The Government Accountability Office released its annual report on major Department of War (DoW) acquisition programs on July 2nd. One of its main conclusions: Despite years of acquisition reform, the DoW still struggles to field new capabilities rapidly. The report found that programs continue to experience schedule delays, and the average time required to deliver a capability has grown to more than 12 years.
Just as importantly, GAO concluded that many programs begin development before critical technologies are sufficiently mature and fail to consistently follow proven product-development practices designed to reduce risk and accelerate delivery.
While the report was DoW-wide, its findings are particularly relevant for the Space Force. As the service works toward a more proliferated and hybrid space architecture that incorporates both government and commercial capabilities, it needs faster ways to evaluate technology readiness, assess integration risk, and validate new concepts before committing resources to development and procurement. This is where digital engineering can play a critical role.
Digital engineering approaches such as Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE), digital twins, and digital threads provide a way to understand performance, test integration concepts and mature designs earlier in the acquisition process. By reducing uncertainty before programs commit to major development, acquisition and integration decisions, these tools can help the Space Force achieve the outcome the GAO is advocating for: faster delivery of operational capability with lower risk. Digital engineering is the mechanism that allows programs to mature concepts and identify integration challenges before they become costly acquisition delays.
Benefits of digital modeling for the DoW
This Administration has been holding true to its stated intention to leverage commercial capabilities for military use. The Space Force wants to foster a diversified, proliferated commercial base of providers. As more advanced LEO capabilities come to market, they need faster ways to evaluate their military utility, assess integration requirements, and develop the Concept of Operations (CONOPS) needed to incorporate them into their proliferated architecture.
Digital models let the Space Force specify, develop, and deploy solutions faster in response to a rapidly evolving mission space. Digital engineering shifts acquisition, complex systems engineering and integration away from the traditional design-build-test paradigm toward a model-analyze-build approach. Digitally taking a solution through its full life cycle delivers substantial savings in cost, time, and resources.
Fully adopting digital engineering can also contribute to the Space Force’s hybrid architecture, adhering to open standards. Space Systems Command has created consortia that act as Other Transaction Authorities (OTAs) that hasten the adoption of innovative commercial solutions. Digital engineering should be foundational to such development to ensure interoperability is “baked in” as cutting-edge technologies are defined, tested and fielded.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stated late last year that “acquisition is now a warfighting function.” Moving to digital engineering is a prerequisite for that transition.
A proposed solution
The Space Force is on record with wanting to be the world’s first digital service. It understands the acquisition process benefits of testing and experimentation in digital environments before committing dollars to space hardware. In fact, the DoW has made it plain how critical digital engineering is in its Digital Standards Strategy, published in January. However, many contractors have been slow to recognize this demand signal, especially smaller organizations with no track record of selling to the government. When developing new government capabilities with no corresponding commercial application, they don’t understand the importance of adopting digital modeling.
This challenge also presents an opportunity. A low-cost nudge from the DoW would incentivize commercial organizations to develop these bespoke government models to evaluate cutting-edge commercial technologies.
The DoW should consider a few modest, low-cost pilots to help offset the costs for commercial contractors to develop digital models for space capability integration. This would be in exchange for government purpose rights, allowing the government to use and apply the models across relevant programs while preserving the contractor’s underlying intellectual property. The pilot program does not need to run for years; once the model’s efficiency has been demonstrated and the first contracts have been awarded, contractors can factor the ROI of digital models into their future bids. There would be no need for further government investment.
Ready to serve
I’ve previously spoken about how 2026 is a critical year for executing on a new vision for defense space operations. A great deal of progress has been made. Yet as the GAO report shows, more needs to be done for the DoW to move faster in procurement and securing capabilities in space.
The GAO’s message is clear: programs move faster when technologies are mature, and risk is reduced before development begins. Digital engineering gives the Space Force a practical way to achieve both objectives. A modest investment in a government-funded pilot program for digital engineering models would deliver massive returns in cost savings, competition and integration speed. It’s another example of how both the government and industry need to think differently, and procure differently, if we are to accelerate the DoW’s capabilities in space.
