The Open Group's "FACE Edition 2.0" Furthers Interoperability And Portability Of Military Avionics Software

The Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Consortium, an Open Group managed consortium, has announced the immediate availability of the FACE Technical Standard, Edition 2.0, an enhanced version of the open avionics standard for making military computing operations more robust, interoperable, portable and secure. The FACE Technical Standard enables developers to create and deploy a wide catalog of applications for use across the entire spectrum of military aviation systems through a common operating environment. The new edition of the standard further promotes application interoperability and portability with enhanced requirements for exchanging data among FACE components and emphasis on defining common language requirements for the standard.

Developed in collaboration with more than 50 consortium member organizations, the FACE Technical Standard is a vendor-neutral approach for addressing the affordability initiatives of the military aviation community. It is designed to enhance the U.S. military aviation community's ability to address issues of limited software reuse and increase warfighter capabilities, as well as enable the community to take advantage of new technologies more rapidly and affordably.

"The FACE Consortium brings together leading minds in industry and government to improve portability and reuse within the aerospace and defense communities," said Allen Brown, President and CEO, The Open Group. "Utilizing industry best practices, the latest version of the FACE Standard is another important milestone in extending open standards to environments that have traditionally relied on unique interfaces. The FACE Technical Standard is a key enabler for achieving cost-effective solutions at a high level of flexibility and openness."

Key additions to Edition 2.0 of the FACE Technical Standard include the FACE Data Model, Language Run-Times and Component Frameworks, Protocol Mediation Services, Streaming Media Services and expanded definitions of Units of Portability. These additions broaden the standard to accommodate other languages and aviation mission requirements, including required capabilities such as streaming video, and will accelerate the rate of adoption as Edition 2.0 now further accommodates the requirements and needs of organizations within the industry implementing the standard.

FMI: www.opengroup.org