WHAT IS FACE?
The FACE Approach
®
The Future Airborne Capability Environment Approach is a Government-industry developed software standard and business strategy with the goals to:
• Increase the affordability of capabilities
• Improve time-to-field, delivering new capabilities to the warfighter faster
The FACE Approach integrates technical and business practices that establish a standard common operating environment to support portable capabilities across avionics systems. It offers numerous benefits, including increased affordability, faster delivery of new capabilities, and enhanced software reuse across platforms. By providing a standard operating environment, it reduces redundant investments, facilitates cross-platform integration, and supports rapid technology insertion.
WHAT IS FACE ARCHITECTURE?
The FACE Technical Standard
The FACE Technical Standard defines the FACE Reference Architecture. The architecture consists of five segments where a FACE Unit of Conformance (UoC) may reside.
The five segments of the FACE Architecture are:
-
Operating System Segment (OSS)
-
Portable Components Segment (PCS)
-
Transport Services Segment (TSS)
-
Platform-Specific Services Segment (PSSS)
-
I/O Services Segment (IOSS)
The FACE Technical Standard is a set of guidelines developed to create a common operating environment for airborne software systems. It focuses on standardizing software interfaces and ensuring compatibility across different platforms, which enables greater software reuse, reduces costs, and enhances interoperability.
This open, non-proprietary standard is governed by the The Open Group FACE Consortium and benefits both government and industry by improving efficiency, promoting competition, and lowering lifecycle costs. It aligns with U.S. Department of Defense acquisition directives and enables agility in responding to evolving operational needs.
Skayl is a founding member of the Consortium and currently holds multiple leadership positions within the Consortium, including the Vice-Chair of the Domain Interoperability Working Group (DIOG), which is responsible for maintaining and updating the Open Universal Domain Description Language (UDDL) Technical Standard.
HOW SKAYL CAN HELP
FACE Conformance
PHENOM streamlines the development and certification of FACE-aligned Units of Conformance (UoCs) through a model-centric approach that embeds FACE Technical Standard rules and constraints directly into its environment. It validates integration configurations against the FACE Data and Transport segments, supports artifact generation for the Conformance Test Suite (CTS), and proactively detects conformance issues early in development. By enabling reusable, delta-certifiable configuration models, PHENOM reduces certification costs and risks while maintaining conformance across system updates and modernization efforts.
