Collins Aerospace leads multi-domain operation demonstration of open systems for US military.

Collins Aerospace – in collaboration with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Parry Labs, Tektonux and Palantir Technologies – successfully conducted a multi-domain operation (MDO) demonstration at the recent Open Group FACE and SOSA Consortia Technical Interchange Meeting to highlight the benefits of an open systems architecture.

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A total of 19 different FACE Units of Portability (UoPs) were integrated into a rotary-wing flight deck, demonstrating these components had the ability to be moved from one aircraft to another or replaced by a compatible component (Picture source: Collins Aerospace)

As the integration lead, Collins worked with the team to successfully bring together individual capabilities of government/third-party software and multiple third-party mission computers – including Parry Labs’ Stellar Relay – into a helicopter flight deck using the company’s digital backbone, hardware, software and integration expertise. A total of 19 different FACE Units of Portability (UoPs) were integrated into a rotary-wing flight deck, demonstrating these components had the ability to be moved from one aircraft to another or replaced by a compatible component.

“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,” said Dave Schreck, vice president and general manager for Military Avionics and Helicopters at Collins Aerospace. “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.”

Collins also conducted a similar MDO demonstration with the same industry partners at its new Open Systems Center of Excellence at the recently launched Customer Experience Center (CEC) in Huntsville, Alabama. The CEC was created so Collins can work more closely with its service and industry partners on critical Army Aviation initiatives, including Future Vertical Lift and enduring fleet modernization.

The Open Group FACE Consortium is a government and industry partnership to define an open avionics environment for multiple airborne platform types. The SOSA Consortium enables government and industry to collaboratively develop open standards and best practices to enable, enhance and accelerate the deployment of affordable, capable, interoperable sensor systems.