Secure Environment Used
Pentagon digital engineering center would open at a university
The $25 million proposal would back secure data transfer, a model-based acquisition pilot and training for defense personnel. It would be housed at a university with secure space and active research ties to the military.
A Senate amendment would create a Defense Digital Engineering Center of Excellence at a qualifying university. The center would focus on secure data sharing, acquisition testing and workforce training for the Pentagon.
- The Pentagon would have 180 days to stand up the new center.
- The host university would need defense research, secure space and technical depth.
- The center is meant to speed digital design, data transfer and training.
- A SCIF-capable building of at least 200,000 square feet would be required.
- In Washington, the Pentagon would have 180 days after enactment to establish a Defense Digital Engineering Center of Excellence at a university that already knows how to work inside the defense world
In Washington, the Pentagon would have 180 days after enactment to establish a Defense Digital Engineering Center of Excellence at a university that already knows how to work inside the defense world. The center would be built as a national hub for model-based acquisition, secure data transfer and workforce development, which is a dry way of saying the military wants one place to speed up how it designs, shares and builds complex systems.
For contractors, researchers and Pentagon engineers, the point is not a ceremonial title. It is a federal center meant to concentrate digital design work, technical training and secure collaboration in one place.
Built for secure work, not a ribbon-cutting
The host institution would need active defense research programs across at least two military departments, plus an operational digital engineering hub or an equivalent facility already in place. It would also need a building of at least 200,000 gross square feet that can achieve sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, accreditation, the kind of secure environment used for classified work.
The proposal also narrows the field by requiring demonstrated strength in model-based systems engineering, additive manufacturing for defense applications and cybersecurity. Those are not decorative qualifications. They point to a campus already deep in the machinery of military research and production.
Where the work and the workers would gather
The center would run through the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, in coordination with the Secretary of the Navy. That structure matters because it ties the new hub to the part of the Pentagon that shapes future capabilities, not just to a building lease.
If it is established, the center could draw defense work, students, researchers and contractors into one federally designated site. The payoff would be a place where technical data moves more securely, digital tools get tested in the same ecosystem as the people who use them, and the military tries to tighten the gap between design and delivery.