UP FRONT COMPILED BY STEW MAGNUSON.

Modular Open Systems: Embrace It, Or Else

Every single Army dollar invested in new capabilities will be examined for its adherence to a modular open systems approach, or MOSA, Army Brig. Gen. Robert Barrie, the program executive officer for aviation, recently said.

The Army still has more to learn about building contracting mechanisms that support open systems and how the service will qualify and certify programs, he said. But the assessment process has become more centralized and thorough over the years, he added.

Incremental changes will eventually help industry reach full compliance, Barrie said.

"I'll tell you in the future fleet, it will be 100 percent," he said at the Quad-A summit in Nashville. "We will either succeed or we will rip what's in those cockpits out of them and redo it if we're not."

For more on Army aviation, see story on page 13.

Ukraine Unites Industry to Bolster Supply Chain

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks praised the defense industry's efforts to supply Ukraine since Russia's invasion and said there is more work to come if supply lines need to be sustained.

"I've never seen anything like it in terms of the ability to work with allies and partners, work with industry, work inside the services and then use that capability forward and get it into Ukraine," she said.

Industry will have to find a way to tackle the platform obsolescence that has been a problem for Ukrainian operations, she said. She has since held a classified meeting with defense CEOs to discuss supply chain resiliency and how the Pentagon could provide more support. "We have seen, very patriotically, members of industry lean forward and indicate their willingness to work together," she told reporters.

For more on supply chains see story on page 18.

Marine Corps Step Closer to 'Lightning Carrier'

The Marine Corps spent a week in early April demonstrating a new sea- and airintegrated operations concept, Brig. Gen. David Odom, the director of expeditionary warfare, N95, said recently.

Known as the service's 'lightning carrier' concept, the Corps operated 20 F-35B joint strike fighters from the USS Tripoli, a big-deck amphibious assault ship. The F-35 operations were to prepare for the ship's deployment with the Marines later in 2022.

"It's exciting. We're trying to work across our LHD and LHA fleet to enable joint strike fighter capability and F-35 operations to give that capability forward to our combatant commanders," Odom said.

The successful...