Wire
$25 million would launch a Pentagon digital engineering center
The site would need a large, SCIF-capable building and active defense research programs before it can host the new operation.
In Washington, a Senate amendment would give the Pentagon a new place to sort out how military technology is designed, moved and handed off. The idea is a Defense Digital Engineering Center of Excellence, a hub meant to tighten the flow of data between the Defense Department, industry and the places where complex systems are actually built.
That matters because modern weapons programs do not fail only on hardware. They stumble when data, design standards and training do not travel cleanly from one shop or system to another. The proposal would try to make those handoffs more secure and more consistent, while also building a workforce that can work inside that digital process.
The kind of site the Pentagon wants
The center would have to be located at an accredited institution of higher education in an established defense innovation corridor, and it would need to meet a tight set of technical conditions. The proposal gives the Secretary of Defense 180 days after enactment to stand it up.
- Active defense research programs across at least two military departments - An operational digital engineering hub, or an equivalent facility - A building of at least 200,000 gross square feet that can receive sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, accreditation - Proven capability in model-based systems engineering, additive manufacturing for defense applications and cybersecurity
A small budget for a narrow mission
The amendment sets aside $25 million for fiscal 2027. No more than $10 million would go to secure data transfer, no more than $10 million to the model-based acquisition pilot, and no more than $5 million to training.
That is a relatively small sum by Pentagon standards, but the scope is specific. The center is meant to be less a new bureaucracy than a shared workshop for digital tools, secure handling of engineering files and the kind of training that can keep complex defense programs from getting stuck between one stage and the next.