Industry must embrace open architectures.

• Author: Probert, Todd
• Position: Viewpoint

Success on today's multi-domain battlefield will belong to those shifting from the simplicity of bullets and missiles to embracing the complexity of tomorrow's weapon of choice--speed.

State-of-the-art analytics and machine-to-machine automation systems that are cyber resilient are driving unprecedented speed--turning data into decisions and allowing those decisions to be put into actions.

Military operations at speeds that are swift and secure will give the U.S. military the edge on the battlefield. Intelligence cannot exist in the silos in which they were developed, but must have the ability to be shared across services and agencies for greater interoperability and collaboration among forces.

These new concepts of operations must also be flexible, evolving with the threat environment and the user who needs them to survive. Ensuring that warfighters have relevant systems at their fingertips will depend upon the architecture on which they were built. Open system architecture not only enables this critical need, it also allows the Defense Department to encourage competition among its suppliers while driving innovation and conserving resources.

Multiple defense acquisition initiatives provide guidelines for the use of open system architecture to make the development of systems more efficient and effective. Using such an approach allows Defense Department organizations to reap several benefits including reduced total life-cycle costs and vendor lock-in for acquiring and updating complex systems.

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These practices also increase the speed at which the department can develop new products or adjust existing tools to enhance a fielded system.

Open system architecture includes three facets. "Modular design" allows for well defined interfaces that reduce the time and effort needed to build and acquire systems and to integrate new technologies into legacy systems.

"Open interface standards" allow the Defense Department to manage data rights in large acquisition programs more effectively by eliminating the vendor lock-in caused by proprietary, closed solutions.

And "conformance" encourages vendors to supply innovative solutions and capabilities that meet published standards and create a more competitive marketplace.

Raytheon has seen first-hand how open architecture approaches can enhance business operations. The company was built on the portfolio of several companies, each with its own business systems and processes. Over the...