Abstract:This paper introduced two basic concepts of digital engineering such as digital twins and digital threads, the relationship between them and their application in various US defence programmes. The concept of digital baseline is defined on the basis of the traditional technical state baseline in order to clearly interpret their important role played by the two technologies. From the enterprises’ viewpoint, application requirement of digital twins and digital threads in weapon‘s lifecycle was tentatively reviewed. Problems during the application of digital engineering technology have been analyzed, and approaches and suggestions have been put forward.