Authentise and Kform Launch DDNA Defense Initiative

Authentise and Kform, an agile engineering and defense-grade manufacturing provider, have launched Project DDNA, an operational implementation of a new delivery model: Continuous Hardware Ops (CHOPS).

CHOPS breaks from outdated, siloed, linear engineering methods and replaces them with a live, contextual, and fully traceable loop from concept through manufacturing.

“Our first prime contracts in reverse engineering made it brutally obvious,” says Andre Wegner, CEO of Authentise. “Every project starts from zero because none of the prior decisions—why that material, that geometry, that process—are ever captured. DDNA changes that. It builds context into the process, so we stop relearning what we already knew.”

Built on Authentise’s Threads and Flows platforms and accelerated by Kform’s design-to-build infrastructure, DDNA enables programs to compress development timelines from years to months, without losing traceability or scalability. In active deployment with Department of Defense customers, it's been used to deliver parts for a large wind tunnel and re-engineered field-ready wearables in under 8 weeks.

“We’re not pitching a product,” says Callye Keen, CEO of Kform. “This is a new category. It connects engineering, manufacturing, and quality assurance in real time. It's what lets small teams move fast, scaled up for the biggest problems in defense.”

With DDNA, every conversation, assumption, and decision is captured and linked to the final part, according to Authentise. The system integrates with MBSE, CAD, MES, PLM and ERP platforms, and generates audit-ready, AI-readable outputs by default.

CHOPS: A New Category for Defense

• Live traceability from requirements to build
• Eengineering context
• Real-time collaboration between design, quality, and production teams
• AI-ready data structures for risk, cost, and performance analysis
• Defense-grade compliance, including IL5-ready architecture

“We’ve spent decades making reverse engineering too expensive, and modern manufacturing too opaque,” says Wegner. “The cost of not having context is massive and we’re still repeating the same mistakes."

Authentise and Kform are now working with early adopters to bring CHOPS to more DoD programs. Whether launching new systems, scaling production, or modernizing legacy parts, CHOPS delivers speed with traceability.

To learn more, visit www.authentise.com/ddna.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.