1. Who is leading the Navy's effort to institute Open Architecture (OA) and what are their tasks?
Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS) is assigned overall responsibility and authority for directing the Navy's OA Enterprise effort. An OA Enterprise Team (OAET) has been chartered and is led by PEO IWS. It is comprised of a lead PEO for each Domain area (Air, C4I, Subsurface, Surface, and Space) as well as representatives from the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (ASN), Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV), and each Navy Systems Command (SYSCOM).
2. What is the Navy Enterprise?
When you think "enterprise," think business. The Navy Enterprise includes the broad range of activities required to accomplish the Navy's mission ranging from warfighting to the acquisition of weapons systems.
3. What is the role of the OAET in the Naval Enterprise OA Initiative?
The Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition) (ASN (RD&A)) tasked the OAET with the following roles and responsibilities:
- Lead the Navy Enterprise to OA implementation;
- Provide OA Systems Engineering leadership to PEOs, Industry partners, Joint organizations, Navy Warfare Centers and other participating organizations;
- Provide the forum and process by which cross domain OA proposals and solutions are reviewed and approved;
- Oversee OA implementation efforts ensuring standardized and disciplined processes are utilized across domains;
- Identify cross-domain components and opportunities for cost reduction and reuse
- Leverage technical, business, and organizational solutions from all participating communities;
- Establish an advisory team, comprised of industry and academia, to interpret and advise the team on a periodic basis.
4. What is the genesis of the Navy's decision to implement an Open Architecture?
The Department of Defense's focus on joint architectures and evolutionary acquisition as stated in DoD 5000.1 (12 May 2003), directing the use of open systems architectures, where feasible, in order to rapidly field affordable, interoperable systems. In addition, the 5 Aug. 2004 Memorandum from ASN(RD&A) John J. Young stood up the OAET with PEO IWS leadership and identified the various actions required of the team.
5. What will be the advantages of implementing OA across the Naval Enterprise?
Implementation of war fighting functions using an Open Architecture, standards-based solution will enable common, interoperable capabilities to be fielded more rapidly, more affordably and enable more effective technology insertion.
6. Why does the Navy need to implement OA, and what does OA implementation require?
Today's computing architectures in the fleet are performance limited and expensive to upgrade. The Navy must transition to OA to overcome technical and financial limitations. OA enables a supportable fleet, but does not inherently provide needed interoperability. We must develop an enterprise framework that ties all the pieces together.
This framework must ensure applications and functions are decomposed in compatible ways, guide selection of programs to be opened, set out viable, OA-compatible business and contracting strategies, and harmonize the Enterprise OA way ahead. A key part of this framework will be implementing a well-defined business strategy with long-term return on investment (ROI) from software reuse, efficiencies from streamlined Test & Evaluation, reduced infrastructure, and common requirements.
7. What does the Navy expect to be the key Return on Investment (ROI) from Open Architecture?
ROI from the OA initiatives will come from several areas. Key areas include but are not limited to, cross-domain software reuse, modular design implementations providing more opportunities for innovation and competition, testing and certification reductions enabled by cross-domain leveraging, and accelerated introduction of increased warfighter capabilities and effectiveness.
8. Who is going to set the standards on modules so we do not expend a lot of wasted effort on developments that are unusable?
Each domain (Surface, Air, Subs, C4I, and Space) will set its standards. Since this effort is just beginning, you have to look at what the upcoming functions are, get with your domain, and figure out how your program fits into the way a domain is splitting up its functional architecture or modules.
As a program manager you can do your business case but unless it is in the context of what the whole domain needs to accomplish, there will be some impedance there. Program managers should check with their PEO and ask what they are doing for modules because they need to follow the same path.
9. Has the impact of operations and maintenance for implementing OA on new, existing, and future systems been considered?
Yes. The total ship ownership cost is going to have to be taken into consideration. OA is not just about getting the technology out there the first time, it is about how you support it as well.
10. How does the Navy plan to change its acquisition strategy to maximize the benefits of moving toward an open systems approach?
The OAET is directed to define an overarching OA acquisition strategy and develop guidance that addresses incentives, intellectual property issues, contracting strategies (i.e. integrator's vs. prime's), and funding alternatives. The acquisition strategy and accompanying guidance will then be utilized in future OA applicable procurements tailored as necessary to incorporate domain specific requirements.
In addition, the Navy will ensure the requirements and acquisition communities work together to prioritize naval warfare programs and change programs of record as necessary to drive the implementation of OA standards and disciplines across domains.
11. What is being done to demonstrate the successful implementation of open architecture precepts across the enterprise?
PEO IWS is in the process of gathering proofs of programs that have successfully implemented OA precepts that can be held out as demonstrations of the successful implementation of OA.
In addition, OA pilot assessments are being conducted on programs selected by ASN(RD&A) to prove out definitions, capabilities, and concepts.
12. How will the openness of Navy programs be measured?
All domains and Executive Committee members have agreed to the OA Assessment Model (OAAM). The model shall be used to demonstrate programs' positional relationship to the desired levels of openness. All ACAT I programs will commence this process while all other ACAT programs will do so as coordinated by PEO IWS through the OAET. This model shall be used to determine the "as-is" level of openness and the desired or "to-be" level of openness and shall be coordinated with program sponsors.
The OA Assessment Tool (OAAT) is being developed to support application of the OAAM. It is an Excel-based questionnaire that gathers information about a program or system and plots a tabular assessment of its "openness" on the OAAM. The OAAT is rooted in the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) Program Assessment Review Tool (PART) developed by the Open Systems Joint Task Force (OSJTF) and available online at
http://www.acq.osd.mil/osjtf/.
13. How are the appropriate interfaces and standards being identified and how can you make sure those standards are enforced?
IWS 7 is not going to choose which standards to use to achieve the OA vision. The standards will be those developed by international or national industry standards bodies and that have been widely adopted by industry. Concerning interfaces, there has got to be some baseline stratum on where those interfaces are and industry needs to figure that out. We need to understand what is proprietary and what is not, what can be modularized and what cannot.
14. Have certain programs-low-hanging fruit-been targeted for assessment and pilot?
The OAAT has already been used to assess the Anti-submarine Warfare (ASW) Improved Performance Sonar (IPS) program as well as the Surface Domain's DD(X) program and newest Amphibious Transport Dock (LPD-17, San Antonio Class). There are also plans to assess the Surface Domain's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and the Air Domain's advanced Hawkeye.
15. Is the Navy going to continue its effort to merge OA-related standards documents such as the Open Architecture Computing Environment (OACE) and Net-Centric Enterprise Solutions for Interoperability (NESI)?
The OAET shall synchronize the OA Computing Environment (OACE) standards and the Net-Centric Enterprise Solutions for Interoperability documents into a single set of Naval OA guidance documents. There shall be only one set of OA policy related documents, with domain-centric appendices as appropriate. The lead is the Naval Sea Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren, and they are working together with SPAWAR on their NESI documents. NCOIC work is also feeding into that.
16. What is the relationship between FORCEnet and OA?
FORCEnet and OA must map into each other and eventually converge. The OAET is currently spearheading an OA/FORCEnet Risk Reduction Experimentation effort to minimize the risk of delivering interoperable products.
FORCEnet is the Navy's primary effort to integrate multiple architecture and standards efforts. OA requires the development of business and technical implementation guidance for program execution. FORCEnet is the "what"-the warfighting, warfighting support, and business systems-while OA is the "how"-the "ungluing of the stack."
17. What is being done to increase the participation and leverage the experience of Industry and Academia?
ASN (RD&A) Young directed that a proactive OA education and information exchange program across the industrial and government communities be implemented and sustained. In addition, OA Industry days will be held approximately twice per year to provide information to Industry and to field questions concerning Navy OA.
18. What's the best way for industry to present its ideas and/or engage the OAET?
The Naval Enterprise OA Special Interest Area website encourages industry to engage the OAET by submitting questions and providing feedback on the Naval OA efforts. Registering with the website will provide team members with your contact information for newsletters and other industry outreach initiatives.
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