Bethany Kellock examines how digital twins are giving defence programmes new ways to test complex systems before physical trials begin.
Testing a defence system has traditionally meant putting something physical through conditions designed to reveal whether it performs as intended. That principle has not changed. What is changing is how much can be understood before a platform, subsystem or component reaches that stage.
Digital twins, modelling and simulation are allowing engineering teams to explore behaviour earlier, repeat tests rapidly and examine scenarios that would be expensive, dangerous or impractical to recreate physically. For defence programmes under pressure to introduce capability faster, that is understandably attractive. Yet there is an important distinction between generating a convincing simulation and generating evidence that can be trusted as part of test, evaluation and certification.
International Defence Buyer places digital twins and certification within its Test and Evaluation coverage because the two are becoming increasingly connected. The procurement question is therefore not whether defence should choose virtual testing over physical testing. It is how the two can work together, and how buyers can establish confidence that a digital representation remains accurate enough for the decisions being made.
Testing before the hardware exists
One of the clearest benefits of a digital twin is timing. A physical prototype can only be tested once enough of it exists. A sufficiently mature virtual representation can begin informing decisions much earlier.
Cranfield University provides a useful example of how simulation sits within a broader defence test and evaluation environment. Cranfield Defence and Security Services offers testing across ordnance and weapons, aerodynamics, propulsion and mobility, autonomous systems and airborne certification. The university also teaches simulation-based experimentation specifically in support of defence training, experimentation and acquisition.
Its work on digital twin implementation extends into reference architectures, semantic modelling, artificial intelligence enabled analytics and interoperability between digital systems. Taken together, these capabilities illustrate an important point. Digital twins are not useful because they produce an impressive virtual version of an asset. Their value comes from the relationship between model, data and physical evidence.
If engineers alter a component, operating condition or software configuration, the twin can potentially show how the wider system might respond before committing resources to a physical trial. It can also help identify the areas of greatest uncertainty, allowing subsequent testing to concentrate on the questions that genuinely require physical evidence.
Cranfield’s Ordnance Test and Evaluation Centre provides the other side of that equation through independent testing of munitions, weapon systems, pyrotechnics and explosive stores. The combination is significant because the future of test and evaluation is unlikely to be entirely virtual. Physical testing provides the evidence against which models can be checked, while modelling can help make physical testing more focused.
The sensible objective is not fewer tests for the sake of efficiency. It is better targeted testing.
