Aerospace and defense must weave in the digital thread

The A&D sector is hamstrung by data systems that operate in silos. Going forward, overcoming this fragmentation should be a strategic priority.

The aerospace and defense (A&D) industry is built on complexity. From multi-domain integration—mechanical, electrical, software and cyber-physical systems—to decades-long product lifecycles, the sector demands precision, resilience and adaptability. Yet despite this obvious technological sophistication, A&D remains hamstrung by fragmented data systems. Design, simulation, manufacturing, operations and maintenance often operate in silos, creating friction at every stage of the product lifecycle.

This fragmentation is more than an IT nuisance; it’s a strategic liability. As platforms evolve through upgrades, audits and mission changes, disconnected systems slow innovation, obscure accountability and inflate costs. The result is a landscape where digital initiatives proliferate without coherence and where truth becomes fragmented across tools, teams and time. Digital threads are crucial in overcoming this.

Tying it all together

The solution is not another tool. Rather, it’s a philosophy. The digital thread offers a structured, interconnected flow of data that links every phase of the product lifecycle. From system requirements and model-based engineering to flight testing and decommissioning, the digital thread ensures that every stakeholder has access to a unified, authoritative source of truth. It’s the backbone of modern aerospace innovation.

Consider the operational pain in A&D that results when the digital thread is missing. During a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) assessment for an engine manufacturer, I personally witnessed a lack of traceability on supplier parts that left airlines in limbo. Engines sat idle, awaiting components, while the airlines utterly lacked visibility into timelines. The absence of a digital thread didn’t just delay operations—it eroded trust and efficiency across the value chain.

In a 2023 effort to address this problem, the U.S. Department of Defense issued Instruction 5000.97, which mandated that all new acquisition programs implement Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and Model-Based Definition (MBD). This shift from process digitization to full lifecycle governance requires digital models to serve as the single source of truth—ensuring traceability, accountability and agility over decades of change.

Thanks to 5000.97, for defense contractors, compliance is now non-negotiable. I firmly believe it’s a strategic imperative for commercial aerospace, too. More than that’s even: it should be treated as a non-negotiable mandate.

Digital threading proves its worth

Leading A&D organizations are already proving the value of digital threading.

At Boeing, the T-7A Red Hawk program leveraged a fully threaded digital engineering environment to deliver the first American military aircraft designed entirely within a digital ecosystem. MBSE tools and a governed project lifecycle management (PLM) backbone connected design, simulation, manufacturing and testing. The results were transformative: first flight in just 36 months, a 75% reduction in late-stage engineering changes, and an 80% reduction in assembly hours.

And Airbus, through its Skywise platform, has created a feedback loop that integrates real-time telemetry and maintenance data from over 12,000 aircraft. This digital thread improves operational efficiency and reliability, reduces unscheduled maintenance by 30%, and enables anomaly detection across the fleet. Field operations now feed directly into design and supplier management, closing the loop between operations and engineering.

Northrop Grumman tackled the persistent issue of bill-of-materials (BOM) drift by unifying engineering, manufacturing and service BOMs within a governed framework. This integration enabled smooth configuration traceability and change propagation. Engineering rework dropped from as much as 20% to less than 1%, and design-to-production cycles accelerated significantly.

The piecemeal approach won’t cut it

These examples underscore a critical truth for A&D: the digital thread is not a departmental initiative, but rather an enterprise strategy. Its impact spans design, manufacturing, maintenance and compliance. Unified CAD, MBD and simulation models preserve design intent and enable system-level trade-offs. Manufacturing benefits from reduced defects and delays and gains predictive capabilities through real-time telemetry streamed into digital twins. And compliance becomes less burdensome, with digital logbooks and configuration traceability streamlining audits and retrofits.

Nevertheless, many A&D organizations continue to treat digital transformation as a series of isolated projects. Therein lies the challenge: the thread must be woven across the enterprise, not stitched together piecemeal. It’s a system of systems, and it must be built like one.

To that end, we advise leaders to consider this roadmap that begins by aligning the digital thread across three interconnected views:

• Business: Establish an authoritative source of truth across OEMs, suppliers and regulators.
• System: Bridge gaps between PLM, ERP, manufacturing execution systems and MRO platforms.
• Technical: Implement open standards, semantic models and robust data governance.

At the center of this framework is the evolving digital product—from As-Designed to As-Built to As-Maintained. Each transition updates in real time. Each change is documented, providing context for every decision.

This requires a layered architecture:

• Data layer: Unify telemetry, simulations, CAD and manufacturing data.
• Thread layer: Orchestrate flow using metadata, ontologies and secure APIs.
• Experience layer: Enable dashboards, twin views, augmented and virtual reality applications, and feedback loops.

Governance is essential. Taxonomies must be defined, ownership assigned, data sources classified and interfaces standardized. Data virtualization plays a key role in maintaining integrity across these layers.

Looking ahead

Ultimately, the future of aerospace and defense will be shaped not by the most advanced products, but by the most coordinated organizations. Speed and agility cannot be sustained with spreadsheets and disconnected systems. Threaded enterprises will be the ones that learn faster, design smarter, build stronger and adapt continuously.

It’s time for the digital thread to become the default infrastructure—not just for defense, but for all of aerospace. Organizations that weave it deeply into their operations will lead the next era of flight.