The Government Accountability Office briefed the House Armed Services Committee on how the Defense Department could leverage private sector successes in open systems development, and the office suggested that while the Navy has made an effort to incorporate open architecture into its plans, DoD as a whole has a long way to go to catch up with the private sector.
GAO briefed the HASC staff on April 23 and made its slides public on June 26. The office interviewed four private companies to discuss their use of open systems, including oil and gas companies BP [BP] and Chevron [CVX], satellite communication company Iridium [IRDM] and unmanned systems company DreamHammer.
The report notes that one of the oil and gas companies uses thousands of sensors on its oil rigs to monitor conditions like drill speed and friction, transferring data back in real time and helping operators predict when a drill may become stuck. Operators can slow the drill speed to avoid problems instead of encountering costly delays. This industry-developed standard software allows the oil company to use sensors from any vendor so long as they can work within the common software system to transfer data back to the ground station.
Another oil and gas company uses sensors to monitor equipment statuses to allow targeted and timely equipment maintenance.
In other business sectors, Iridium saw a 42 percent growth in revenue in three years after it changed its business model from a proprietary phone and satellite communication duo to an equipment kit with modular, open interfaces that allowed different applications for different markets.
The report also notes successes in the computer, car and cell phone industries thanks to open systems.
The four companies interviewed all told GAO that broad industry participation and support for the new open standards was key to its success. Demand from the customer–in this case the Pentagon–would force software and hardware developers to comply if they want to stay competitive in the market.
DoD has made some progress here. Three of the Navy’s four unmanned aerial systems incorporate an open systems approach, including the Small Tactical UAS, which expects to integrate 32 payloads developed by 24 different manufacturers. The Triton program expects to reduce testing by two-thirds because its open, modular design means that program officials can test just the functionality of any new capability they add without having to go back and test the whole UAV again.
The Army and Air Force are not using open architecture in their UASs, though the Army is going back and pursuing a common ground station for its UAV fleet.
The GAO noted some challenges for the Pentagon as it seeks to more regularly use open architecture. Strong leadership is needed to overcome a culture of preferring proprietary systems; prime contractors need to be persuaded to move away from the proprietary culture that allows them guaranteed integration, maintenance and modernization contracts as the sole qualified contractor; the Office of the Secretary of Defense needs better insight into how often an open systems approach is used in weapons acquisition; and OSD does not know whether it has sufficient engineering expertise to guide the Pentagon to effective open systems implementation.
GAO made several recommendations to address these and other challenges in a 2013 report, but it notes that the military did not take any action on any of the recommendations yet.