The November 2019 issue of Air Force Magazine contains a fascinating article entitled “Q&A: A New Way to Build Fighters” in which the editorial director of the publication sits down for an interview with Dr Will Roper, the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (SAF/AQ) to discuss the Air Force’s Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) system, and Dr. Roper’s “Digital Century Series” concept for rapidly developing and fielding future fighter aircraft.

Enabled by new Digital Engineering capabilities (and yes, DAU offers a Credential for that! See our Digital Engineering: DoD Consumer Credential site for additional details), the NGAD and the Digital Century Series offer some potentially and powerfully transformative opportunities for the Air Force in particular and the DoD acquisition enterprise in general.

My question to life cycle logistics and product support professionals across the Department and defense industry is: What do you think? What are the implications, considerations, and challenges to be addressed from a weapon system product support and sustainment perspective? Additionally, given the imperative to pursue such innovative capabilities, what must we do to adapt our thinking, processes, procedures, and policies? And are these innovations transferrable across the Air Force? Beyond combat aircraft? Across the Department of Defense?

And just as importantly, if you were selected to serve as the product support manager (PSM) for such a program, how would you most effectively and affordably ensure product support and sustainment capabilities for systems delivered to your warfighter customers in this way?