Army Launches CMOSS Prototyping Competition for Computer Chassis and Cards

July 30, 2024

Woodrow Bellamy III

The Army released a Request for White Papers (RfWP) to develop new CMFF prototypes, enabling cost and space savings and quicker technology insertion into its combat vehicles and platforms. (Image: U.S. Army)

Embedded computing suppliers will have the opportunity to compete to develop new open system architecture chassis and cards for use in U.S. Army combat vehicles and other platforms under a new industry request issued by the Army on July 18.

The Army released its "Request for White Papers" to develop new C5ISR Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS) CMOSS Mounted Form Factor prototypes that could potentially be used in ground vehicles and aircraft in the future. The form factor described by CMFF was first explained in a July 2021 post by the Army Program Executive Office . The concept proposes the use of a central common ruggedized computer chassis that has individual slots where processor cards can be inserted and upgraded rapidly with a variety of position, navigation and timing or other networking or radio frequency related capabilities.

In March Leonardo DRS introduced a new C4ISR/Electronic Warfare Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS) embedded computing chassis, in a form factor that aligns with the white paper request issued by the Army on July 18. (Image: Leonardo DRS)

Embedded computing companies have been increasingly releasing new system on chip and system on module cards as well as ruggedized chassis aligned to the CMOSS form factor in recent years. Several prototype examples were on display at the 2024 MOSA Industry Summit at the Gaylord National Harbor last month. The Army's release of its new industry white paper request is the latest signal of leadership's desire to acquire new technologies that are aligned to the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) standard.

According to an Army press release about the new white paper request, the key needs are to "develop, procure and furnish the Army with the CMFF chassis, also known as Mounted Common Infrastructure (MCI), plus the smart display for user interface, hardware development, software development and Plug-In Cards." Assuring PNT, force protection, mission command and the convergence of tactical communication waveforms are among the individual technologies the Army is seeking in the new chassis and cards.

“Keeping up with the changing battlefield means we need to be able to insert emergent capabilities quickly and easily at the unit level,” said Doug Burbey, Secure Signals Infrastructure (S2I) Project Manager for Program Executive Office, Command, Control, Communications – Tactical (PEO C3T). “CMFF implements a Modular Open Systems Approach [MOSA], which essentially means, as technology changes and improves, so can the Army.”

Companies that respond to the RfWP will also have the opportunity to showcase their CMFF prototypes at a technology demonstration that the Army is hosting at an unannounced date "later this summer."

“We have been refining the CMOSS effort for several years, and are now moving forward into CMFF, which is the application of the standards into tangible cards and chassis,” said Col. Shermoan Daiyaan, Project Manager for Mission Command. “As new technologies and capabilities emerge, we won’t have to build entirely new systems. We can pace the threat by changing out cards and retaining the strength of the system we already have.”

Daiyaan further believes that the true power of the CMFF concept will be realized by the Army when warfighters are able to take a chassis out of one vehicle and leverage its capabilities within another vehicle combining a mix of third party innovation with open architecture interoperability.

"That’s when you’re following a standard. You’re matching a standard, and it just works," Daiyaan said.