Spotlight: The Sensors Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Consortium

Among the various ancillary meetings last week at the 2019 AOC Symposium, the Sensors Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Consortium briefed its latest developments. The Consortium, which includes 74 member organizations, is a collaboration across the government, academia and industry. Its goal is to establish hardware, software and interface standards that will allow companies who develop EW, SIGINT, radar, EO/IR and other electromagnetic sensor systems for the military to deliver these systems quicker and at lower cost.

At the briefing, COL Kevin Finch, Program Manager for EW and Cyber within the US Army's Program Executive Officer for EW, Intelligence and Sensors, talked about the benefits the military acquisition community will derive from SOSA. SOSA underpins the Army's C4ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS), which will enable future systems, such as the Army's Terrestrial Layer System (TLS) Large and Multifunction EW (MFEW) Air Large efforts, to achieve greater interoperability.

Charles Patrick Collier of L3Harris explained how SOSA is about creating modular building blocks – sensor blocks – that are interoperable and can provide easier technology re-use between them.

John Bowling of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, explained that he biggest challenge for open standards comes from the military. It takes a long time to for technology partners to reach a consensus on standards, but military programs typically operate under a shorter timeframe. 

VIDEO: John Bowling, COL Kevin Finch and Lt Col Mike DiMaria on SOSA