MOSA contract gaps hinder open architectures, officials say
NewsSeptember 24, 2026
NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland. Defense solicitations often call for a modular open systems approach (MOSA) without clearly explaining what programs expect industry to deliver, panelists said at the 2026 MOSA Industry and Government Summit.
Jonathan Cain, senior engineering manager at Raytheon, said requests for information and proposals show “pockets or clusters of excellence” separated by large gaps. Some program offices understand open architectures well, while others cite standards that do not match the systems they want to acquire.
“The first glaringly obvious thing is that the thing that they want and the standard that they are invoking are aligned,” Cain said. If MOSA appears to be only a compliance exercise, he added, industry will treat it the same way.
Tony Maida, chief misfit at Modular Misfits, said MOSA cannot be confined to one section of a solicitation. Related requirements should also appear in sections covering interfaces, data rights, sustainment, and proposal evaluation.
“If it’s only in Section C, but the evaluation criteria in Section M is not about MOSA being evaluated, industry is not going to talk about it,” Maida said. “They’re going to talk about what’s evaluated.”
Patrick Bagby, senior Weapon Open Systems Architecture (WOSA) engineer at Cummings Aerospace, said a well-developed solicitation should connect MOSA to a planned technology refresh or another specific upgrade. It should also require the interface, subsystem, and architecture data that the government will need to integrate components from new suppliers.
Without those requirements, programs can create technical debt that becomes apparent years later, when officials learn that a contractor did not produce information the government never requested, Bagby said. A verification plan is also needed to confirm that the resulting architecture follows the required standard.
Jason Thomas, systems engineering lead in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, said government organizations do not always use the same MOSA language or send industry a consistent demand signal. Earlier discussions through industry days, draft solicitations, and requests for information could help programs refine their requirements before issuing a formal request for proposals.
The panelists said a credible MOSA solicitation should identify the changes a program expects to make, select standards that support those changes, and evaluate whether each proposed architecture can deliver them.
