AUSA 2019: Military Preps for Open Sensor Standards

A snapshot from the press conference. From right to left: Colonel Kevin Finch, John Bowling, Dr. Steven A. Davidson. (Image Credit: Bruce A. Bennett)

October 15, 2019

Bruce A. Bennett, Editor, Tech Briefs Media

SOSA, the Sensor Open Systems Architecture Consortium , held a press conference on Monday afternoon at AUSA 2019 to discuss their progress to date and future plans with members of the media.

SOSA is currently working with the U.S. military to develop a set of open standards and practices to facilitate the deployment and support of future modular sensor systems. The ultimate goal is to develop a unified technical open system architecture for military radar, EO/IR, SIGINT, electronic warfare, and communications systems.

Panel members present at the press conference to update the media were Colonel Kevin Finch, Project Manager for Electronic Warfare and Cyber at Aberdeen Proving Ground; John Bowling, USAF Technical Expert on Interoperability and Architecture and a member of the SOSA Steering Committee; Dr. Steven A. Davidson, Technology Area Director, Product Family Development and Open Systems Architecture for Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems; and David Jedynak, Curtiss-Wright’s CTO.

According to the panel, significant progress has been made to date. Development of a working standard is currently at Snapshot 2 and expected to progress to Snapshot 3 by the end of this year. If all goes well, Version 1.0 should be ready for release in mid-2020.

The next major milestone for the group will be a tri-service interoperability event scheduled for January 29th at Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta, Georgia.

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