Military helicopter avionics upgrades like those for Future Vertical Lift platforms make data and modular-agnostic hardware a priority for defense electronics manufacturers. As systems and electronics evolve, many of these advances will have to comply with open architecture standards like the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) and must leverage a modular open systems approach (MOSA) to ease cost and time-to-market pressure.

Secure wireless communications (SWC) technology for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-end user device (V2E) communication is useful for tactical environments as it improves network flexibility and operational maneuverability while reducing management complexity and cost. As seen in the commercial market, securely implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) communication opens the door for innovative solutions to existing and future operational challenges.

Welcome to the FACE Special Edition, which details the technology and solutions being developed under The Open Group Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Consortium. This magazine is the first of what will be an annual issue, highlighting editorial content on the FACE approach from the pages and website of Military Embedded Systems Magazine, as well as the products aligned and certified conformant to the FACE Technical Standard – all put together exclusively by our staff. Learn about it all in the 2022 FACE Special Edition.

Innovation in military avionics platforms is being driven by funding for new avionics platforms and upgrades of current systems plus new investment in unmanned aircraft system (UAS) programs. Avionics requirements are also demanding a modular open systems approach (MOSA) for nearly every refresh or platform.

The benefits of using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components and systems for the military arena are clear, with the major points being lower cost and greater availability. Moreover, the modern-day ability to modify and ruggedize these parts is improving the entire landscape of military embedded electronics technology.

Today’s global semiconductor shortage has stretched procurement lead times to unforeseen lengths. Delays in procurement lead times include the electronic components critical to military technology: Memory (as much as 22 to 26 weeks), integrated circuits (as much as 32 to 52 weeks), microcontroller units (as much as 42 to 53 weeks) and more are experiencing supply delays upwards of a year – with little to no relief arriving in the near term.

For most of the last decade, both the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the U.S. Congress have bemoaned the slow pace of weapons-systems acquisition for equipping the country’s warfighters. A 2020 study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found the average cycle time for a major defense acquisition program (MDAP) – defined as the time it takes from Milestone B (the official start of a program) to the declaration of Initial Operational Capability (IOC) – to be nearly seven years.

This white paper is an educational piece jointly penned by a defence systems OEM, a tier one RTOS provider and a FACE Verification Authority. It introduces the principles and benefits of the FACE standard, how FACE systems are constructed and explains the path to achieve conformance to the standard.

The growth of computing, graphics, neural processing power, communication bandwidth, and storage capacities have enabled amazing solutions. These innovations have created great value for society, and that value must be protected from exploitation by adversaries. This whitepaper explores many of these major technology changes and how Rambus’ security offerings help in tackling the new embedded security challenges of device and silicon manufacturers.