The benefits of utilising open standards within the battlespace have long been discussed and advocated by the defence industry as a whole. Defence clearly recognises that taking an open standards approach to the technology it harnesses can unlock a myriad of possibilities for mission success, not least in the drive to achieve multi-domain integration.
There is, however, a consistent issue that continues to hold Defence back from realising the true value of open standards: the approach remains disjointed. While the concept of open standards enabling openness' is widely accepted, the execution of this in reality is still incredibly siloed. Within the UK, for example, new standards are constantly being developed by Defence organisations, but in most cases are still only being shared with preferred partners and suppliers. If only certain people have access to a standard, this is not indicative of being truly open.
It's a similar story in the US, where overlapping technical domains are developing standards with differing definitions and varying degrees of openness. As a result, they are left with multiple competing standards, leading to many Defence organisations adopting standards that aren't really open and no more interoperable in a multi-domain environment.
The problem with the current approach to open standards The irony of this partial openness' is that one of the fundamental ideas behind open standards is to avoid vendor lock-in. Providing access to only specific partners and suppliers still constitutes vendor lock-in, going against the very principle. Open standards should realistically enable any number of industry suppliers to contribute, ensuring Defence gains the best possible solution to a challenge.
Continually investing in competing standards, creating multiple pockets of standards where there isn't a compelling need, is counterproductive. After all, a hundred one-off open standards are really no different to sticking with a stovepiped, proprietary solution. This isn't always a deliberate decision, and is often due to a lack of internal communication resulting in duplicated effort. It's highly likely, for example, that three different forces could be using three different standards to achieve the same ends when the ultimate goal being sought is actually multi-domain integration. This fragmented approach only emphasises that while the defence industry is attempting to converge by utilising open standards, in some areas we are still diverging. Defence now needs to actively reduce the volume of competing standards currently available and consolidate these down wherever possible.
All of this said, in some areas Defence is becoming more open; industry working groups are now available to contribute to, and there is often the opportunity to go through open standards bodies such as The Open Group for support. The fact remains, however, that a formalised approach to open standards has not yet been defined, which may be why the true benefits of utilising them are not being realised.
What is keeping Defence from truly embracing open standards? Most often, the primary reason why a truly open approach is not taken is solely down to cost. There is often additional expense and time when transitioning existing product lines to modular architectures with open interfaces, however what's important to remember is that this investment will also result in more agile, future-ready solutions that are evergreen . This means enabling capability that will always be up-to-date, ready to defeat emerging threats. You don't need to buy brand-new kit each time legacy systems reach end of life or they break, you can simply add any new capability in and swap out the old. This results in significantly reduced through-life cost and minimises the need to return parts to the supplier for repairs or upgrades.
North America Stories
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today! By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...
23/12/2025
Experience the power of WO Automation for Radio's newest service, the System Effectiveness Review. Designed to help you achieve more, a System Effectiveness...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
How Steamy Can It Get? Single's Inferno' Season 5 Pre...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
33 Million Global Viewers on Netflix Watched Jake Paul vs. Ant...
23/12/2025
New technique lights up where drugs go in the body, cell by cell Scripps Research scientists developed a technique that maps drug binding in individual cells th...
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
The works of Plato state that when humans have an experience, some level of change occurs in their brain, which is powered by memory - specifically long-term me...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22/12/2025
Back to All News
Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026
Entertainment
22 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboar...
21/12/2025
Back to All News
Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...
20/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking ProRes RAW recording from the...
20/12/2025
CJP Broadcast has completed the digitisation of the European Gymnastics tape archive, converting 328 tapes containing more than forty years of recorded material...
20/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced the launch of the Stream Lab MCP Server, to give AI agents and large language model...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
The benefits of utilising open standards within the battlespace have long been discussed and advocated by the defence industry as a whole. Defence clearly recognises that taking an open standards approach to the technology it harnesses can unlock a myriad of possibilities for mission success, not least in the drive to achieve multi-domain integration.
