Aerospace and Defense Industry Solutions

Advancing the aerospace and defense industry

Today’s aerospace and defense leaders must work harder and faster than ever to meet the increasing demands of their missions, constituents, and markets. Evolving strategic priorities, a resurgence in defense spending, an emerging space race, and volatility in the global landscape amplify the challenge.

To keep up with market demands, new research suggests that an increase in digital thread investments within the A&D ecosystem is imminent.

As the leader in preparing aerospace and defense organizations for the convergence of the physical and digital worlds, PTC enables actionable intelligence to optimally design, manufacture, and sustain warfighter and industrial systems. We’re here to help drive digital transformation—and tomorrow’s product innovations—today.

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News and Resources

                                        Tech-Clarity digital thread in A&D Buyer’s Guide
                                    
                                        Choosing the right PLM to support the A&D digital thread

                                        Extending additive manufacturing with lifecycle management, data connectivity, analytics, and IoT-based production management.
                                    
                                        Digital thread for additive and agile manufacturing

                                        Condition-based maintenance (CBM), a subset of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), is the dominant cost savings best practice for U.S. DoD global sustainment operations.
                                    
                                        Condition-based and predictive maintenance in the federal, aerospace and defense industry

                                        Learn how to reduce associated equipment downtime and improve readiness.
                                    
                                        Condition-based, predictive and prognostic maintenance for weapon system support

                                        A holistic approach to PBL and CBM in an integrated solution.
                                    
                                        Aligned strategy for technology innovation for aerospace and defense

                                        PTC’s Windchill SaaS solution has been chosen to serve as the backbone of the U.S. Navy’s digital transformation initiatives.
                                    
                                        U.S. Navy selects PTC for digital transformation

                                        The pace of U.S. government adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) has been accelerating recently. But is it fast enough?
                                    
                                        Recent AI adoption in U.S. government

                                        The “new normal” has been an adjustment for all industries, and aerospace and defense is no exception. Here are 10 questions to consider when navigating challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
                                    
                                        Embracing the new normal

Trends and advancements impacting the industry

New Paradigm
Digital transformation efforts underway in the U.S. DoD will fundamentally remake acquisition and readiness by leveraging best in class technology from the private sector. Fewer weapons buys but more frequent acquisitions… replacing old systems to quickly counter emerging threats… combining PLM and logistics data to raise equipment readiness. Upstream R&D will be more important than ever. Has your enterprise rotated to this new reality?

Changing Spend Mix
After years of sharp increases in U.S. defense spending, there will be a flattening of the DoD top line, but the spend mix is changing. A new administration is emphasizing the importance of unmanned systems capacity, cyber and IT. Key platforms like ICBMs, refueling tankers, rotorcraft systems and training jets need to be replaced ASAP. Simultaneously, near peer competition is heating up, ushering in adoption of hypersonics and AI. Digital transformation will play a central role. Is your organization positioned to succeed?

Cloud Embrace
DoD cloud adoption is easier said than done. PTC has been doing it for 20 years. Accelerate your own organization’s capability through a FedRAMP / DISA Authorized IL-5 cloud; the same system already used by the Air Force and Navy.

Aerospace and defense industry sector business challenges

Naval Systems

In 2020, the U.S. Navy selected PTC as the backbone of its model-based digital transformation effort to improve speed of capability insertion and operational readiness. This is a fundamental rethinking of how the Navy acquires, fields and sustains weapons systems. Is digital transformation accelerating your long term goals?

Space Systems

By some estimates, the space industry is projected to be worth $3T by the late 2040s. We’re well on our way there. The viability of commercial partnership with NASA has now been proven and the U.S. Space Force has officially begun operations. What will tomorrow bring?

Ground Vehicles

The military ground vehicles market is projected to be $539B by 2028. But with the recent emphasis on overseas drawdowns, competition for long term contracts in the military ground vehicle market will be intensifying. Will product innovation through digital transformation be a differentiator?

Airframes

Over the course of 2021, COVID restrictions and trade tensions will both be easing, sparking a multi-year rebound in the airframe business. Additionally, the supersonic passenger jet and eVTOL markets are both developing rapidly. In all these realms, which players will emerge as new leaders?

Strategic objectives and business goals for aerospace and defense

Digital transformation in the aerospace and defense industry has been underway for years, and COVID-19 is accelerating the trend. As aerospace and defense leaders look to deliver program excellence, improve equipment readiness, accelerate product development, and reduce costs across the value chain, digital solutions from PTC have unlocked opportunities for efficiency, productivity, and innovation.

Learn more about the outcomes we help our customers achieve below.

Instill Program Excellence

Improve Equipment Readiness

Accelerate Product Development

Lower Costs

Instill Program Excellence

Create an environment that emphasizes access to data over ownership to gain knowledge and insights. With PTC’s PLM solutions, you can Improve visibility and collaboration across teams and ask meaningful questions of prime and sub-contractors while driving efficiency.

Capabilities of PLM

Improve Equipment Readiness

Enhance uptime for naval assets, aircraft, and ground vehicles by improving field maintenance and service. With PTC’s augmented reality and spare parts management solutions, you can drive field service efficiency and reduce service costs.

Improve field service productivity

Accelerate Product Development

Accelerate product development with product design optimization that improves efficiency along every step of a product’s lifecycle. See how with PTC’s solutions for generative design, simulation and analysis, and product lifecycle management.

Master design optimization

Lower Costs

Improve efficiency and lower costs across the value chain, from increasing engineering productivity and saving design time, to reducing manufacturing costs, and optimizing field service with PTC solutions.

Reduce operational costs

Meet the game-changers in aerospace and defense

Discover how your peers are using PTC solutions to capitalize on digital and physical convergence across the aerospace and defense sector in innovative ways.

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Real-World Results

We didn’t only achieve this vision of design anywhere, build anywhere, support anywhere. We also had a high degree of business intelligence. If we can do this, so can you ... Windchill is now the single source of truth for everybody ... It’s about having one global PLM system, with hard savings in the hundreds of millions of dollars."
David B. Slader, Director, Enterprise PDM Raytheon

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US Air Force sets a new standard of operational excellence with Servigistics

The US Air Force manages one of the most complex and advanced service supply chains in the world, supporting weapons systems across 1,500 global locations. With cutting-edge capabilities and data science from Servigistics, the USAF supports more than 5,000 aircraft and 650,000 items with:

improved demand forecast accuracy
reduced planning workload
comprehensive supply planning with supportability
near real-time supply chain metrics
advanced logistics cost estimation
optimized aircraft availability by location

Read the DoD Article

Technologies

Explore the PTC technologies helping solve critical business challenges in the A&D sector and enabling our customers to advance the pace of their own digital transformations.