The Open Group Future Airborne Capability Environment® Consortium Expands Membership to NATO countries, Japan and South Korea

The Open Group Future Airborne Capability Environment® Consortium has announced that it will open membership to organizations from NATO member countries, Japan, and South Korea, significantly expanding the international community able to participate in the Consortium.

The decision follows a growing demand from both businesses and the US and other governments as international cooperation grows in importance. Many of our current member organizations have subsidiaries, parent companies, and partners throughout the world and expressed an interest in having them join the FACE® Consortium. We have also had several inquiries from international organizations about joining the Consortium.

Membership will be open to any business or organization incorporated in or registered to do business in NATO countries, plus Australia, Japan, New Zealand, or South Korea. Organizations will be able to sign up for three levels of membership (Principal, Sponsor, or Associate), with unique benefits per level. Once an organization becomes a member of the FACE Consortium, all its employees are eligible to participate, provided they are persons of one of the 26 countries and complete the appropriate paperwork to become onboarded.

Through the expanded membership, eligible organizations will be able to participate in defining and evolving the FACE Standards, gain early access to documents and tools, network with government and industry experts, and participate in select events with Consortium members.

Alicia Taylor, The Open Group FACE Consortium Director, said: “The eligibility expansion will help us build a broader international community in the Consortium. By bringing together a wider range of government and industry stakeholders, we can strengthen collaboration, share expertise, and continue to develop practical approaches that support the delivery and reuse of software across airborne platforms. We look forward to working with our new members and the valuable perspectives they will bring.”

Today, the FACE Standards reach beyond military aviation into commercial avionics, shipboard systems, ground vehicles, uncrewed air/ground/maritime systems, training and simulation systems. The expansion is also expected to help address common software development and integration challenges enabling better alignment of requirements and greater reuse across national boundaries.

Kirk Avery, Senior Fellow Lockheed Martin and FACE Steering Committee Chair, said: “Opening up The Open Group FACE Consortium membership to all NATO countries, Japan, and South Korea is a defining moment for our organization. The participation of these nations broadens our consortium expertise and will bring new perspectives to expand our ability to meet diverse customer evolution needs.”

The FACE Consortium’s expansion comes as nations are faced with growing military costs, limited supply chains, and rapid evolution of technology. The FACE Approach enables the reuse of capability-based software components across different hardware computing environments increasing interoperability and reducing integration times and costs.

To learn more about the FACE Consortium and membership, visit https://www.opengroup.org/face

About The Open Group FACE® Consortium

The Open Group Future Airborne Capability Environment® Consortium, established in 2010, is a government, industry, and academia collaboration that encourages innovation in refining business processes and developing vendor-neutral open standards which enable software portability, reusability, and interoperability. The FACE® ecosystem addresses all five principles of Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA). Further information on the FACE Consortium is available at www.opengroup.org/face

About The Open Group

The Open Group is a global consortium that enables the achievement of business objectives through technology standards. Our diverse membership of more than 900 organizations includes customers, systems and solutions suppliers, tool vendors, integrators, academics, and consultants across multiple industries. Further information on The Open Group can be found at www.opengroup.org