Background

Being locked into proprietary platforms or vendor specific open architectures has made the task of achieving supremacy in warfare technology no easier. These issues limit governmental ability to bring in third parties to compete or add new capabilities, resulting in expensive sole-source or single-bidder contract awards. By curbing long programme schedules and opening more integration options, the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) initiative with its open systems architecture strategy can make a significant difference both commercially and technologically.

Business and technology benefits of adopting the FACE approach

The main goal of the FACE Consortium is to increase the affordability and improve time-to-field of avionics systems and their software-based platforms. The FACE technical standard has increased innovation across the defence sector by allowing scientific and technological communities to focus on developing ground-breaking capabilities within FACE units of conformance (UoCs). It has negated the need to tackle awkward redesign in order to shoehorn new developments into existing monolithic avionics systems.

FACE technical architecture avionics systems can now be tailored by mixing and matching UoC capabilities to support a range of ever-evolving missions. The likelihood of entire systems becoming obsolete or outdated and of no further use is dramatically reduced. Unnecessary duplicated development efforts are minimized, as is the training overhead associated with installation, operation, and maintenance because of the design criteria shared by FACE UoCs.

But perhaps the most significant benefit for the government consumer is the nullification of vendor lock-in, bolstering effective competition and lowering costs across DoD avionics systems. Perhaps counter intuitively the commercial benefits to UoC software suppliers chosen to fulfil government contracts can be significant and ongoing, due to ever-evolving warfare demands. UoC software developers have also seen savings in software development efforts, contributing to the reduction in time-to-field of avionics systems.

Background & the business and technology benefits of adopting the FACE approach

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