The proliferation of connected systems has been enabled by the U.S. military embrace of the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) revolution.

An optimized investment on a leading program for the greater good of the warfighting enterprise will enable the technology breakout and multidomain convergence essential to increasing warfighter and weapon-system effectiveness for the collective national defense.

To exploit the potential benefits of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, video analysis, Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality and virtual reality, and other innovative technologies on mobile platforms at the tactical edge, Department of Defense (DoD) communications programs must effectively deploy advanced IT infrastructure, connectivity, and compute resources.

SOSA, HOST, MOSA, VITA, and a host of other new and emerging open-systems industry standards are coming to bear on the most performance-demanding aerospace and defense applications.

Prototype designs for the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program, one of the U.S. Army’s most important and game-changing initiatives, are fully embracing the open architecture design philosophy for the next-generation helicopters that will replace its fleet of OH58 Kiowa Warrior, AH64 Apache, and UH60 Black Hawk rotorcraft.

The COTS Confidential Roundtable gathers experts from the defense electronics industry – from major prime contractors to defense component suppliers.

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components are being embraced so the technology can be serviced at the base instead of waiting for specialized parts or sending the system back state-side.

Jerry Gipper of VITA Technologies looks at the newly launched Modular Open Radio Frequency Architecture (MORA).