Northrop Grumman Corporation, in collaboration with the United States Air Force 76th Software Engineering Group (76SEWG), carried out a first of its kind demonstration leveraging the Air Force’s DevSecOps environment, Platform One, to provide a simulated mission software update to flight-rated mission hardware through a secure cloud environment.
Utilizing mission critical open mission systems (OMS) software, the 76SWEG team modified code that initiated an automated build and containerized software transfer via encrypted internet to an East Coast Northrop Grumman team. The software update was deployed to flight-rated hardware, and the team then executed a simulated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission, returning data and results to 76SWEG developers at Tinker Air Force Base at the conclusion of the mission. This was the first demonstration of an OMS software payload deployed by geographically dispersed teams using Platform One in a secure cloud environment.
“To help connect the joint force, Northrop Grumman is advancing the speed of delivering mission specific software payloads, new capabilities and improved performance to operational platforms hours/minutes before, or even during, a mission,” said Scott Stapp, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Northrop Grumman. “Northrop Grumman has enabling technologies that are required for JADC2, including advanced networking, AI, space, command and control systems, and is a prime contractor for key aeronautics platforms.”
This demonstration achieved a number of digital transformation development goals for government and industry by combining a DevSecOps Pipeline based on Platform One, Kubernetes containerization and mission critical software meeting the OMS and Universal Command and Control Interface standards. It also showed how commercial technologies can securely integrate using open architecture standards in support of the Department of Defence's broader JADC2 efforts.