Developing Lethality: Steward of the Digital Thread Published April 7, 2025 By Tech. Sgt. Robert Cloys Air Force Test Center EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Part 1: The Air Force Test Center’s Role in Warfighter Dominance In a rapidly evolving battlespace, where peer threats continue to challenge global stability, the Department of the Air Force is accelerating its approach to warfighting readiness. Success on future battlefields will depend on how quickly the Air Force can develop, test, and integrate lethal capabilities across air, space, and cyberspace. Ensuring these capabilities are credible, survivable, and effective requires a test enterprise that is seamlessly connected from concept development through operational employment and sustainment. At the forefront of this effort is the Air Force Test Center, headquartered at Edwards Air Force Base, California. As the premier developmental test and evaluation organization for the U.S. Air Force, AFTC provides the critical link between capability development and warfighter execution. With three primary locations across Air Force Materiel Command, no other entity in the Department of the Air Force operates at every stage of the acquisition lifecycle, assessing, refining, and validating systems both technically and operationally to ensure lethality where it matters most. To achieve this, AFTC is expanding its role as an integrating center, advancing a concept known as the Digital Thread—a seamless, data-driven framework that connects modeling and simulation, ground test, and flight test into a continuous cycle of innovation and improvement. “We don’t just test a system once and walk away,” said Maj. Gen. Scott A. Cain, AFTC commander. “We are actively engaged from the initial design to the moment it reaches the hands of the warfighter and beyond. Our role in developmental test spans a system’s lifecycle.” This four-part series will explore how AFTC develops, refines, and delivers lethality, starting with the Digital Thread’s role in test and evaluation, and then diving deeper into the three key phases of lethality development: — Part 2: Modeling and Simulation – Exploring Lethality Before It’s Built — Part 3: Ground Test – Where Lethality is Designed — Part 4: Flight Test and Test Flags – Proving and Sustaining Lethality Through developmental testing, AFTC is shaping the future of Air Force lethality and ensuring that every system is faster, smarter, and more lethal from the moment it’s conceived to the moment it’s employed in combat. The Digital Thread: Linking Every Stage of Lethality Development The Digital Thread is transforming how the Air Force designs, tests, and fields combat capabilities. Traditionally, testing was conducted in separate, disconnected phases. Modeling and simulation, ground test, and flight test were often isolated from one another, limiting the ability to apply real-world data to capability development. Today, AFTC is ensuring that test data is shared, analyzed, and applied across every stage. This shift allows for earlier identification of potential failures, reducing risk before physical testing begins. It enables faster refinement of weapons and aircraft by integrating test results into real-time design improvements. Most importantly, it ensures that systems meet operational needs before deployment, providing warfighters with battle-ready solutions. “Every test we conduct—whether it’s in a wind tunnel, a flight test range, or a simulated battlespace—feeds into the next phase,” said John Grigaliunas, AFTC technical advisor for flight test and evaluation. “This isn’t about passing tests. It’s about continuously improving capabilities as early as possible, mitigating risks to mission assurance.” AFTC is extending its test role earlier into the acquisition lifecycle while also integrating test data with operational forces. By applying credible, verified, and validated models, the test enterprise enables decision-making advantages in force design. The accuracy of tactics, techniques, and procedures development is improved through the use of tools like the Joint Simulation Environment. Additionally, modeling and simulation efforts, combined with advanced data analytics and test range capabilities, are accelerating the development of combat capabilities. Cain emphasized AFTC’s long-term vision: “We are building a trusted source of high-fidelity models, anchored with test results, that will increase confidence in integrated capability development.” AFTC’s Role in Lethality Development Lethality is developed through a multi-phase approach, where every stage contributes to the final warfighting capability. Lethality is explored in modeling and simulation, where advanced capabilities like the Joint Simulation Environment integrate into the earliest stages of weapon development leveraging tailorable high-fidelity digital surrogates with operator feedback to enhance integration. Lethality is designed in ground test, where facilities such as wind tunnels, propulsion test facilities, avionics and weapons evaluation laboratories characterize system behavior and validate engineering assumptions under controlled conditions prior to flight. Lethality is refined and proven in flight test and Test Flag events, the final crucible for warfighter capabilities, where developmental and operational test efforts converge to ensure real-world effectiveness. Each of these test phases is connected through the Digital Thread, creating a continuous feedback loop that increases speed, efficiency, and effectiveness in developing lethal combat capabilities. AFTC’s Commitment to Accelerating Warfighter Capabilities The future of warfare depends on speed—not just in combat, but in how quickly the Air Force can develop and field lethal, survivable, and effective capabilities. AFTC’s role in stewarding the Digital Thread ensures that warfighters receive systems that are not only lethal today but continuously improved to remain dominant in future conflicts. “Every test event is accomplished with a purpose,” Cain said. “Our purpose is to ensure that when the warfighter goes into combat, they have the most lethal, effective, and survivable systems possible.” Through developmental testing across the life cycle, AFTC is shaping the future of Air Force lethality—ensuring faster, smarter, and more lethal systems from conception to combat employment.