A Modular Open Systems Approach to Complex, High-integrity Systems Development beyond US Defense

Large programs can involve complex system development across many companies and organizations. This can extend to international collaboration, leading to further complications around sovereignty and supply chain disruption.

Modern fighter aircraft programs unfortunately serve as exemplars for the risks of such development. The US led Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) program was notorious for its size, complexity, cost overruns, and delayed deliveries. FCAS has effectively collapsed, in part due to disagreements over intellectual property and technology transfers between countries. GCAP is certain to face its own challenges.

Generalized ""platform systems"" including airborne, naval, and ground vehicles provide further examples. Diverse requirements for mission, sensor, and weapon system components drive size and complexity for defense systems. But civilian examples are also abundant. Often there is overlap between complex and high-integrity systems, particularly in the domains of transportation (air- and spacecraft, automotive, rail) and infrastructure (power grids and industrial control systems).

A Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) has been mandated for US defense systems in order to address the challenge of ""competitive and affordable acquisition and sustainment over the system life cycle"". High-integrity systems, particularly airborne systems, have been an initial focus of this approach. The extreme cost and difficulty of developing such systems merits such fixation. In particular, the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Approach was developed to apply MOSA principles to software components. The ""airborne"" in the name betrays its initial focus on high-integrity avionics systems.

MOSA is intended to result in systems with highly cohesive, loosely coupled, and severable modules that can be competed separately and acquired from independent vendors. Claimed benefits include:

- Enhanced competition
- Simpler technology refresh
- Flexibility for rapid innovation 
- Cost savings and avoidance 
- Improved interoperability

Naturally, these benefits are important to US defense programs. But similar challenges are faced by defense agencies worldwide. NATO and Europe face perhaps an even more challenging environment for collaboration across corporate and national boundaries. This presentation intends to show how MOSA or a similar approach can improve our ability to build complex, high-integrity systems beyond current adopting countries and the building of defense systems. In particular, the benefits of interoperability and severable software modules will be unpacked to demonstrate pertinence to the challenges of sovereignty and supply chain disruption.

Speaker

Clifford Bilbrey

Senior Solutions Engineer - Global Aerospace and Defense, Qt Group

Clifford Bilbrey is a software and systems engineer with over two decades of experience in the defense industry, including a long tenure at Raytheon (RTX).

His background as a software engineer spans all stages of the product lifecycle, with a focus on real-time embedded C and C++ development, integration, and test. He has particular experience in radar system integration and flight testing. As a systems engineer, Cliff has specialized in modeling, simulation, and analysis of radar systems.

Recent work with the Qt Group includes guiding an effort to adapt the Qt Framework to the FACE Technical Standard and providing technical direction for the aerospace and defense vertical globally. He holds bachelor's and master’s degrees in computer engineering from the University of Oklahoma and Southern Methodist University respectively.