The office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Logistics
and Product Support has sponsored a contract through the National Center for Manufacturing
Sciences (NCMS) to award Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation
Research (NIAR) a five-year $100 million cooperative agreement for digital engineering
and technologies to support sustainment of legacy U.S. Air Force platforms.
This cooperative agreement provides for an indefinite quantity of supplies or services
during a fixed period of time. Initially, it will be used to develop digital engineering
solutions to support the sustainment and modifications of the B-52 Stratofortress
and the C-130 Hercules aircraft; as well as complete the development of the F-16 Fighting
Falcon and B-1 Lancer digital twins.
The principal investigator for the program is Melinda Laubach-Hock, director of NIAR’s
Sustainment Lab.
“This contract will extend our reach in military sustainment R&D efforts, growing
the Wichita workforce and providing additional applied learning opportunities for
Wichita State students, said Laubach-Hock. “It is a natural extension of our existing
Digital Twin work, and will expedite the DoD’s digital transformation initiative across
legacy airframes, providing contemporary methods to manage sustainment and improve
mission readiness rates.”
The initiative will include:
Development of digital models and data for selected aircraft systems and components
Integration of digital data across multiple commercial platforms (not limited to a
single solution)
Prototype capabilities for match drilling, robotics, and automation
Evaluation and development of advanced manufacturing and additive manufacturing capabilities
Demonstration of modeling and simulation tools to address a wide range of sustainment
and maintenance challenges
Demonstration of how the commercial market, working with the DoD, can develop new
concepts and capabilities that create value, lower cost, and increase mission success
Since 2018, NIAR has steadily grown its digital engineering portfolio to include the
U.S. Air Force B-1 and F-16; the U.S. Army UH-60 Blackhawk and AH-64 Apache airframes;
and U.S. Army ground vehicles and engines. NIAR’s digital engineering team employs
approximately 400 hundred technicians, engineers, inspectors, and program managers;
over half of which are students in applied learning positions.
About NCMS NCMS is a cross-industrytechnology development consortium dedicated to improving the competitiveness and strength
of theUSindustrial base for 35 years. NCMS leverages a network of industry, government, and
university partners to develop, demonstrate, and transition innovative technologies
efficiently,with less risk and lower cost. NCMS enables world-class companies to work effectively
with other members on new opportunities—matching highly capable companies with the providers and end users who need their
innovations and technology solutions. The NCMS network benefits from an accelerated
progression of idea creation through execution. Learn more at www.ncms.org, at NCMS's LinkedIn, and @ncmsmfg.
About NIAR Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research provides research,
design, testing, certification and training to aviation, defense, and manufacturing
industries. NIAR has a $217 million annual budget, 1,200 employees, two million square
feet across Wichita and a satellite office in Huntsville, AL. Areas of expertise
include Additive/Advanced Manufacturing; Advanced Coatings; Aerodynamics; Ballistics/Crash
Dynamics; Composites/Advanced Materials; Digital Twin; Environmental/EME; eXtended
Reality; Flight Simulation; Full-Scale Structural Test; NDT; Sustainment; Reverse
Engineering; Robotics/Automation and Virtual Engineering. www.wichita.edu/niar
