SOF Week, MOSA, and uncrewed news

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February 28, 2023

"USSOCOM [U.S. Special Operations Command] notified GSOF that we were selected to co-sponsor its newly envisioned "SOF Week" – formerly known as SOFIC – beginning in 2023. SOF Week will be a national convention for U.S. SOF, and it will include a more diverse slate of programs, to include professional development sessions and we are extremely excited to work with USSOCOM to make SOF Week an amazing event," says Stuart Bradin, President and CEO of GSOF. “We are pleased to have Military Embedded Systems and Shephard Media onboard to further enhance the experience,” he added.

Military Embedded Systems and Shephard will be producing the official SOF Week Show Guide and official Show Daily e-newsletter, plus other event-related newsletters. The newsletters will reach not only all of the show attendees but also the additional combined SOF-related audiences of Military Embedded Systems and Shephard. Attendees and our combined audiences will receive all of our news and features from the show, including interviews with military and industry leaders. For exhibitors, we have multiple advertising and sponsorship opportunities in the print Show Guide, digital newsletters, social media, and SOF Week TV channel.

We are quite excited about supporting this event. Of all the trade shows and conferences I attended last year, none had the enthusiasm or crowded exhibition halls of SOFIC. With SOCOM’s expansion plans, I expect that impact will only grow.

For editorial, you can reach out to me at [email protected]. If you are an exhibitor and interested in advertising/sponsorship opportunities, contact Military Embedded Systems Publisher Pat Hopper at [email protected]. Read the official announcment here. 

Our coverage will also be featured on www.militaryembedded.com and on www.shephardmedia.com. Both sites will also feature updates on the opportunities mentioned above, or you can visit the show site at www.sofweek.org.

Covering SOCOM is unique, especially from an acquisition-strategy standpoint as it has a faster acquisition and procurement process than the main services, so tech moves more quickly from industry into Special Operation Forces (SOF) hands. SOCOM is also embracing the Department of Defense (DoD) Modular Open System Approach (MOSA), perhaps even more so in some instances than other DoD entities.

While discussing open architectures, Jim Smith, Acquisition Executive for U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), told me last year: “It’s embedded in our acquisition strategy and the reason for that is that SOCOM being a joint force needs to be interoperable with the [other services].”

Smith said then that SOCOM quite likes the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard, especially for what it means for counter-UAS [unmanned aircraft system] applications. The c-UASs are designed to deal with multiple threats and will need an open architecture that can work with more than one sensor, he added.

Speaking of MOSA and SOSA, we had our second annual MOSA Virtual Summit his month. David Tremper – Director, Acquisition Integration and Interoperability, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense (OUSD) for Acquisition and Sustainment (A&S) – keynoted the event. EST. Other sessions included “MOSA for Crewed and Uncrewed Aviation Platforms,” “Bringing MOSA to C5ISR and Electronic Warfare Applications,” and “Applying a MOSA Strategy Across Multiple Domains.” To see what you missed, register to watch it on demand here.

MOSA will also be a featured topic at our second annual Uncrewed Systems Virtual Conference on April 13, where once again Dawn M.K. Zoldi (Colonel, USAF, Retired), CEO of P3 Tech Consulting will host the keynote session: She’ll hold a fireside chat with Lt. Col. (USAF) Tom Meagher, Prime Division Chief, AFWERX. The other uncrewed-focused sessions include “Leveraging MOSA for Autonomous Systems,” “Autonomous ISR Payloads: Leveraging AI and Commercial Technology for Actionable Intelligence,” and “Navigating Safety Certification in UAS Platforms.”

For even more on MOSA, see our coverage in our January/February issue: Our contributing editor Flavia Camargos Pereira’s article titled “Next generation of electronic warfare systems to feature enhanced RF and microwave hardware” is on page 34, and an article by Robert Normoyle of Herrick Labs titled “Is high-performance electronic warfare compatible with open standards?” is on page 22.  

Lastly, just a reminder: We will also be producing our second annual FACE Special Edition in the spring (mailed with our April/May issue of Military Embedded Systems) and third annual SOSA Special Edition, which is mailed with the July/August issue.

Whew! Busy year and that’s only the first half of 2023. Lots more to come – we hope to see you at SOF Week or elsewhere.