Digital Sustainment Platform (DSP): Smart Modernization of the Military Industrial Base

Business Processes/Partnerships

Modern military weapon systems demand precise, synchronized, and audit-compliant maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO). At Marine Depot Maintenance Command (MDMC) sites in Albany, GA, and Barstow, CA, legacy operations suffer from disconnected data silos, manual spreadsheets, paper-based recording of tolerances and measurements, and fragmented Manufacturing Bills of Materials. These inefficiencies force planners to spend weeks cleansing data, create configuration errors, eliminate real-time work-in-progress visibility, and leave critical combat assets idle instead of returning them to the Fleet Marine Force.

The Digital Sustainment Platform (DSP) solves this by delivering a secure, cloud-neutral, AI-enabled advanced manufacturing environment built on a modular, low-code architecture aligned with Modular Open Systems Architecture principles. It unifies commercial applications (SolidWorks, Simio, TrakSys) into a single digital workspace and connects shop-floor operational technology—CNC machines, robotic systems, PLCs, digital calipers, 3D scanners, and mixed-reality headsets—through a high-speed, low-latency private 5G industrial network with dedicated network slicing. RFID tracking establishes an unbroken digital thread across disassembly, inspection, repair, and reassembly while enabling rapid exchange of Technical Data Packages and 3D Source Approval Requests to address Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages.

Key challenges addressed include legacy equipment integration via secure edge gateways, IL4/IL5 cybersecurity for private 5G, AI-driven automated data standardization that eliminates months of manual cleansing, and workforce transition from paper to digital tools. Benefits include reducing multi-site planning cycles from weeks to minutes, maximizing combat fleet availability, guaranteeing permanent digital pedigrees for safety and audit compliance, supporting contested logistics via disconnected operations on the Secure Unclassified Network, and providing a joint-capable, platform-agnostic solution scalable across the Department of War Organic Industrial Base. The Office of the Secretary of War is advancing DSP toward Program of Record status.

Underlying commercial technologies operate at Technology Readiness Levels 8–9. Validated against the Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement fleet, the system is executing under a Small Business Innovation Research Phase III firm-fixed-price contract (Period of Performance 28 January 2026–27 January 2027). A parallel nine-month deployment reaches initial operational capability at Albany by Month 4 and full 5G Organic Industrial Base Network operations at both sites by Month 9 demonstrating that advanced digital sustainment can be delivered in months rather than years.