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Touchscreen Large Area and Control Panel Displays part of MOSARC™

As the Department of Defense pursues game changing capabilities to fight and win on the future battlefield, the implementation of Modular Open System Approach (MOSA) is a “must have” in achieving weapon system overmatch through rapid and affordable technology upgrades. Currently, a comprehensive MOSA strategy remains elusive and has yet to overcome the inertia of the current Defense Acquisition System requirements, acquisition, and resourcing paradigms that are also mirrored by industry’s bundled hardware and software models. Success can only be achieved by finding common ground between the US government’s desire for MOSA and industry’s incentive to modify its current business cases.

To discuss these issues with Collins, we talked with: Tom von Eschenbach, director, avionics Program Management, Army Programs-Rotary Wing Solutions. and Dave Walsh associate Director of Open Systems engineering both based at the Collins Aerospace Huntsville, AL site.

Tom von Eschenbach demonstrating at Collins Customer Experience Center, Huntsville, AL

“Collins Aerospace is uniquely suited to deliver to the promise of MOSA as it has a proven history of delivering open system technologies for a more flexible and interoperable weapon system. This capability is supported by Collins’ product line approach that provides for the merging of multi-program opportunities using common capabilities that do not require major re-integration efforts. This product line investment and development allows Collins to leverage key technologies and products across military and commercial business segments to maximize reuse and building blocks assembled to provide scalable solutions” said Eschenbach.

You mention that in order for MOSA to succeed, both DoD and industry have to find common ground. What is Collins doing to work with the US Army to achieve this?

A1- We strive to align with the emerging Enterprise Architecture Framework (EAF) coming out of the MOSA Transformation Office while finding ways to simultaneously support the most recent updates within the FVL Architecture Framework (FAF) 4.0. In practice the support of the Army is through our collaboration via the ACWG and presenting our feedback to the Army on a regular basis on enduring programs as well as future looking CRADAs (cooperative Research and Development Agreement). MOSA is a transformational change for both the Army and industry. To be successful, Collins is changing how we develop capability within the architectures the Army is putting forward, bringing best-of-breed innovation within those definitions, and finding the mutually beneficial business case that goes along with the technical solutions.

Is there any specific examples you can give where Collins is working with other industry partners to show how MOSA can work and realize the promise of open systems?

As a method of showing that open system implementation was real and achievable, Collins Aerospace reached out to other industry partners to collaborate and demonstrate integration of the most pressing capability gaps challenging the Army Aviation Enterprise. As a start point, Collins and BAE integrated US Army program of record missile warning systems into a fielded cockpit display system without modifying the existing Operational Flight Program (OFP). Initially we demonstrated how the existing missile warning system PVI (Primary Vehicule Information) could be integrated on cockpit displays using ARINC 661 standard. From there our subsequent demonstrations added hardware like the APX-123 IFF Mode 5, laser warning system, and added functionality like geo-locate. Subsequent demonstrations added mission computing resources from Parry Labs (Stellar Relay), UAS control segments from General Atomics (MQ-1C Gray Eagle), Artificial Intelligence applications from Palantir and HMI interfaces from Tektonux. We are continuing the demonstrations this year by adding Elbit’s X-Sight HMD and using FACE applications to demonstration the validity a multi-vendor, multi-program construct of integrating various 3U cards and software on a government defined LRU. Ultimately, this collaboration shows that technically the direction the Enterprise Architecture Framework is headed in the right direction is suitable and feasible, but for this framework to bear fruit, DoD must change from platform centric requirements documents, funding, contracting, and management and pursue “MOSA as a weapon system” program elements and contracting vehicles.

Outside the actual method of approaching open systems, what specific technology areas is Collins investing in to enable overmatch for FVL and the US Army’s large enduring fleet.

A3-our foundational technologies center how to safely bring mission equipment functionality to the cockpit displays and human machine interface. As weapons systems demand more computing power and integrate advanced sensors a high bandwidth, widely proliferated, shared data distribution framework for core systems is key, that’s why we are looking into modern ethernet high speed protocols that can be certified and broadly used in the avionics world, such as TSN – Time Sensitive Networking. Additionally, we have been investing in mixed criticality multicore processors – We are targeting approval by the FAA by early 2023- that will be a major step into implementing complex and CPU demanding applications. Larger display area, better interactivity, more ‘eyes-out’ by leveraging modern and more affordable eyes-out technologies.