The Open Group Announces the Launch of the FACE™ Conformance Program
Program defines the processes to verify, certify, and provide formal recognition that registered software conforms to the FACE Technical Standard
San Francisco, California, US – September 28, 2016: The Open Group Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE™) Consortium, has today launched the FACE Conformance Program. The FACE Conformance Program defines the processes to verify, certify, and provide formal recognition that registered software conforms to the FACE Technical Standard. It provides a number of benefits for buyers and suppliers of avionics systems.
Buyers get reliable assurance of conformance to standards and best practices as well as increased confidence in portability and re-use. Since it also minimizes the need for independent conformance testing by the buyer, bid analysis is greatly simplified and procurement complexity reduced. All this coupled with easier integration and faster time into the field results in lower cost and risk normally associated with procurement. This is both at the outset and as the technology is inserted and refreshed throughout the life of the system or platform.
Suppliers of FACE certified products and components can provide buyers confidence that their solutions meet applicable conformance requirements, making entry to the market easier. Prospects, customers and business partners will usually specify that any procurements must be guaranteed to conform to rigorous specifications, thus increasing the likelihood of winning bids when using certified components, as well as making product enhancements that continue to conform to such requirements easier.
The FACE Conformance Program has a number of key stages to assess software to ensure that it adheres the necessary requirements of the standard:
- Preparation: The software supplier becomes educated about FACE Conformance and develops a Unit of Conformance (UoC) or a UoC Package. A UoC is a single Unit of Portability (UoP), an I/O Service, or an Operating System (OS) that is developed and intended for FACE Conformance Certification
- Verification: An approved FACE Verification Authority verifies the FACE UoC or UoC Package was developed in accordance with the FACE™ Technical Standard
- Certification: The FACE Certification Authority issues a Conformance Certificate after legal agreements are completed
- Registration: The Certified UoC is listed in the FACE Registry. Only then can a software supplier claim that a product is FACE conformant or Certified as FACE conformant
Steve Nunn, President and CEO, The Open Group, said, “The Open Group FACE Conformance Program represents a significant milestone in the whole approach to the procurement of avionics systems. Buyers can now procure based on vendors' warranting conformance to a standard arrived at through industry-government partnership. This will undoubtedly accelerate the adoption of the FACE Technical Standard, bringing benefits to buyers and vendors alike.”
Rear Admiral Shane Gahagan, Assistant Commander for Research and Engineering, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), said “With The Open Group FACE Consortium Conformance Program now operational, NAVAIR can be assured FACE conformance requirements from our industry partners can be independently certified enabling NAVAIR to forge new partnerships in achieving rapid re-configurability through truly open technical standards. This enhanced competitive market will ensure an even more coordinated approach across NAVAIR's software and systems engineering competencies with industry's lead experts in delivering innovative and affordable products to the Warfighter.”
Vice Admiral Paul Grosklagas, Commander, NAVAIR added, "NAVAIR is excited to congratulate The Open Group's FACE Consortium on their Conformance Program's "Go-Live" announcement. A conformance mechanism ensures the FACE brand is protected and assures buyers they are procuring a reusable and truly open software application."
Brigadier General Robert Marion, PEO Aviation, Army said "On behalf of US Army PEO Aviation, I would like to congratulate the members of The Open Group FACE(tm) Consortium on the launch of the FACE Conformance Certification Program. The Army will benefit from a marketplace of trusted, certified conformant products that will help us lower costs while increasing capabilities to our warfighters through increased portability and reuse."
To find out more about the FACE Conformance Program and how software can be certified, please visit http://www.opengroup.org/face/conformance. The FACE Conformance Policy, Conformance Certification Guide, and Technical Standard may be downloaded from The Open Group online bookstore, along with additional FACE publications, including the FACE Business Guide and Contract Guide.
-ENDS-
About The Open Group FACE™ Consortium
The FACE Consortium was formed in June 2010 as a government and industry partnership to define an open avionics environment for all military airborne platform types. Today, it is an aviation-focused professional group made up of industry suppliers, customers and users. It provides a vendor-neutral forum for industry and government to work together to develop and consolidate the open standards, best practices, guidance documents and business models necessary to result in:
- Standardized approaches for using open standards within avionics systems
- Lower implementation costs of FACE systems
- Standards that support a robust architecture and enable quality software development
- The use of standard interfaces that will lead to reuse of capabilities
- Portability of applications across multiple FACE systems and vendors
- Procurement of FACE conformant products
- More capabilities reaching the Warfighter faster
- Innovation and competition within the avionics industry
Members of the FACE™ Consortium
Sponsors: Air Force Research Laboratory, The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin, NAVAIR, Rockwell Collins, and US Army PEO Aviation.
Principals: AeroVironment, Inc., BAE Systems, DRS Training & Control Systems LLC, Elbit Systems of America, GE Aviation Systems, General Dynamics, Green Hills Software, Harris Corporation, Honeywell Aerospace, IBM, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Sikorsky Aircraft, Textron Systems, US Army AMRDEC, and Wind River.
Associates: Abaco Systems, AdaCore, ARTEMIS, Inc., Astronautics Corporation of America, Avalex Technologies, Avionics Interface Technologies, Brockwell Technologies, Inc., CALCULEX, Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, CERTON, CMC Electronics, Cobham Aerospace Communications, CoreAVI, Creative Electronic Systems North America, CS Communication & Systems Inc., CTSi, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions, Delta Information Systems, DDC-I, DornerWorks, Draper Lab, Enea Software & Services, Inc., ENSCO Avionics, Esterel Technologies, Esterline AVISTA, Garmin International Inc., GECO Inc., General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Intrepid LLC, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Joint Tactical Networking Center, Kaman Precision Products, KEYW Corporation, KIHOMAC Inc., L-3 Communications, LDRA Technology, Leidos, Lynx Software Technologies, Mercury Systems, OAR Corporation, Performance Software, Physical Optics Corporation, Presagis USA, Inc., PrismTech Corporation, Pyrrhus Software, Real-Time Innovations, Richland Technologies, SAIC, Selex Galileo Inc., SimVentions, Southwest Research Institute, Technology Service Corporation, TES-SAVI, Thales USA, Thomas Production Company, Trideum Corporation, TTTech North, America Inc., University of Dayton Research Institute, ULTRAX Aerospace Inc., Vector Software, Inc., Vencore Inc., Verocel, VTS Inc., and Zodiac Data Systems.
About The Open Group
The Open Group is an international vendor--‐and technology--‐neutral consortium upon which organizations rely to lead the development of IT standards and certifications, and to provide them with access to key industry peers, suppliers and best practices. The Open Group provides guidance and an open environment in order to ensure interoperability and vendor neutrality. Further information on The Open Group can be found at www.opengroup.org.
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