Embedded software vendors for defense applications have a confession to make: There is more they can do to support customers adopting the modular open system approach (MOSA). Current platform components are not truly portable and hidden dependencies undercut real interoperability. There is, however, a path to improve developers’ ability to realize MOSA objectives.

DevSecOps – first defined more than 40 years ago – brings a lot of value to modern development of military embedded systems, as the world sees global instability, ransomware attacks, and shortened development cycle.

It’s hard to escape the headlines around the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA), open standards, and individual initiatives such as those from The Open Group FACE Consortium, the creators of the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Technical Standard. In 2004, the Open Systems Task Force published a Program Manager Guide titled “A Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) to Acquisition.” Since then, the industry has seen a progression in policy guidance that raised the profile of MOSA and its applicability within military systems to enable success on the battlefield while lowering acquisition costs and promoting innovation.

BOSTON, Mass. Mission-critical software company LDRA announced that it has been chosen as the FACE [Future Airborne Capability Environment] Verification Authority (VA) for Lynx Software Technologies, a company that develops open architecture software solutions for mission-critical embedded systems. Lynx will earn independent validation and verification (IVV) of its software -- designed to conform with the latest FACE Technical Standard, edition 3.1 -- as it works with LDRA Certification Services (LCS),  

By Will Keegan

Lynx Software Technologies

As a testament to the celebrated success of FACE (Future Airborne Capability Environment), mandatory conformance requirements for mission-system software have flowed down for nearly every applicable military program since the publication of FACE 2.0. But even as FACE informs and guides all aspects of software design for tactical mission systems (communications, flight control, flight map and planning, cockpit displays, etc.), the world of vehicle control harbors reservations about FACE adoption. The imperative to deliver safety critical, hard real-time control systems has raised concerns about technical feasibility impeded by the complexities inherent to the FACE multicore Operating System Segment (OSS).

Guilty until proven innocent – that is how the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) treats the safety-certification process for military avionics systems, and the software portion of these systems is no exception. Certifying DO-178 in avionics software is a detailed process by which the safety and security of the software is determined to be acceptable to fly. The certification process itself is still a work in progress: Having already undergone revisions since its conception in the late 1980s following the emergence of supplemental software in aviation, DO-178 and other safety-certification standards for military and commercial avionics are being challenged to keep pace with digital innovation.