch manufacturing. Lying between artisanal prototyping and mass production, engineers using this technique construct a vehicle using off-the-shelf components that are integrated using middleware built from open source code or 3D printing. The resulting aircraft would contain a large portion of existing well-understood components, reducing test requirements and supply chain challenges. A manned aircraft would be less likely to harvest these benefits.
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