buglerbilly
03-06-10, 05:20 AM
Jun 2, 2010
By Graham Warwick
The U.S. Navy has launched development of an airborne computing environment designed to allow new software applications to be fielded quickly across multiple aircraft types.
The Army has joined the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) program, which aims to break away from the costly and time-consuming process of introducing new capabilities only through regular, scheduled updates of individual platforms’ operational flight programs (OFPs).
FACE is developing standards for an open, modular, partitioned computing environment that will allow software applications to be developed once, added to a library, then reused across different hardware in different aircraft models. The goal is to field new capabilities in six months compared with the normal two-year OFP cycle.
“We are spending too much money and taking too long” to field a new capability, says Mike Williamson, deputy program manager for mission systems with the Navy’s Air Combat Electronics program office. “Each aircraft out there implements the capability separately, so we are paying for the same thing more than once.”
“There are a lot of things we would like to add to aircraft and the only avenue now is the OFP cycle,” says Capt. Ralph Portnoy, Air Combat Electronics program manager. “FACE will enable upgrades outside of the OFP cycle” to be integrated with the aircraft’s mission system, he says.
The intent is to base the computing environment on commercial standards, and the industry-wide Open Group has agreed to form the FACE Consortium, Williamson says, with its first meeting planned for June. The consortium will be open to government, industry and academia. The Air Force is not yet involved, according to Portnoy.
The Navy plans to complete development of the FACE standards this year so they can be incorporated into the requirements for programs beginning in Fiscal 2011. “We are trying to figure out what the next program is,” Portnoy says.
A series of demonstrations have been conducted to show software portability. These involved processing hardware from General Dynamics, Harris, Northrop Grumman and Rockwell Collins all running the same set of software applications.
Introducing FACE will not require a new mission computer. “We are looking at hosting this environment in any number of places,” Williamson says. “It could be a card in the current mission computer, data loader or moving map, or a separate computer, which some platforms need. But some have extra processing power available, so it could just be software.”
Existing platforms would go through one more operational flight-program cycle to add the interfaces for FACE, then new capabilities could be added without touching the OFP software.
Credit: US Navy
By Graham Warwick
The U.S. Navy has launched development of an airborne computing environment designed to allow new software applications to be fielded quickly across multiple aircraft types.
The Army has joined the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) program, which aims to break away from the costly and time-consuming process of introducing new capabilities only through regular, scheduled updates of individual platforms’ operational flight programs (OFPs).
FACE is developing standards for an open, modular, partitioned computing environment that will allow software applications to be developed once, added to a library, then reused across different hardware in different aircraft models. The goal is to field new capabilities in six months compared with the normal two-year OFP cycle.
“We are spending too much money and taking too long” to field a new capability, says Mike Williamson, deputy program manager for mission systems with the Navy’s Air Combat Electronics program office. “Each aircraft out there implements the capability separately, so we are paying for the same thing more than once.”
“There are a lot of things we would like to add to aircraft and the only avenue now is the OFP cycle,” says Capt. Ralph Portnoy, Air Combat Electronics program manager. “FACE will enable upgrades outside of the OFP cycle” to be integrated with the aircraft’s mission system, he says.
The intent is to base the computing environment on commercial standards, and the industry-wide Open Group has agreed to form the FACE Consortium, Williamson says, with its first meeting planned for June. The consortium will be open to government, industry and academia. The Air Force is not yet involved, according to Portnoy.
The Navy plans to complete development of the FACE standards this year so they can be incorporated into the requirements for programs beginning in Fiscal 2011. “We are trying to figure out what the next program is,” Portnoy says.
A series of demonstrations have been conducted to show software portability. These involved processing hardware from General Dynamics, Harris, Northrop Grumman and Rockwell Collins all running the same set of software applications.
Introducing FACE will not require a new mission computer. “We are looking at hosting this environment in any number of places,” Williamson says. “It could be a card in the current mission computer, data loader or moving map, or a separate computer, which some platforms need. But some have extra processing power available, so it could just be software.”
Existing platforms would go through one more operational flight-program cycle to add the interfaces for FACE, then new capabilities could be added without touching the OFP software.
Credit: US Navy