Rheinmetall open-sources the API for its connected weapon systems

German Rheinmetall open-sources its Battlesuite connected weapon system protcol

Rheinmetall has published the onboardapi 9.10.0 documentation under the EPL v2.0, opening the interface library and middleware that connects sensors and software in its Battlesuite weapon system. Built on the ddkit SDK and the OMG's Data Distribution Service (DDS), it offers a standardized data model, low-latency publish-subscribe messaging, and backward compatibility via DDS XTypes and XCDR2. The core is C++, with wrappers for Java, C#/.NET, and Python.

The onboardapi interface library and middleware is designed for seamless communication between sensor systems and software components.
  1. Stitch4223

    “Hi Codex, please find attached website about the specification of my Battlesuit and use the documented API to create a plugin for Home Assistant that shows groups of sensor data.

    You are only allowed to use commands that retrieve data, you are not allowed to perform actions on the suit.

    Treat the suit like its API is not robust and in worse shape than a cheap toy: perform read calls slowly and sequentially with at least one minute in between.

    If possible please group data in meaningful categories, just like the tank and radar dome.

    My Home Assistant is the default on the local network, credentials are in credentials.txt.

    Please send me a text when you’re done. Kthnxbye”

  2. alhirzel

    Reminds me a lot of the Tactical Microgrid Standard (aka TMS aka MIL-STD-3071) [1], probably just because TMS uses DDS as well. I would really like to know if there is a protocol that functions like DDS but caters to real-time guarantees and prioritizes (at a "simple protocol" level) usability on embedded systems with no dynamic memory allocation. It would also need to be just-as-functional with non-real-time systems. One problem with DDS is that it is too heavy-handed to implement well on an embedded system.

    [1] https://battery.army.mil/system-integrator-hub/tms/

  3. adinb

    Are they trying to recreate DIS (IEEE1278) and HLA (IEEE1516) — like they‘re replicating the FOM architecture from distributed simulations for their weapons to integrate.

  4. firesteelrain

    So like Open Mission Systems (OMS)? https://www.vdl.afrl.af.mil/programs/oam/OMS_Marketing.pdf

  5. jauntywundrkind

    Corba never died!!! OMG!!

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2026-09-15