Istari Digital Announces New $15M "Model One" Air Force Contract

ARLINGTON, Va., June 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Istari Digital today announced it has been awarded a new $15 million AFWERX contract dubbed "Model One" -- a groundbreaking program that will link models and simulations across the Air Force to address the most pressing challenges of "internetized" warfare. 

"Digital transformation is rapidly accelerating industries, from medical devices to monohull racing boats," said Dr. Will Roper, Istari Digital's Founder, President & CEO. "But the challenges of disparate intellectual property and classified data have made it difficult for Defense to follow in their wakes. This latest contract demonstrates our commitment to breakthrough data-meshing solutions and our customers' confidence in leveraging them. Our plug-n-play digital thread platform provides secure, real-time, digital collaboration across difficult-to-integrate data types, unlocking digital speed of all innovation."

Istari Digital's platform is already being used by another Air Force program – dubbed Flyer Øne in homage to the Wright Brothers – that is building the world's first digitally-certified airplane. Though common in leading digital industries, like Formula 1, to date, no airplane has ever been digitally certified for real-world flight. But the digital needs of the U.S. military go far beyond design and certification. The rapid pace of software and data now drives faster battlefield decision-making across domains. The U.S. military seeks to simulate, then dominate, such interconnected conflicts of the future.

"Software accurately represents the physical world in myriad models and simulations," said Former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt. "Most are challenging to integrate, limiting adoption of digital twins. As we wrote recently in the WSJ, Model Øne is an exciting opportunity for Istari Digital to create a virtual military on the way towards creating the industries of the future."

The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution. The Air Force began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018 which expanded the range of innovations the Air Force funded, and now Istari Digital will start its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America.

The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

About Istari Digital
Founded by Will Roper and backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Istari Digital aims to make the vision of digital engineering ecosystems a reality, where all technologies are created digitally. The company has built the world's best digital engineering collaboration platform, making digital threads easy and secure, and laying the groundwork for tomorrow's engineering metaverse. Learn more at www.istaridigital.com.

About AFRL
The Air Force Research Laboratory is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace force. With a workforce of more than 12,500 across nine technology areas and 40 other operations across the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit www.afresearchlab.com.

About AFWERX
As the innovation arm of the DAF and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory, AFWERX brings cutting-edge American ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups to address the most pressing challenges of the DAF. AFWERX employs approximately 370 military, civilian and contractor personnel at five hubs and sites executing an annual $1.4 billion budget. Since 2019, AFWERX has executed over 6,100 new contracts worth more than $4 billion to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and drive faster technology transition to operational capability. For more information, visit: www.afwerx.com.

Istari Digital Press Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Istari Digital, Inc.