[David Murray]

Hi Su,

I’m having the same problem with the Defence Digital Network and have tried to engage with whoever is responsible for sorting things.

However, I have not had much success, even asking for a copy of the backup (I assume they would have made) so I could restore it myself. We have two ‘Documents’ topic headings in the top bar and I can’t even get that resolved.

However, like you, I do have an acknowledgement of issues raised!

If you find a way through this please let me know!

Very best regards, Dave

[David Murray]

Hi Valerie, Thanks for the feedback. I hope the information and contacts that you find here will be useful for your research. Please update us when you have thought through the topics and have some perspective to add to it. Best regards, Dave

[David Murray]

How does your organisation (not only in the defence sector) transition projects from requirements into functional wire-frame/ mock-up interactive models?

      What precedes the first model and when is it introduced? Is it paper-based requirements’-capture, mind-maps, fish-bone diagrams, user stories ….?

[David Murray]

Hi Henry thanks for your response. It certainly has the potential to do that but achieving it has a way to go! As you suggest, agile implementation is a difficult concept for an organisation that is pre-disposed to giving clear orders. However, requirements’ development, with validation using scenarios ,and then prioritising them for agile development is certainly a way to address that issue. I would be interested to hear how other sectors go about using synthetic environments and scenarios for requirements’ generation.

[David Murray]

It may be helpful to set up a group, possibly initially from Network Leaders and The Skills & Capabilities document contributors, to steer coherence between sectors. Sharing skills and competencies between sectors would help more rapid development of all sectors and simplify a ‘grand joining-up’ at some point in the future. Contributing to this would be the simplification of personnel transfer between sectors and sharing common standards. 

[David Murray]

Hi Iain,

First – welcome to the group!

Second – many thanks for this message, it is clear and thought provoking.

It has sparked a number of further thoughts in my head:

I agree with your observations about the defence sector being better at buying shiny new toys rather than cost-effective capability. I wonder how the Front-Line Command visions to in-Service implementations might be improved? Perhaps dstl could help with this?

Regarding joining-up the information sets in such a way as to support queries in the way you describe, I suspect there is a lot of (very worthwhile) work to do. I can see activity in thinking about the ‘digital backbone’ but I am not aware of the kind of approach that you are suggesting. Perhaps this is something we could raise with Caroline Boughton (Director Acquisitions and Approvals Transformation Portfolio)?

You raise an interesting variant on the definition of a Digital twin as being required to take a controlling role foe the physical entity (e.g. “The sensors around the building record the temperatures into the digital twin and the digital twin acting on what will be the optimum temperature for those living in that building will then adjust through actuators the HVAC system accordingly.”). I would be interested to hear the views about this from the Built Environment practitioners because most definitions put the controlling functions into the physical entity with the twin ‘shadowing’ it.

Your vision of the National Digital Twin is clear. I wonder about the complexity needed of the ‘circuit board’ to be able to support whatever is ‘plugged-in’ at any time? There is a lot of thinking going into Multi-Domain operations/integration so that many otherwise independent services (water, gas, police, fire, ambulance and armed forces) could unite to respond to national emergencies. It would be interesting for us to try that concept on those working in that area.

Your reference (https://tinyurl.com/ye7a5fp6) to the COMIT Reference work is very useful and I look forward to hearing responses to that work.

Your questions are ones that echo around the areas of interest and result in much debate. Your recommendations would benefit from being introduced into those areas to help focus thinking into ways of achieving the otherwise open-ended questions. You may be aware of the Team Defence Information (TDI) work on generating a roadmap for digital defence issues? It covers many of the topics you raise including Multi-Domain, lifecycle, supply chain, in-Service support and T&E. Participants are always welcomed, more information can be obtained by contacting Steve Green (steve.green@teamdefence.info) who is TDI’s project manager for this work. I will pass a reference to your document to Steve.

Finally, I hope that what I have said here is useful but I know that the defence sector is difficult to penetrate (the clue is in their name!). I wonder if you have any thoughts about what might be the next steps in progressing the ideas you present here?

Thanks again, Dave

[David Murray]

Hi Folks,

Very best wishes for 2022 and a special welcome to those of you new to this group. I look forward to getting to know you all better in the coming months.

So, how might you benefit/contribute to what we do?

The links between the defence and civil sectors are shortening with experiences being shared and, as a result, lessons being learned. An example is the cooperation between Health and Military professionals to overcome the issues exposed by Covid. Although you may have seen the ‘front-lines’ of both health and military in connection with getting your jabs, there is a lot of planning and logistic experience being shared – as I said, with mutually beneficial lessons being learned.

There are two areas in which you may wish to consider adding your experience and, of course, picking up any beneficial tips that you may encounter on the way.

1.        Defence Digital Lifecycle

The defence-sector’s journey along the DT road is progressing. As would be expected at this stage, there is some confusion and mis-understanding about what it all means. In the ‘Discussion Documents’ section of this network I have summarised what I believe is the most widely accepted view – tailored to defence (link). I believe that we want to table the best common view that we can achieve, so that it will be simpler for all DT participants to converge their thinking and understanding. The built environment, combined with military planning and resources, will then be best able to handle civil disasters. This will enable the first responders (including the military) and long-term support teams to be suitably trained and prepared to deal with whatever occurs.

So, please add your comments to the debate – how should/does it all work?

 

2.        Defence Opportunities

I would like to share a sub-set of information from the Defence and Security Accelerator program:

·        The current open-call for funding new ideas closes on 2nd March. The “Rapid Impact” stream and “Next Generation Wearable Technology” – are attracting interest.

• On 27th Jan, the Home Office are running Maritime Capability (Small Boats CCTC) Industry Briefing to present to the market the Home Office’s key operational challenges in securing the UK border in the English Channel.
• Check out a couple of webinars where the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (live event 18th Jan) and UK Counter Terrorism Policing (23rd Feb) will share their science and technology priorities and show you how to get involved.
• On 28th Jan, the Royal Navy Develop Directorate are holding an industry engagement event to introduce the new Maritime Operating Concept key themes and also the Develop Directorate Industry Engagement Plan for 2022.

To find out more about the above please follow the links but, for general questions, DASA’s  Peter Wilkins would be a good first contact.

 

If we can build a rich response to the issues presented here, I have in mind several other initiatives that we can take in 2022.

Very best regards,

Dave

[David Murray]

Team Defence Information (TDI) held the back-brief of the first-term’s work by their Defence Support Digital Twin Community of Practice last Wednesday (20th Oct). In addition to the keynote speaker from the MOD, there were 12 presentations, including guest speakers from Australia (talking about parallels between defence and mining applications), the USA (DoD and AIA applications) and UK’s Digital Catapult (getting started on the DT journey).

The TDI work supported 7 groups, 6 of which explored aspects of the DT lifecycle from early stages to in-Service support. The 7th group mapped the landscape of DT work already underway in the defence sector. The 6-hour meeting was extremely well attended and a panel session was held at the end of the day. Several references were made to the work of the DT Hub and closer engagement will be encouraged.

During the next few weeks, the groups will be holding in-depth workshops/ presentations for those with interest in specific topics. More information, and the links to attend, can be obtained from TDI – see below for contact details.

Steve Green (TDI) thanked all involved and announced that the 2nd term of this 2-year program will start in January. The intent is that engagement will be as wide as possible and Steve invited anyone interested to apply to join a group; a defence background is not essential. The MOD have confirmed that senior staff will also support the work and help facilitate engagement with the appropriate stakeholders within the MOD. This project promises to make a significant contribution to all aspects of protection of UK citizens, not only in response to external threats but also improving responses to homeland natural disasters and cyber issues.

The presentation material and written report will be available soon.

More information can be obtained by contacting TDI – mentioning this notice about Defence Support Digital Twin Community of Practice will help provide context to your enquiry. The various contact options are available via this link https://www.teamdefence.info/contact.php.

We all look forward to seeing you in the next stages of this work.

[David Murray]

Hi Alexandra, yes – pleased to do that! It should be a good day and a step forward for the defence sector in adopting DTs. It will also be interesting to see the direction that it takes next. The next stage will be more ‘in-depth’, some topics are already emerging and finding resonance with groups in the MOD, it may be a few weeks before the final map unfolds.

[David Murray]

Hi Katie,

Thanks for sending me a link to the map. Unfortunately, the resolution is such that I can’t read it!

However, I have added some comments that may be duplicates (my background is defence, so maybe some of these don’t apply to other areas):

Data Issue:

A way is needed to store data so that it can be recalled as easily as possible against a whole list of search criteria. Creating the list of criteria is a significant task. Finding a way to store data, tagged with these criteria, is an even bigger task.

Governance and Guidance Issues:

Having an identifiable and accessible owner of issues is important to avoid spurious decisions being taken to overcome them.

Need and Want:

It is important for purposes of prioritisation of tasks by the supplier, that needs and wants are separated and ranked by the user, not the supplier.

Readiness:

The current state of the art helps to identify next tasks. In turn that helps to coordinate deployment of resources to bridge gaps. That’s important to maintain a good rate of progress and reduce nugatory effort. This comment could also apply to “Vision and Value”

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Dave Murray

[David Murray]

Hi Rich,

Sorry to be a bit slow in responding! You are correct, I am part of the 7 work strands in the TDI Defence Dig Twin project. I hope that the Supply Chain strand is going well. I did mean that the MOD is not currently well placed to understand what some suppliers can offer in regard to Digital Threads and Twins, however, let’s hope the TDI project, and contributions here, will change that!

Cheers, Dave

[David Murray]

Hi Rich,

First – Welcome! 

Secondly, many thanks that is indeed useful. I will follow-up those leads and make sure that the relevant people in the 7 strands of the Digital Defence Roadmap are aware.

The defence sector are good at modelling but DTs (even the digital thread) is not generally adopted. Some suppliers are further down the road than others, some with ‘good practice’ built-in. The problem is that the customer doesn’t know how to recognise it and that is what we (and they) are all trying to remedy with the roadmap and other initiatives.

It is extremely helpful to be able to point to another sector that is actually using and benefitting from the use of the digital thread/Twin and have resolved some of the issues that concern both the defence customer and the suppliers than have not yet adopted the techniques.

Thanks again for your time to respond – it won’t be wasted!!

Cheers, Dave

[David Murray]

Following several conversations, I was persuaded that this approach was too narrow. The original topic could be included in a wider objective to look at the rapidly emerging ‘new-look’ of defence, its Digital Backbone and its nascent DT journey. See the new network “The Defence Digital Network” for the outcome!

[David Murray]

Thanks for posting the slides Alexandra and apologies again to all for the internet bandwidth problem that I experienced during the call today. 

The Defence Sector is actively looking at ways to use DTs. It is coming to this from a strong background in Modelling and Simulation. There is opportunity for useful 2-way transfer of information and knowledge-sharing that would be beneficial to all participants. My suggestion is that a Lifecycle V&V network would be a good way to facilitate that, but all suggestions welcomed!

Dave Murray

[David Murray]

My background is in the defence sector – if you are from another sector, do you use a DT for validation and verification? – if so, how?

If DTs are used in this way it would go a long way to answering the ‘exam question’ of this topic!