Open Systems Verification Demonstration (OSVD); Lessons Learned Integrating a Digital Backbone on the UH-60 Black Hawk

A key tenet of the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) is to modularize systems onboard the aircraft by standardizing interfaces and interoperability between various aircraft systems and subsystems. This is intended to decrease the time and cost required to install upgrades or replacements while minimizing the amount of regression testing required. This approach enables the evolution of capabilities over a system's lifecycle, allowing program teams to build, upgrade, extend and support systems at a lower cost and effort, ideally without extensive systems testing. This flexibility and optionality can be boiled down to the principle of "Freedom of Action", defined as “The ability to accommodate the desire of a system user to update and change the system to adapt to changing conditions, independently from a single vendor to encourage competition and lower price." Given that requirement, Open Systems Verification Demonstration (OSVD) is a methodology designed to provide evidence of a program’s MOSA conformance. It is intended to prove the degree of "Freedom of Action" that a particular system provides to its users. An OSVD event is intended to demonstrate alignment to these goals by showing the solution components meet required key interfaces and open standards, that the technical data documenting these interfaces is sufficient, and that the vendors provide the appropriate data rights. Prior to the U.S. Army's decision to cancel the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program, it provided funding to Lockheed Martin for a total of 4 OSVD events specifically for the FARA aircraft. The purpose of these events was to evaluate FARA's planned Digital Backbone solution for modularity and openness. Following the cancellation of FARA, the 2 remaining OSVD events were redirected to focus on the UH-60 Black Hawk. This paper will summarize the recently concluded OSVD events for FARA / UH-60 as well as discuss the results and lessons learned. While OSVD's objectives cover a wide range of interoperability and integration goals, this paper will specifically focus on the network integration of the Digital Backbone.