Six years have passed since the tri-service memo was issued by the Air Force, Army, and Navy leadership mandating the use of a modular open systems approach (MOSA) in all new programs and technology refreshes. Many in the defense community were already embracing MOSA strategies and leveraging open standards, but having the three services mandate it promised faster adoption. Update: It’s happening. MOSA is already the law and now defense secretary Pete Hegseth is dictating a MOSA approach as part of his efforts to reform and speed up the defense acquisition process.

WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG. Before we jump to another topic in these articles, it would be appropriate, relevant, and instructive if we conclude this series on the worldwide military markets by looking at NATO in Europe, and the spending by military alliances and security agreements in the Pacific area. The SIPRI report (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) does a nice job of breaking down the regional military markets if you need more details than we cover here. Put this information under demand-side data in your collection.

Each issue, the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a different organization that benefits the military, veterans, and their families. We are honored to cover the technology that protects those who protect us every day.

On today’s battlefield, the task of ensuring that critical data reaches the tip of the spear more quickly and reliably is pivotal, yet is sometimes overlooked. While major investments have been made in bolstering data flow to and from the tactical operations center (TOC), this reality disregards the most critical part of the battlespace: the ultimate edge, or the last mile, where forward-deployed warfighters and unmanned systems operate. Here, connectivity isn’t just a convenience – it’s the lifeline for split-second decisions and survivability. In an autonomy-first world, warfighters need a new paradigm for supporting operators where it matters most.

LONDON -- DSEI UK 2025. Speaking with embedded computing suppliers at the DSEI 2025 show in London this week, I’m hearing growing support of requirements for open standards and open architectures, even if they don’t necessarily know about the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) mandate for MOSA, or modular open systems approach, content.

The next generation of defense systems will not excel in modern warfare through hardware alone, but rather by how quickly and confidently we can design, validate, and deploy it. As mission complexity increases and multidomain coordination becomes the norm, traditional engineering approaches are unable to support today’s complex system of systems. The conflict in Ukraine has shown that using artificial intelligence (AI) in unmanned systems is a viable solution to reduce direct warfighter involvement while enhancing and increasing combat effectiveness.

Modern C5ISR [command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] platforms are only as effective as their ability to process and analyze the data gathered from sensors.

Each issue, the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a different organization that benefits the military, veterans, and their families. We are honored to cover the technology that protects those who protect us every day.

Processors, algorithms, and power constraints are frequently discussed in the military embedded systems arena. But memory is more than passive storage: Embedded systems for defense and aerospace applications need to react quickly, and the memory that keeps mission-critical work in motion doesn’t always get the credit it deserves.

WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: Last time, we built the worldwide military market demand-side tree diagram. By now, you should have drawn that diagram and filled-in the roots and branches with the data revealed in the previous articles. This time, we will build the supply-side tree diagram and integrate the two. When we complete this task, don’t try to add-up the supply-side and demand-side numbers and expect them to balance or even come close. The market research reports mentioned count things differently, and they estimate lots of numbers. These people are not certified public accountants.

Each issue, the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a different organization that benefits the military, veterans, and their families. We are honored to cover the technology that protects those who protect us every day.

The new VITA 100 suite of standards is shaping up to be an interesting display of computing system standards development. Built from years of experience, stemming from VME and OpenVPX, VITA 100 is drawing on the best of these earlier standards to craft a new standard that will enable suppliers and integrators to hit the ground running as soon as the documents are released.

Processing demands in space environments continue to increase exponentially, with more in-orbit applications requiring that image and signal processing as well as networked communications functions be performed at the edge. This reality increases the importance of onboard data analysis, prioritization, and sharing in reliable space-rated systems.

This year, 2025, marks the 30th anniversary of the U.S. military’s announcement that the Global Positioning System (GPS) met all requirements for full operational capacity, a milestone that was formally announced by the U.S. Air Force Space Command on July 17, 1995. Three decades later, despite U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) challenges in modernizing the technology, GPS remains the principal source of position, navigation and timing (PNT) data for the U.S. military and its partners, continuously generating integral information for command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, and reconnaissance (C4ISR); targeting; and weapons delivery. Importantly, GPS is also continually relied upon in the commercial sector, especially in the public safety and security industry. Home-security companies routinely use GPS to route employees for service appointments, direct technicians and first responders to incidents, and provide mobile safety services to ride-sharing companies and their passengers. Maintaining these security and life-safety services is a critical aspect of U.S. national security.

We’ve listened to many customers describe the type of detect-and-avoid (DAA) needs they have for their concept of operations (ConOps), usually pausing to ask about their existing knowledge of DAA and generally hearing responses that are informed by “industry knowledge.” While most of the community working in the uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) industry is well-informed, there are recurring themes that would benefit from the subtle distinction about what is – and importantly – what is not, DAA.