Open architectures embraced in European defense circles
BlogJune 17, 2026
While there is not a huge program of record or one nation’s war department mandating adoption of a modular open systems approach (MOSA) in Europe, systems integrators are building with modularity in mind and acquiring technology based on open standards like the Sensor Open Systems Architecture, or SOSA, Technical Standard. I discussed this trend with MOSA proponents during Eurosatory in Paris, France, this week.
[Internationally] a lot of times what you'll see, especially in Europe, is that they lean on a lot of the requirements that are being [made] in the US, in the United States,” Stan Nowak, Vice President of Marketing for Red Cat Holdings told me this week at Eurosatory in Paris, France. “Because from a compliance perspective, that means a lot of the burden has been taken off European customers, because they know a lot of the work has already been done through U.S. customers. So, when the European Union starts to see technology, they're like, ‘Oh, this already actually checks out this box, this box, because of the rigorous requirements you have to meet within the United States. It makes it easier for them.”
Nowak added that it’s also “not just about being able to work with other U.S. systems, you have to have other protocols to be able to work with other countries' systems.”
While many European companies are not member sof the different US open architecute Consortia, they can still adopt the standards.
Generally speaking, they're able to take advantage of open standards like the SOSA {Technical Standard], and getting the benefit of standards that are US-based, said Jason DeChiaro, Solutions Architect and Technical Fellow with Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions. While non-U.S. companies don't have the ability to influence the standards development directly, “everybody has the ability to benefit from them.”
At Curtiss-Wright “we make a lot of SOSA aligned [products]. The European customers can buy those and get the advantages of the open standard and open market,” he added
By extension, once it's released to the public and ratified, the standard is publicly available, anybody can take advantage of it, DeChiaro continued. “They also get the advantage of the marketplace that the SOSA Technical Standard is creating.”
DeChiaro’s colleague Karl Richelmann, Lead Solutions Architect with Curtoss-Wright Defense Solutions echoed those thoughts. “We don't necessarily see people specifying SOSA content as something they want as part of their requirement, but quite often our products that we might recommend might naturally be SOSA aligned anyway. Then they're getting the benefits of the SOSA [approach].
