San Francisco, California, January 30, 2025: The Open Group SOSA® or Sensor Open Systems Architecture� and FACE® or Future Airborne Capabilities Environment® Consortia today announced their support for the recent . Signed by the Army, Navy, and Air Force Secretaries of the US military, the memo directs all DOD acquisition officers to commit to the five pillars of the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) to facilitate rapid transition and sharing of advanced warfighting capability to keep pace with the dynamic warfighting threat.
Following the historic 2019 Tri-Services directive, which mandated that MOSA standards should be included in all requirements, programming and development activities, the memo aligns with the missions of both the FACE and SOSA Consortia to create a common framework for transitioning systems to an open systems architecture, based on key interfaces and open standards established by industry-government-academia consensus. All of the standards cited in the memorandum are mutually supported by the open standard reference architectures being developed by the SOSA and FACE Consortia.
The memorandum specifically cites The Open Group SOSA and FACE Consortia as validated data standards that the Services have successfully developed and demonstrated through a cooperative partnership with industry and academia.
The mature and robust FACE ecosystem helps address all Five Principles of MOSA, including being one of only a couple of consensus-based, open standards with an operational conformance program.
Captain Jarrod Hair, Program Manager, PMA-209 Air Combat Electronics, US Navy, stated: “The FACE Consortium already has a Conformance Test Suite (CTS) and Conformance Program that supports MOSA Conformance referenced in the Tri-Services Memo�.
The free and publicly available FACE CTS is a critical component of the FACE Conformance Program, and is used by both FACE Verification Authorities and integrated by software suppliers in their DevSecOps pipelines as an industry best practice.
The new Tri-Services memo, reinforcing cross-service commonality, also directs, that within 60 days of its publication, each Service Acquisition Executive (SAE) will identify and report to their respective Service Secretary on any MOSA architecture that is currently shared between two or more Services. The SOSA Technical Standard provides an example of a MOSA architecture that matches this requirement.
“In the years since the 2019 Tri-Services Secretaries memorandum, the SOSA Consortium has made great strides defining an integrative approach to multi-function, multi-modality open architecture, resulting in the publication and continued enhancement of the SOSA Technical Standard,� said Dr. Steve Davidson, Chief Scientist for Systems Architecture at the MITRE Corporation, and Vice-Chair of the SOSA Architecture Standing Committee.
“The SOSA Technical Standard leverages the commonality among six different types of military systems: Communications, Directed Energy, Electronic Warfare, Electro-Optics, and Radar � providing a solid basis for cross-system and cross-Service reuse of system modules. Commonality and reuse are crucial for enhancing acquisition efficiency and mission capabilities. The recently issued follow-up memo strengthens DOD’s support and deep commitment to MOSA, further increasing the incentive for industry collaboration in open standards development,� he concluded.
About The Open Group
The Open Group is a global consortium that enables the achievement of business objectives through technology standards and open source initiatives by fostering a culture of collaboration, inclusivity, and mutual respect among our diverse group of 900+ memberships. Our Membership includes customers, systems and solutions suppliers, tool vendors, integrators, academics, and consultants across multiple industries. More information on The Open Group can be found at .
About The Open Group SOSA® Consortium
The SOSA® Consortium empowers government and industry to collaboratively develop open standards and best practices. The SOSA Consortium vision is to develop both business acquisition practices and a technical environment for sensors and C5ISR payloads that foster innovation, industry engagement, competition, and allow for rapid fielding of cost-effective capabilities and platform mission reconfiguration while minimizing logistical requirements. More information can be found at www.opengroup.org/sosa.
About The Open Group FACE® Consortium
The FACE® Consortium, established in 2010, is a government, industry, and academia collaboration that encourages innovation in refining business processes and developing vendor-neutral open standards which enable software portability, reusability, and interoperability. The FACE ecosystem addresses all five pillars of Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA). Further information on the FACE Consortium is available at
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Monika Boudova
Hotwire for The Open Group
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