Collins Aerospace – in collaboration with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Parry Labs, Tektonux and Palantir Technologies – successfully conducted a multi-domain operation demonstration at the recent Open Group FACE™ and SOSA™ Consortia Technical Interchange Meeting. (Collins Aerospace)
A successful multi-domain operation (MDO) demonstration of open systems architecture was completed during the recent Open Group Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) and Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Consortia Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM), according to a Nov. 4 Collins Aerospace press release.
The demonstration, lead by a Collins Aerospace, featured software and multiple third-party mission computers – including Parry Labs’ Stellar Relay – integrated into a helicopter flight deck. A total of 19 different FACE Units of Portability (UoPs) were used for the demonstration, with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Parry Labs, Tektonux and Palantir Technologies all participating under digital backbone, hardware, software and integration guidance from Collins.
The use of 19 different FACE UoPs demonstrated the ability of components developed in alignment with the FACE standard have a level of portability that allows them to be moved from one aircraft to another or replaced by a compatible component, according to Collins Aerospace.
“In conjunction with our industry partners, we demonstrated an operational open systems solution that will support the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) guidelines and standards required by the U.S. Army,” Dave Schreck, vice president and general manager for military avionics and helicopters at Collins Aerospace said in a statement. “These standards have been put in place to ensure complex aviation systems are designed to reduce integration time and ultimately increase rapid, affordable deployments of innovation.”
The demonstration occurred during the FACE TIM hosted by the U.S. Army in Hunstville, Alabama in September. According to an Oct. 22 blog posted by the Open Group, the September event had 638 attendees and 45 exhibitors, making it the largest-ever FACE TIM that the group has hosted. The FACE and SOSA consortiums, both managed by The Open Group, use the meetings as a way to demonstrate some of the latest advancements companies are making toward the use of open systems architecture in new safety critical military airborne and ground-based systems.
The SOSA Consortium recently published SOSA Technical Standard 1.0, a major step toward implementing the Department of Defense (DoD) goal of establishing a modular open systems approach for sensor systems, as advocated in the Tri-Service memorandum first published in January 2019.