A key goal for next-generation defense systems is to achieve a new level of mass affordability and affordable mass that will allow for persistence and hedging in future conflicts. Digital transformation has been at the forefront of the defense community’s initiatives to create systems that are lower cost, smaller and faster without compromising performance. This digital innovation has benefitted from catalysts, such as interoperability, software enablement and a full ecosystem of technologies, products and solutions.
These catalysts have seemed largely incompatible with the analog world, where most innovation has been associated with commercial volumes but has not been readily translatable to the defense sector. A new design approach is changing all of that. By focusing on the development, integration and deployment synergies between digital and analog technologies, the Department of Defense (DOD) can unlock previously unattainable levels of mass affordability.
Mass Affordability for Affordable Mass
The ability to manufacture at scale plays a critical role in preparing for conflict. Affordable mass refers to the capability to produce large quantities of weapons systems at a cost that is sustainable over long periods, especially in the face of prolonged conflicts. It ensures that military forces remain equipped and can sustain operations without the risk of munition depletion. Affordable mass supports sustained operational capability, deterrence through volume and versatility in response.
Mass affordability, conversely, focuses on minimizing the costs of individual units of weaponry to maximize production and deployment capabilities within fixed economic constraints. This approach allows for a broader distribution of technology and resources, ensuring that advanced capabilities are not only available but also sufficiently abundant to reach widescale adoption and utilization. Reduced cost enables the DOD to invest in newer technologies, increase production runs and stabilize ever-growing defense expenditures.
Analog Not Keeping Pace with Digital
Analog has been both the mass and backbone of weapons systems throughout contemporary history. However, the limitations of purely analog systems, inflexibility, manual errors and inefficiencies, are apparent and are coupled with an exquisite design-to-requirements flow-down process. This has raised costs and hindered much-needed productivity improvements and mission-driven innovations. Today, the backbone of most weapons systems has transitioned to all-digital with a design process that is almost entirely digital. Additionally, the increasing use of digital twins is easing integration and lessening the potential for errors.
Digital flexibility, however, is no longer a substitute for mass affordability. Cost per digital mission is not an economically viable choice if the dominance of the underlying analog platform is no longer assured. The inflexibility of the analog world becomes an affordability impediment once again in this scenario. According to a report from the Hudson Institute,1 in the absence of dominance, bets need to be hedged to make mass as affordable as possible.
Analog Transformation
Analog transformation requires a fundamental re-envisioning of analog components and systems by incorporating digital capabilities to optimize and streamline integration. This will lead to automated test and tuning functions and, finally, enable real-time adaptability in the field. The outcome is that the analog function behaves more like a digital building block while retaining its high-fidelity analog performance.
This capability can be referred to as a digital gateway with a representative block diagram, as shown in Figure 1. A digital gateway can be embedded into an analog circuit with minimal impact on the size, weight and power of the product. Customers can then conduct much of their integration in software, eliminating costly specification and technical negotiations typically required to translate and fix the analog performance for integration into a digital system/mission.
Figure 1 Digital gateway controller block diagram.
Analog transformation seeks to enhance the inherent strengths of analog systems while seamlessly incorporating digital advancements. This hybrid approach leverages the precision, reliability, simplicity and mass of analog systems, complemented by the flexibility and data-rich capabilities of digital technologies. Rapid integration and adaptation of digitally-enabled analog building blocks into defense systems represents a transformative approach to affordable mass/mass affordability. Analog transformation is generating a three-fold improvement in the life-cycle cost of product development activities. The savings have manifested in three distinct categories:
Design velocity: The digital gateway is a framework for analog design. It is designed to control and power a set of standard analog building blocks that can be cascaded into a larger function. The physical size and power consumption of the gateway can be tailored to the analog function, but it is fundamentally very small. The framework includes a mechanical architecture that ensures proper isolation and thermal management of the analog and digital building blocks to ensure the overall performance of the function. More importantly, it drives and enables analog miniaturization. All of this, coupled with digital simulation, virtually eliminates the need for respins, saving three to six months.
Test and tune: The digital gateway is also an embedded, automated test stand that provides valuable, rapid insight into the fidelity of a design to meet its performance requirements. It comes with a software interface and basic GUI so that any member of the engineering and operations teams can manipulate the analog function to test and/or tune the device.
Rapidly emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities can quickly adapt the analog function to new missions. This is essential to delivering the speed and innovation required to realize the hedge force concept. Analog functions have rarely been associated with software, but the concept of an embedded digital gateway is being used across multiple industries and applications to make devices more reliable and adaptable to the changing environment. This concept is being implemented in a range of applications, from water meters to implantable devices.
Systems engineer-ready: The ability of systems engineers and architects to interact directly with key elements of a design eliminates some need for specialized engineering functions in a design team. Translating an analog function into a digitally controllable asset at the system level can be very time-consuming and costly to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and integrator. The process typically starts with a hardware control specification. Then, the OEM and integrator must develop custom firmware to control the function. The use of simulation and digital twins can simplify testing but not necessarily firmware development. With the digital gateway, the analog functions have an out-of-the-box experience suitable for a systems engineer or a software engineer, a huge advantage in the speed of adoption and adaptation.
Interoperability and the Need for an Ecosystem
In the analog world, interoperability is largely a physical concept expressed in electromechanical terms. It is time to bring digital interoperability directly into analog building blocks. This has been a cultural issue at many companies with analog and digital assigned to separate teams as part of an integrated product development process. Digital architecture embedded within the analog building blocks needs to be viewed on equal footing, not simply as a necessary service for downstream digital integration. Digital enablement must be exposed to the integrator and possibly to the end-user via software to reap the benefits of speed, adaptability and, ultimately, affordability.
The concepts of interoperability and ecosystem development activities were largely made popular through the advent of digital communication systems. Related concepts have distinct differences that are important to understand in the context of analog transformation. Interoperability refers to the ability of different systems, applications or products to work together seamlessly. Information and functionality are exchanged without additional user effort. This is crucial in ensuring that diverse technologies can integrate and communicate efficiently, fostering a more unified user experience.
Conversely, an ecosystem encompasses a broader network of interrelated entities, including technologies, organizations and users, who interact and depend on each other from technology and commercial perspectives. An ecosystem often relies on interoperability to thrive, as the smooth interaction between its components ensures stability, growth and efficiency. An ecosystem includes the relationships, dynamics and synergies that develop within the network.
While interoperability focuses on technical compatibility, an ecosystem encompasses the broader context of collaboration, innovation and market presence. Bringing digital interoperability and the benefits of an ecosystem to the analog world can have profound consequences for mass affordability/affordable mass and analog transformation. Digital enablement of analog products is the precursor to that transformation.
Conclusion
As industries continue to evolve, the importance of analog transformation will only grow. The integration of analog and digital technologies offers a balanced approach to modernization, preserving the strengths of traditional systems while leveraging the advantages of digital innovation. It is most impactful in the speed and flexibility it brings to the design and deployment of analog technologies. Its impact could be greater as AI and ML start to adapt the analog components of subsystems to the threats and opportunities in front of the mission.
Analog transformation represents a pivotal shift in the way industries approach mass production. By enhancing analog systems with digital capabilities, unprecedented levels of efficiency, cost-effectiveness and scalability can be achieved. This hybrid approach is more than the key to affordable mass production. It is also a pathway to a more sustainable and resilient future. While it can be referred to as an analog transformation, the real missing link is the synergy between analog and digital transformations. Our competitiveness depends on it.
References
- B. Clark and D. Patt, “Hedging Bets: Rethinking Force Design for a Post-Dominance Era,” Hudson Institute, February 20, 2024, Web: https://www.hudson.org/defense-strategy/hedging-bets-rethinking-force-design-post-dominance-era-bryan-clark-dan-patt.