TECHNOLOGY DESIGN Digital Twins for Modern Government WIDENING THE APERTURE FOR AGILITY, RESILIENCE, AND COMPETITIVE EDGE Authors: Sandra Marshall, Trishna Lovley, Jennifer Jenkins, and Colin Corridon Contributors: Ramesh Soni, Jen Congdon, and Kathleen Featheringham I n 2022, Tyndall Air Force Base showcased a digital “Installation of the Future” as part of its rebuild process. In this extended reality space, leaders run simulations, spot project vulnerabilities, and make advanced operating decisions. It is one of the newest models to show how digital twins are enabling federal agencies to strategically test innovative approaches and solutions (and prepare for emergencies) without ever reaching the limits of the actual world. With estimated market growth from $5.1 billion in 2020 to $115 billion by 2035, digital twins are fast becoming a cornerstone in the design, manufacture, and operations of everything from the products we use to the buildings and cities where we work and live. As digital twin technologies quickly grow more capable, federal agencies, from defense to critical infrastructure, are increasingly positioned to leverage advanced insights from previously untapped data for improved mission outcomes. Components of a successful adoption include understanding the architecture, integrating a system of systems, overcoming challenges of scale, and translating data into meaningful, intuitive visualizations. Understanding the Architecture Imagine hundreds of millions of disparate data streams that are connected to create unbroken threads of insight. Together these digital threads can solve large, complex, and dynamic problems on the ground, in the earth’s atmosphere, and even in outer space. It sounds like the future, but this type of innovation is already taking hold through digital twin capabilities. For example, the U.S. Space Force is acquiring digital twin technology to have a real-time picture of risks and the state of space, including space debris, weather, and communications. Dave Rhodes, senior vice president for digital twins at real-time 3D platform provider Unity, points to the increasing sophistication of these platforms, which enable organizations to create simulated experiences through immersive capabilities. “Advanced digital twin environments allow users to visualize 3D assets and real-time data in large synthetic environments that mimic the real world with unprecedented accuracy,” he says. Digital twins are technically realistic replications of objects, processes, or systems. They are directly connected (twinned) to their physical counterparts through continuously updated data and information feeds across their lifecycle, used to solve complex challenges. 42 As more organizations embrace large- scale, networked digital twins—and as they integrate more users and more disparate data for complex mission areas—technical leaders need to consider and navigate a host of investment decisions. These range from ensuring that the technology meets user needs and expectations to connecting vast amounts of data in a meaningful way and integrating digital models across a product lifecycle. To achieve this unified experience, the digital twin architecture must include and connect a myriad of digital and physical infrastructures. Figure 1 illustrates the integration necessary between cybersecurity, systems integration, digital engineering, data management, platforms, and analytics and AI to design and deliver comprehensive and valuable information to end users. Integrating System of Systems—From Hardware to Humans Digital twins enable new levels of resilience and agility—that is, if they can effectively access and integrate data in a complex digital ecosystem. When backed by thoughtfully designed digital threads, digital twins can advance organizations beyond traditional, siloed approaches to problem solving. They offer the ability to view different yet interrelated systems (each with a seemingly different function and nature) through a comprehensive “system- of-systems” lens. These digital threads that unite data between systems create a streamlined, interoperable view to achieve new insights and enable traceability across the lifecycle of a product or process. Defense organizations are already taking on this integration. They are adopting digital twins to change the way they field, design, and integrate new systems into the soldier combat ensemble, which includes equipment, weapons, power sources, protective gear, and more. Soldiers today carry more technology on their person than ever before, which can be a major burden and distraction when many of these devices require different cables, interfaces (physical and network), and power sources. Digital twins inform smarter fielding requirements that enforce integration by bringing together these disparately fielded soldier systems (each with unique functions and characteristics) into one authoritative set of blueprints. From there, stakeholder communities can collaborate to assess new technologies, inform system design, and identify impacts to existing fielded configurations.