ARLINGTON, Va. -- Istari Digital today announced it has been awarded a new $15 million AFWERX contract dubbed "Model One," a program that will link models and simulations across the Air Force to address the most pressing challenges of "internetized" warfare.
Istari Digital's platform is already being used by another Air Force program – dubbed Flyer Øne in homage to the Wright Brothers – that is building the world's first digitally-certified airplane. Though common in leading digital industries, like Formula 1, to date, no airplane has ever been digitally certified for real-world flight. But the digital needs of the U.S. military go far beyond design and certification.
The rapid pace of software and data now drives faster battlefield decision-making across domains. The U.S. military seeks to simulate, then dominate, such interconnected conflicts of the future.
The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution.
The Air Force began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018 which expanded the range of innovations the Air Force funded, and now Istari Digital will start its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America.
