The RASOR Edge

As the U.S. military builds more and more complex mission-enabling technologies, individual components become tightly coupled in these systems-of-systems, which adds unneeded complexity when looking to insert new capabilities into the architecture.

Traditional development strategies degrade the ability to rapidly adapt to changing battlespace dynamics. As such, the U.S. Department of Defense is moving toward a modular system approach to promote interchangeability and interoperability with capabilities from a wide variety of sources.

Having an open-systems architecture allows for more innovation, Douglas Bush, Assistant Secretary of the Army - Acquisition, Logistics & Technology, said, according to The National Interest. Ten years from now, there might be a whole new company with a whole new technology, for example, that would have a kind of radar or kind of sight for a tank, say, or some kind of new communications gear, that wasnt even thought of when we designed the system and procured it. Really what you want is a way to bring in new things like that, without having to kind of start from scratch on the design.

Modular Open System Approaches (MOSA) are gaining traction within the DOD, with requirements aligned to MOSA being included in new industry requests for information and proposals. Further, the individual military branches are beginning to converge on agreements regarding best practices and standards to increase total-force alignment.

If you think of the war of yesteryear and the next peer-to-peer conflict - where the United States will go up against highly sophisticated adversaries that might have the ability to challenge or defeat our communication capabilities - our military needs to rapidly adapt in the field to meet new requirements, said Brendan O'Connell, president of L3Harris' Broadband Communications business.

LINK:	https://www.l3harris.com/newsroom/editorial/2022/09/rasor-edge...
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