Topic

The Department of War recognizes that legacy software airworthiness processes within the Air Force are significantly limiting the ability to field software updates for aircraft on shorter timelines to integrate software updates more rapidly into its warfighting systems. The U.S. faces a critical shortfall in its ability to rapidly deploy new weapons and software. The existing munitions integration process is excessively slow and inflexible, often taking three to five years, preventing the U.S. from effectively countering rapidly specially evolving threats. This problem is especially urgent for employment of solutions from development of Family of Affordable Mass Munitions (FAMM). A new, modular, and scalable weapons integration architecture is vital for rapid adaptation to new technologies and mission demands. This topic seeks to develop a modular and scalable weapons integration architecture, developed on the Open Systems Enclave (OSE) system to meet the critical F-16 modernization requirements outlined in the FY26 Air Reserve Component Modernization Book. A fielded solution will enable rapid airframe integration of new munitions, reducing the timeline from three to five years to one to two months (or days in an emergency). The speed of innovation accelerates rapidly when external capabilities are combined with an OSE.