SAN FRANCISCO - The Open Group Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Consortium is expanding membership eligibility to organizations in NATO member countries, Japan, and South Korea, enabling broader international participation in developing and evolving its software standards.
Announced on 13 Oct., the change also allows organizations incorporated in or registered to do business in Australia and New Zealand to join. The consortium cited requests from governments, industry partners, and existing members seeking to involve international subsidiaries and partners in its work.
Eligible organizations can join at the Principal, Sponsor, or Associate level. Members can participate in developing FACE standards, access draft documents and tools, collaborate with government and industry experts, and attend select consortium events. Employee participation is subject to separate nationality and onboarding requirements.
The FACE Technical Standard defines software architecture segments and interfaces intended to enable portable, reusable software components across different computing environments. By promoting modular software and standardized interfaces, the approach aims to reduce duplicated development and integration work while improving interoperability across platforms.
Although initially focused on airborne systems, FACE technology also applies to commercial avionics, shipboard systems, ground vehicles, uncrewed air, ground, and maritime systems, and training and simulation. The standard is intended to help defense programs reuse software across platforms rather than develop and integrate separate implementations for each computing environment.
"The participation of these nations broadens our consortium expertise and will bring new perspectives to expand our ability to meet diverse customer evolution needs," said Kirk Avery, senior fellow at Lockheed Martin and FACE Steering Committee chair.
The consortium's international expansion comes as defense organizations seek to manage development costs, address supply-chain constraints, and improve software interoperability across national boundaries.
For more information, visit opengroup.org/face.
