HPCMP CREATE™-AV and the air force digital thread

Abstract

The United States Air Force is developing and applying the Digital Thread analytical framework to provide engineering analysis capabilities and support to decision making over the entire lifecycle of air vehicles. The Digital Thread merges physics-based modeling and data to generate an authoritative digital representation of the system at each phase of the acquisition and sustainment process of a weapon system. The High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) Computational Research Engineering Acquisition Tools Environment for Air Vehicles (CREATE™-AV¥) is a key enabler for providing multi-discipline, multi-physics, multi-fidelity simulation of an air vehicle essential to the authoritative digital representation of the system in the Digital Thread. In this paper, the Digital Thread is defined and the key role CREATE-AV plays in implementation of the Digital Thread concept is presented. An overview of several pilot studies designed to validate the value of the Digital Thread in support of acquisition is also presented.