USAF Jets May Soon Receive Flight Software Updates in Real Time

Future U.S. Air Force aircraft may receive software updates while in flight.

"We're working on pretty cool announcements coming in the next few weeks with the ability to update the software of a jet while flying," Nicolas Chaillan, chief software officer for the U.S.A.F., said during a webinar this week. "So that's the kind of stuff that will be game changing."

The development is part of a larger effort by the Air Force to bring its software practices up to date. Chaillan is head of the Pentagon’s DevSecOps initiative, which aims to simplify and speed up software development across the department using a centralized location with baked-in security protocols so developers can quickly deploy software updates.

The U.S.A.F. demonstrated its network highlighting Pentagon’s CloudONE cloud computing team. "The star of the show was the data that enabled its kill chain to take effect...enabled by data going into a cloud, being transported over 4G and 5G communications at machine speeds to culminate in a kill chain that took seconds, not minutes or hours to complete," said Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and sustainment.