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Customer Story
Defense Aircraft Design
Optimize defense aircraft design, achieve advanced stealth, aerodynamics, and structural integrity through high-fidelity simulations with SIMULIA solutions.
Advanced Simulation for Defense Aircraft
Defense aircraft face extreme conditions, requiring advanced stealth, aerodynamics, and structural integrity. SIMULIA provides the tools to meet these demands, offering nonlinear structural simulation with Abaqus for resilience, aerodynamic insights into shocks and flow dynamics with PowerFLOW, and electromagnetic simulation for radar and antennas with CST Studio Suite.
Integrated on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, SIMULIA ensures traceability across processes, accelerates innovation, and supports smarter, more robust system designs through Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE).
Key Benefits of SIMULIA Defense Aircraft Design Solutions
Multiphysics Simulation Capabilities
Enhance prediction accuracy through automated coupling of structural, aerodynamic and electromagnetic simulations
Reduced Physical Testing
Enhance certification confidence by enabling Certification by Analysis
Simulation Empowered MBSE
De-risk program proposals by enhancing CATIA Magic System Models with advanced simulations
Advanced Simulation Capabilities
Defense systems are characterized by extreme operational requirements. SIMULIA provides the most advanced non-linear simulation capabilities required for these systems.
SIMULIA Customers in Defense Aircraft Design
National Institute for Aviation Research
Supported by the Keep Them Operating industry solution experience on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, NIAR will take the B-1 Lancer aircraft completely apart, scan every single structural element and digitally reassemble the aircraft to create virtual twins for future sustainment activities.
Customer Story
Advancing Defense Innovation Through Simulation
Explore our on-demand webinar series to discover the latest innovations in defense simulation. Learn how PowerFLOW enables transonic and supersonic flow simulation up to Mach 2, how CST Studio Suite addresses radar, communications, electronic warfare, and stealth challenges, and how MODSIM on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform helps accelerate development through connected engineering and simulation.
Radar Signature Analysis
Unlock next-level stealth with CST Studio Suite®.
Analyze and optimize Radar Cross-section (RCS) with 3D electromagnetic simulation, replacing costly physical tests. From the earliest stages of designing military aircraft, drones, or missiles, gain unmatched insight into radar detectability.
- Advanced diagnostics—High Resolution Range Profiles, sinograms, hotspots, Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar,
- Ray visualization—reveal hidden patterns and vulnerabilities.
- Simulate and perfect radar-absorbent paints, frequency-selective surfaces, and cutting-edge meta surfaces with precision and confidence.
Mission Success with Advanced Vibro-Acoustic Simulation
Military aircraft must withstand extreme vibrations and unsteady aerodynamic loads that threaten structural integrity, avionics reliability, and crew safety. Failure to address these risks can compromise performance and mission readiness.
With SIMULIA PowerFLOW and Wave6, engineers gain high-fidelity vibro-acoustic simulation to accurately predict complex aero-vibro-acoustic interactions caused by highly unsteady external flows. This integrated solution enables design improvements, risk mitigation, and enhanced equipment performance—while replacing expensive and time-consuming wind-tunnel tests to provide aerodynamic loads with high-fidelity PowerFLOW simulations.
From airframe durability to pilot safety, SIMULIA delivers the precision and insight required for mission-critical defense applications.
Simulation Empowered MBSE
The adoption of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is accelerating as Defense organizations and their supply chains face increasingly complex requirements.
CATIA Magic, integrated with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, delivers a unified environment for defining, simulating, and qualifying systems across all engineering milestones. This model-centric approach enables early trade-off of alternatives, automated simulation to increase confidence in design choices, reduced risk in concept phases, and higher fidelity through multi-domain integration.
Extended with SIMULIA high-fidelity simulation tools, MBSE models can incorporate detailed structural, thermal, and multi-physics analysis to validate performance under real-world conditions. Together, CATIA Magic, SIMULIA, and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform provide a scalable framework for rigorous, traceable, and efficient systems engineering.
MODSIM on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform: Unifying Modeling and Simulation
Modern defense systems are evolving rapidly under the pressures of digitalization, requiring faster, more collaborative, and more resilient product development. Digital modeling and simulation now extend across disciplines—from design and analysis to procurement, manufacturing, testing, sustainment, and beyond—demanding a unified approach.
MODSIM (Modeling and Simulation), powered by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, integrates modeling and simulation within a single environment to connect data, teams, and processes. By replacing linear, sequential workflows with cyclical, collaborative ones, MODSIM enables true concurrency and simulation-driven design. A single source of truth links evolving requirements, real-time design iterations, and high-fidelity simulation in a collaborative context.
The result: faster innovation, reduced risk, and more effective defense systems engineered with precision and confidence.
Simulation Governance and Data Management
Simulation Governance and Model Management
As simulation tools grow in scale and complexity, managing multidisciplinary interdependencies and diverse data threads requires advanced solutions. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform enhances simulation governance by:
- Managing content lifecycles and relationships.
- Supporting physical and virtual test campaigns.
- Aligning with ISO 10303-243 (MoSSEC framework) for improved traceability and collaboration.
This ensures better decision-making and streamlined workflows.
Simulation Process and Data Management
Defense systems demand high performance and reliability, generating vast simulation data that must be managed effectively. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform streamlines SPDM by:
- Unifying data with project management.
- Ensuring traceability and compliance.
- Enabling collaboration and reducing uncertainty.
- Optimizing workflows for faster mission readiness.
SPDM ensures efficient, reliable, and scalable simulations.
Workflows for Defense Aircraft Design
Aerodynamics
Defense Aircraft Aerodynamics
Meeting the Demands of Extreme Flight Conditions
Defense aircraft operate in extreme conditions with larger, more demanding flight envelopes than civil aircraft. While airliners encounter flow separation and shock-boundary layer interactions at the edges of their performance, these phenomena are routine for defense aircraft and often lead to complex or novel designs.
PowerFLOW excels in addressing defense aircraft challenges:
- Delivers accurate transient simulations with unsteady formulation.
- Handles massive flow separations and complex interactions around external payloads.
- Accurately predicts stall and transonic buffet
- Delivers stability and control predictions for demanding flight conditions and extreme maneuvers
Stability & Control
Stability and control are critical for military aircraft, which face demanding flight conditions such as extreme maneuvers and high angles of attack. PowerFLOW delivers high-fidelity results, enabling precise analysis of aerodynamic stability and control characteristics to ensure optimal performance and safety in challenging scenarios.
Propulsion Aerodynamics and Cavity flows
PowerFLOW offers proven capabilities to predict and reduce distortions of engine inlet flows under demanding flight conditions.
Similarly cavity flows and store separation scenarios – which generally generate highly transient flow conditions – can be accurately handled with PowerFLOW.
Rotorcraft Aerodynamics
Rotorcraft – both manned and unmanned – play a critical role in ensuring mission success. PowerFLOW particularly excels in accurately predicting the highly unsteady flow conditions of rotorcraft to optimize both aerodynamic and noise performance, including:
- Unsteady rotor aerodynamics
- Tail rotor shake
- Blade vortex interaction noise
- Exhaust ingestion
- Downwash and brownout
Electromagnetics
Communication, Navigation & Detection Systems Development
SIMULIA’s electromagnetic and multiphysics simulation solutions support the design and optimization of Communication, Navigation, and Detection systems for modern defense applications.
- Capabilities:
- High-performance antenna design, platform integration, AESA radars, and airframe-integrated multi-band antennas.
- Co-site interference mitigation for secure data links.
- Microwave and RF filter/component design.
- Radar signature analysis and material characterization for radomes and stealth.
- Tools: CST Studio Suite, Antenna Magus, WASP-NET, FEST3D, Spark3D, and IVCAD Suite.
- Benefits: High-fidelity solvers in time and frequency domains enable accurate multiphysics analysis and seamless system-level integration.
E3 Analysis and Mitigation of Defense Systems
Protecting defense systems from electromagnetic threats is critical for mission success. CST Studio Suite’s EM simulation capabilities, spanning time and frequency domains, enable early vulnerability detection, risk mitigation, and shielding against the full spectrum of E3 effects, while ensuring compliance with standards like MIL-STD-464D and NATO AECTP-500.
- Capabilities:
- EMC, EMI, EMV, EMP, EP, ESD, and RADHAZ, including HERP, HERO, and HERF across
- RF systems,
- ultra-wideband devices,
- high-power microwave systems,
- lightning, and precipitation static scenarios.
- Tools: CST Studio Suite.
- Benefits: Secure, reliable, and mission-ready military forces, equipment, and systems.
EMC Analysis and Mitigation of Defense Subsystems and Equipment
Ensure performance, safety, and interoperability of defense subsystems operating in harsh electromagnetic environments across land, sea, air, and space.
- Capabilities:
- Virtual EMC testing, emissions and susceptibility analysis, and
- automated compliance workflows aligned with MIL-STD-461G and NATO STANAG 4370.
- Tools: CST Studio Suite with EMC Wizard.
- Benefits: Fewer design iterations, reduced certification risk, and faster mission readiness.
Electromagnetic Warfare Component Design
Electromagnetic warfare (EMW) leverages the electromagnetic spectrum and directed energy to control, deny, or exploit it, disrupting enemies while ensuring access for friendly forces across land, sea, air, and space.
- Capabilities
- Linking electromagnetic analysis with thermal and structural effects.
- Accelerating development of antennas, high-power microwave sources, and EMC/EMI measures like shielding, filters, grounding, and transient protection.
- Tools: SIMULIA electromagnetic and multiphysics solutions on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
- Benefits: Reduced prototyping, shorter design cycles, and resilient system performance in spectrum-contested environments.
Structural Analysis
Strength and Integrity Analysis
Aircraft structural design and certification require accurate prediction of strength and durability under flight and ground loads. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) remains the industry standard for internal load redistribution, damage tolerance, and stress–strain evaluation.
Abaqus on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform supports linear and non-linear analysis with:
Advanced material models and large-scale fastener representation
Best-in-class contact and mechanical interaction modeling
Proven method, including load case superposition, sub-structuring, and VCCT for strength and durability assessment
Aerospace Fasteners & Mechanically Fastened Connections
Analysis of mechanically fastened connections in aerospace structures requires automation and ideation to balance scale with predictive accuracy. Finite element analysis remains the dominant technique for strength and integrity predictions.
- Point and Assembled Fastener Technology in Abaqus: Sets the industry benchmark for fastener modeling and analysis.
- 3DEXPERIENCE Platform: Enhances MODSIM capabilities with:
- Automation, design traceability, and associativity.
- Fastener locations and simulation attributes driven by upstream design specifications.
- Management of multiple fastener ideations to meet varying analysis requirements.
Composite Materials & Structures
The drive for lightweight aerospace structures has increased the use of composites, requiring careful integration of manufacturability and performance. Early design phases benefit from efficient macroscopic ideations, with higher model fidelity introduced as designs mature.
- Abaqus and Abaqus/CAE: Provide robust simulation for layered and non-layered composites, addressing non-linearity, advanced failure criteria, and delamination.
- Composites Modeler for Abaqus/CAE: Enhances ply modeling, ensures manufacturable designs, and integrates analysis, design, and manufacturing.
- 3DEXPERIENCE Platform: Elevates MODSIM capabilities with multidisciplinary integration, design traceability, and reuse. It supports:
- Seamless consumption of composite design data from CATIA.
- Exploration and sizing of composite cell arrangements for initial design proposals.
Industry Processes for Defense Aircraft Design
Aerospace Communication & Detection System Performance
Use electromagnetic simulation to evaluate communication system designs during early development stages, leading to better performance and reduced design time
Process
Aerospace System Electromagnetic Performance
Develop and virtually validate the performance of aircraft systems when subject to electromagnetic environmental effects such as lightning strike
Process
Aircraft Aerodynamics
Virtually validate and characterize aircraft aerodynamic performance for the entire flight envelope to reduce time consuming and expensive physical tests
Process
Aircraft Gas Turbine Engine Performance
Leverage high-fidelity flow simulations to improve the aerodynamic, acoustics and thermal performance of gas turbine engines while reducing physical tests
Process
Airframe Structural Vulnerability Analysis
Evaluate, quantify and reduce the susceptibility of critical aircraft components to damage caused by structural impact events, saving time, cost & reducing risk
Process
Multidisciplinary Trade-Off Analysis
Perform virtual design exploration and trade-off studies to increase innovation, reduce physical prototyping, reduce rework costs, and speed time to market
Process
Rotorcraft & eVTOL Vehicle Aerodynamic and Aeroacoustic Performance
Increase efficiency, reduce noise, costs, and time-to-market of rotorcraft and eVTOL vehicles with an integrated design, simulation and optimization process
Process
Sub-system Level Structural Validation
Perform simulation-based structural validation of airframe designs from sub-system level to coupon level, to reduce testing cost and improve product performance
Process
Validation & Verification Strategy, Execution & Analytics
Plan and execute product design validation & verification strategy to ensure all target requirements are met on time and on budget
Process
Start Your Journey
The world of Defense Aircraft Design is changing. Discover how to stay a step ahead with SIMULIA.
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FAQs about Defense Aircraft Design
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