Taking place June 24–25 in Washington, D.C.,the summit brings together leaders from across the Department of Defense, military services, industry, and academia to explore strategies for advancing digital engineering capabilities, accelerating digital transformation, and improving acquisition and engineering practices across defense programs.
As part of its Platinum Sponsorship, PROSTEP will deliver a featured 30-minute presentation led by Jim Markwalder, US Federal Sales Executive and Key Account Manager at PROSTEP, Inc.
Presentation Title:
Building and AI-Ready Digital Thread for Defense
This session will explore how defense organizations can establish secure, AI-ready Digital Thread architectures that preserve engineering meaning, maintain lifecycle alignment, and enable trusted cross-system collaboration across complex multi-vendor ecosystems.
The discussion will also examine the role of interoperability, traceability, semantic relationships, and knowledge-driven architectures in preparing engineering environments for future AI-assisted and software-defined defense strategies.
Attendees will takeaway how PROSTEP helps organizations:
- Establish a Digital Thread across engineering, manufacturing, supplier, and sustainment domains
- Connect PLM, ALM, MBSE, ERP, and simulation environments within complex defense ecosystems
- Enable secure collaboration and controlled data exchange across suppliers and partners
- Improve traceability, change management, and configuration governance across the lifecycle
- Modernize legacy environments while preserving existing investments
“Digital engineering initiatives across defense organizations increasingly depend on the ability to connect people, processes, and systems across highly complex and heterogeneous environments,” said Paul Downing, President and CEO, PROSTEP, Inc. “The Digital Thread serves as the operational foundation for enabling trusted data continuity, accelerating collaboration, and supporting the next generation of digital defense programs.”
With more than 30 years of experience supporting complex engineering enterprises, PROSTEP helps global manufacturers and defense organizations implement vendor-neutral integration strategies that enable interoperability, lifecycle continuity, and scalable Digital Thread transformation initiatives.
Visitors attending the Digital Engineering for Defense Summit are invited to connect with PROSTEP experts to discuss Digital Thread strategies, PLM integration, supplier collaboration, and digital engineering modernization initiatives.
For more information about the Digital Engineering for Defense Summit 2026, visit the Defense Strategies Institute event channels. For more information about PROSTEP North America, visit PROSTEP Group.
