Advances in numerous technical domains present the United States Air and Space Forces with exceptional opportunities, but also challenges. Areas of research such as autonomy, sensing, mobility, and artificial intelligence are evolving at a rapid pace, yielding low-cost products that are widely available. This bonanza of technology is being made available just as we try to come to grips with the decline of "exquisite" military systems, such as manned fighter jets, that are developed using outmoded techniques that take a decade or more to complete. To add urgency, these advanced technologies are often available to multiple countries and organizations. If we do not capitalize on them, someone else most certainly will.

MITRE is working with the U.S. Government and private industry to fulfill the direction identified in Dr. Roper's paper, "There Is No Spoon - The New Digital Acquisition Reality". This talk will discuss MITRE's efforts in this regard, including the development of a Digital Engineering Platform and working to increase both the size of problems that the engineering community can work on and the extent to which technology can aid the collaboration of multi-disciplinary teams.