The Navy's Open Architecture Enterprise Team (OAET) this spring published a new Program Manager's Open Architecture Guidebook. Its goal
To help acquisition staffs refine business practices used for purchase of "open" hardware and software for Navy systems that enhance performance and ultimately reduce costs.The guidebook supports the Navy Open Architecture (NOA) initiative, which aims at inserting new capability into ship, submarine, and aviation systems rapidly by establishing flexible processes that expand the field of qualified commercial suppliers of new technology.
In February, the Navy published its eighth quarterly report to Congress on open architecture (the first report was published in February 2008). This one describes plans for continuing the shift of acquisition and system development to flexible, adaptable "open" technology for Navy systems.
The report says that the Navy also will publish an Open Architecture Requirement Officer's Guidebook to help requirements staffs in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) incorporate OA technical needs and business priorities in OPNAV requirements documents.
According to Nick Guertin, principal assistant program manager for Open Architecture and Systems Engineering (IWS 7B), the OA effort started in the late 1990s, emerging from the acoustic rapid COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) insertion initiative, referred to as ARCI and led by Program Executive Office (PEO) Submarines for Los Angeles
class attack subs.The ARCI goal, said Guertin, was to "recast how we do systems development" by introducing a new framework for acquisition that takes advantage of modern development environments and "commodity" electronics.
Navy officials have said that since its inception the goal of OA has been to transition system architectures from the use of "closed" Navy-unique proprietary hardware and software designed for specific systems and interfaces. Modifying or upgrading those systems
for example, the Aegis combat system on Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke class destroyers required time-consuming and costly engineering.Guertin said that the OA challenge was to "change the business environment. ARCI was the crucible for that."
The result is a shift to a new "Navy enterprise transformation effort" for the building of Navy and Marine Corps systems. The OA effort led to the evolution of an Open Architecture Computing Environment (OACE) that mandated the use of commercially accepted standards for hardware and software components.
The OA initiative, according to Guertin, has extended not only to the Aegis combat system but also to the Mk 2 Ship Self-Defense System developed by Raytheon for aircraft carriers, as well as to amphibious assault ships and to other shipboard systems. PEO Ships has mandated OA standards for the Zumwalt-class destroyer and the Navy's new class of littoral combat ships. The Navy's E-2D Hawkeye surveillance aircraft and P-8A Poseidon multi-mission maritime patrol aircraft programs also have adopted the OA approach.
Guertin said the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine replacement program is moving to OA compliance, adapting the defensive combat system already developed for the Virginia class of attack subs.
A key priority for OA is to gain business benefits by spelling out definitively for contractors the Navy's expectations for technical data rights, open-source software, and requirements for coupling, scalability, and system modularity. The new guidebook will "help us craft that business language for industry," Guertin said.
A critical step involves setting up a business strategy before writing contracts; program managers must anticipate the possibility that their incumbent contractor may not be selected for later phases of the work.
Awarding solicitations competitively attracts new bidders, including small businesses that offer new levels of technical innovation. "We need to drive our big businesses to use small businesses," said Guertin, adding that Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contracts can be a powerful way to help such businesses establish direct relationships with government.
To maximize flexibility for reuse of government-owned software and hardware, the Navy maintains a Software-Hardware Asset Reuse Enterprise (SHARE) repository. The February report to Congress states that the Navy will use an SBIR phase-2 contract with Trident Systems Inc. for management of a SHARE II version.
The latest report also calls for the Navy's aviation community to focus on OA-oriented business strategies for the next-generation jammer, the joint-precision approach/landing system (JPALS), and the broad-area maritime-surveillance unmanned aircraft system (BAMS UAS), a long-endurance multi-mission surveillance system.