- The Army has expanded its push for supply chain resilience through IP and digital engineering reforms
- The service aims to accelerate battlefield repairs and reduce sustainment bottlenecks
- Advanced manufacturing and digital twins are central to the Army’s readiness strategy
The Army has advanced its efforts to strengthen supply chain resilience by expanding access to intellectual property rights, digital engineering tools and advanced manufacturing capabilities in partnership with industry and academia.
The service branch said Tuesday it is working to reduce long-standing maintenance and logistics bottlenecks that have historically limited field-level repair and slowed equipment readiness.
The Army’s efforts to modernize sustainment, manufacturing and supply chain operations will be among the topics discussed at the 2026 Army Summit, hosted by the Potomac Officers Club on June 18. The event will examine how Army leaders are restructuring technology modernization and industrial base strategies to support the service’s 2030 goals and improve operational readiness. Register now!
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Why Is Intellectual Property Access Becoming a Major Army Priority?
The service says decades of limited access to proprietary technical data prevented it from fully leveraging advanced manufacturing, localized repair and reverse engineering capabilities.
“By renegotiating how the Army and industry share intellectual property, it gives us the ability to unlock the true potential of advanced manufacturing at the tactical edge,” said Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, commanding general of Army Materiel Command.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, a 2026 Wash100 Award winner, acknowledged that past acquisition approaches contributed to data rights restrictions and supply chain inefficiencies.
“When I meet with primes, I highlight how bad of a customer we have been,” Driscoll said. “I appreciate that it’s so difficult to build against our demand signal.”
The Army’s latest comments build on broader acquisition reform efforts focused on government-owned intellectual property and supply chain flexibility.
Earlier this month, Driscoll outlined plans for a new low-cost interceptor program that would allow the Army to retain ownership of system IP while using contract manufacturers and alternative suppliers to reduce production costs and improve repair agility.
How Is the Army Using Digital Twins and Advanced Manufacturing?
Army aviation programs are serving as a major example of the strategy. Working with Lockheed Martin Sikorsky and Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research, the Army developed a digital twin of the UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter by disassembling and digitally scanning the aircraft. The digital model is intended to support faster integration of advanced manufacturing and sustainment technologies into the Black Hawk fleet.
The Army also highlighted ongoing collaboration with Sikorsky and suppliers to improve sustainment of the helicopter’s Electronic Standby Instrument System knob, a component that frequently requires replacement due to heavy operational use.
In another example, Corpus Christi Army Depot recently launched, under its longstanding public-private partnership with Sikorsky, what the Army described as the first organic composite repair program for helicopter blades in the United States.
What Role Will Army Materiel Command Play?
Driscoll designated AMC as the lead integrator and lifecycle manager for advanced manufacturing initiatives.
Under the new role, AMC will focus on expanding reverse engineering efforts, accelerating parts qualification processes and scaling digital manufacturing technologies to reduce supply chain vulnerabilities.
The Army is also collaborating with the Office of the Secretary of War for Materiel Readiness to develop a centralized digital manufacturing exchange system designed to validate and share technical data across the joint force.
