NAVAIR, Partners Announce Groundwork for Software Apps Store

Jan. 31, 2012
The U.S. Navy issued the following news release: NAVAIR announced Jan. 30 that it is working with multiple sponsors to establish guidelines to support the migration of avionics software applications across DoD aviation platforms.

The U.S. Navy issued the following news release:

NAVAIR announced Jan. 30 that it is working with multiple sponsors to establish guidelines to support the migration of avionics software applications across DoD aviation platforms.

The Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Technical Standard will enhance the U.S. military aviation community's ability to address issues of limited software reuse while accelerating and augmenting warfighter capabilities.

"The Naval Aviation Enterprise recognizes that future capability will come from systems controlled by software," said Vice Adm. David Architzel, commander, Naval Air Systems Command. "With the creation of the FACE Technical Standard, the DoD and our industry partners in the FACE consortium are setting the direction for software portability and interoperability. This standard will enable reduced costs and speed delivery of technical innovation to the warfighting community."

An open avionic standard will enable developers to create and deploy a wide catalog of applications for use across the entire spectrum of military aviation systems, said Capt. Tracy Barkhimer, program manager for the Air Combat Electronics Program Office (PMA-209).

"We look forward to the development of our first FACE conformant applications and the establishment of the FACE library. Then, we can truly say that 'we have an app for that,'" said Barkhimer.

Product development by industry and procurements by government customer organizations are already underway based on the FACE standard.

Developed in collaboration with 39 consortium member organizations, including sponsors Lockheed Martin, NAVAIR, Rockwell Collins and U.S. Army Program Executive Office Aviation, the FACE Technical Standard promotes industry-government collaboration in a trusted environment.

"This is quite possibly the most important innovation in naval aviation since computers were first incorporated into airplanes. This will truly pave the way for the future," said Barkhimer.

For more news from Naval Air Systems Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/navair/.

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