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The aerospace and defense (A&D) ecosystem – including the military, private sector, academia, and government – must consider a huge number of factors as autonomous systems become more common in the sea, on the land, and above the battlefield.

Today's most advanced aerial platforms—whether a commercial airliner, fighter jet, helicopter or unmanned system—compete as much based on their computing and electronic sophistication as traditional performance benchmarks.

Rust offers a promising solution for more secure, reliable code and has the potential to transform safety-critical software development.

With the 2021 SolarWinds breach, attackers proved the value of manipulating the codebase of a popular enterprise monitoring program to infiltrate and spread along the software supply chain. 

The pace of technological change presents opportunities and challenges for every organization today. And no industry is poised to be more transformed by the latest innovations than aerospace and defense.

From providing support products and services for space-focused efforts to leveraging newly acquired access to unique resources, an exciting time for new tech startups may be on the horizon. Below, 20 members of Forbes Technology Council discuss ways tech companies could soon both serve and benefit from the burgeoning space industry.

Multi-access edge computing is a network architecture designed to bring technology resources closer to client devices and end users by providing computing and cloud-based processes at the edge of the network. We ask industry leaders how it all works.

Rust is a new systems-programming language that eliminates dangerous memory bugs while providing high performance. It has the potential to transform safety-critical software development through its innovative ownership model guaranteeing memory safety. 

With high-profile breaches making headlines daily, no company today can afford to neglect cybersecurity. But for those developing mission-critical technologies, ones where lives are on the line, protecting systems and data is more than just a priority.

Cybersecurity vulnerability looms over the worldwide aviation industry, calling for a firm embrace on cybersecurity awareness, standards and best practices

Today, edge computing is playing a major role in virtually every industry by enabling data analysis in real-time or near-real-time and delivering key business insights. See our feature in this highlight.

Lynx CEO, Tim Reed is featured in the September 2023 issue of the Military Embedded Systems Resource Guide. Read up on his piece covering MOSA, AI, and unsafe programming languages.

The DevOps philosophy is simple: Bring development and operations teams closer together in the tech product building process. Companies that swear by DevOps tout improvements in team speed, efficiency and collaboration as well as higher-quality finished products.

The concept of “digital transformation” is hardly new. Since the ‘90s, the phrase has become a widely used—some would say overused—term to describe strategic initiatives organizations undertake to leverage technology and drive innovation in their operations.

Tim Reed and John McHale of Military Embedded Systems discuss how MOSA benefits the warfighter and what it means to be certified conformant other the FACE Technical Standard.

The U.S. Department of Defense wants to scale up the production of hypersonic weapons — but the supply chain to make that happen doesn’t exist.

Have a clear purpose. I have found this to be invaluable. Several times I have taken leadership of a team that simply didn’t understand how their activities were connected to the company’s larger objectives. If you outline the purpose of the task and the effects, the quality of the work improves.

To maintain a defensive edge over its adversaries, the military is always looking for ways to modernize and innovate. One area that has seen significant progress in recent years is the development and use of uncrewed vehicles on land, sea and air. 

ChatGPT – an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot – has emerged as a potential game-changer in the adoption of AI across all industries. For aerospace and defense, it can assist in increasing automation and data-driven analysis from the supply chain to aftermarket services.

Aerospace and defense, while central to the country's physical security and a key sector in the economy, has traditionally lagged behind other vital industries, such as financial services, telecommunications and high tech, when it comes to adopting digital workflows.

The massive tech industry layoffs that began in 2022 show no signs of slowing down. In fact, technology companies large and small laid off more than 150,000 workers in the first quarter of 2023.

Certifying avionics software has been, is, and always will be a daunting, time-consuming task for avionics hardware and software designers. Thanks to advances in aircraft technology, modernized software, a shift in the programming languages used, and the emergence of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) technology, certification continues to get more complex.

It's important for manufacturers to understand the options available to ensure that quality of widgets is upheld and relationships between manufacturers and customers aren’t impacted.

LDRA today announced its selection as the FACE (Future Airborne Capability Environment) Verification Authority (VA) for Lynx Software Technologies, a developer of open architecture software solutions for mission-critical embedded systems.

Lynx Software Technologies’ newly appointed CFO Amanda Blum said in an interview that the company will look to scale the software solutions provider both organically and through strategic initiatives and acquisitions. 

Increasing amounts of processing are being done on the edge, but how the balance will change between what’s computed in the cloud versus the edge remains unclear.

Lynx Software Technologies announced the appointment of Amanda Blum as Chief Financial Officer.  Blum was previously with Green Hills Software, an established provider of embedded safety and security solutions, where she served as the Corporate Controller. She will oversee finance, accounting and other administrative support functions and report into CEO Tim Reed.

A selection of news from the world of embedded, this week featuring, Arm, Astera Labs, Imagination Technologies, Lynx Software Technologies, Nissan, NXP Semiconductors, Qualcomm, Realtek Semiconductor, Siemens, Skyworks Solutions, Soundskrit, STMicroelectronics, and u-blox.

Lynx announced that LYNX MOSA.ic for Avionics was recognized among the best solutions by the 2022 Military + Aerospace Electronics Innovators Awards. An esteemed and experienced panel of judges from the aerospace and defense community recognized Lynx as a Platinum honoree.

Described by Lynx Software Technologies as a major leap forward in the design of security and safety-critical systems, the LynxElement is claimed to be industry’s first unikernel to be Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) -compatible and available for commercial use. LynxElement will be offered as part of the LYNX MOSA.ic portfolio for mission-critical use cases.

Military & Aerospace Electronics has announced the 2022 Technology Innovators Awards to recognize companies offering substantial military, aerospace, and avionics design solutions.

Six years after the formation of the Overarching Properties Working Group, early participants have shared their experiences in applying Overarching Properties (OP) to next-generation safety platforms.

Lynx  announced the appointment of Tim Reed as Chief Executive Officer. Reed was previously with Green Hills Software, an established provider of embedded safety and security solutions, where he served as the Senior Vice President of the Advanced Products division and as a member of the executive leadership team.

Lynx has received a strategic investment from affiliates of OceanSound Partners, LP (“OceanSound”), a private equity firm that invests in technology and technology-enabled services companies serving government and enterprise end markets.

Lynx Software Technologies is claiming industry’s first unikernel to be Posix compatible and available for commercial mission-critical use.

Lynx Software Technologies has announced that its MOSA.ic platform supports the deployment of Google Anthos Bare Metal at the mission-critical edge providing a validated solution for secure, video-based quality inspection in industrial and energy facilities.

Pavan Singh, VP of Product Management at Lynx Software Technologies looks at how Artificial intelligence (AI) can now be paired with Machine Vision (MV) to enable the inspection of every component coming off the line in an automotive manufacturing process – a level of quality assurance that was, until recently, simply not feasible.

Google Cloud has partnered with industrial edge specialist Lynx Software Technologies to support Google Anthos Bare Metal on the LYNX MOSA.ic industrial edge platform. 

Lynx Software Technologies has announced that the LYNX MOSA.ic platform now supports deployment of Google Anthos Bare Metal at the mission-critical edge.

In mission critical applications, the biggest challenge is how to securely deploy artificial intelligence (AI) from the cloud to the edge. When you’ve trained the AI and machine learning models in the cloud, the question at operational level is then how to deploy these cloud-based workloads to the edge and ensure security of the local system.

The cybersecurity skills gap has become a growing issue throughout the United States as The Biden administration has accelerated its efforts to fill over half a million (almost 600,000) vacant cybersecurity positions in the public and private sectors.

There’s no doubt the complexity of aerospace design systems is constantly increasing, driven by new demands on architecture and next-generation technologies. As a result, the costs and time associated with the creation, certification and deployment of mission-critical electronics hugely heighten if the systems are not managed in a new way.

What makes an effective tech strategy?" Boldly press into technical novelty, assure tech solves a valuable problem and reduce risk with early customer validation."

Has there been a ramp up in cyberattacks or are we now just starting to pay attention more? This article will highlight the cybersecurity pitfalls that occur when security isn’t prioritized.

When I started the research for this article, I was looking for how OEMs could keep their systems safe from hackers. By the time I finished the research, it became clear to me that my vision was not accurate.

Many consumers regard skydiving and swimming with sharks safer than riding in an AV.

There is increasing excitement surrounding the seamless integration of robots in automation and Industry 4.0 strategies. However, we are a long way from writing human operatives out of the equation.

Are cobots working alongside, rather than replacing humans, the answer to today’s manufacturing challenges? Ian Ferguson, VP of Marketing and Strategic Alliances at Lynx Software Technologies looks at how such an approach can be made safe and secure.

Lynx announced the availability of LynxSafe, a family of products that now allows enterprise IT teams to apply Lynx’s long-standing expertise in secure mission critical systems to end-points. 

Lynx Software Technologies has applied its aerospace separation kernel security expertise to enterprise IT systems.

The coronavirus outbreak and lockdown forced many organizations to close their offices and shift employees to a remote work setup. But such a quick and abrupt transition opened the door to a host of security risks, especially from people who are unaccustomed to working remotely.

The term “the internet of things” was coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999. Some people may argue that the benefits of connecting systems started a long time prior to the late 1990s.

This week’s Fish Fry podcast is all about mission critical edge and solar flare-inspired rocket thrusters. (Mars here we come!) First up, we take a closer look at a groundbreaking idea for a new type of rocket thruster that could take us to Mars and beyond.

In the coming year, we expect a renewed focus on security, as much of the global workforce continues to work from anywhere but the office, autonomous automobiles become closer to mainstream and global tensions put a spotlight on maintaining national control of mission-critical systems. Read along for  five trends to keep an eye on in 2021.

What is mission critical? It’s one of those, “ask five people and you’ll get five different answers” questions.

Enterprise IT teams need a robust, proven alternative to perimeter-based security, answering the unprecedented challenges of extended, fragmented workforces on top of the mounting threats they were already facing.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has widely been covered as of late, especially as the pandemic has prompted many companies to accelerate digital transformation efforts. As MIT Media Labs’ Dr. Kate Darling recently mentioned, while some conversations seem to focus on automation “taking” the jobs of humans, some are forgetting the power of collaboration between human and machine.

Common sense should tell us that rushing safety engineering processes, building with brand new technology that regulators are still wrapping their heads around, and generating an ROI on aircraft with historical 30-yr production lifecycles, isn’t going to work.

Weak economic conditions and technical challenges make the short-term prospects for higher functioning self-driving cars unrealistic. Longer term, the marker looks better.

COVID-19 has harshly impacted many industries, and industrial manufacturing has proven to be one of them as 80% of manufacturers expect the pandemic to have a financial impact on their business and a majority of those in the sector believe the pandemic will affect operations.

Flying cars are being demonstrated and are close to becoming a reality as the urban mobility segment experiences significant investment. We’ve also had discussions with an automotive manufacturer who is looking to build avionics platforms.

In September, the House of Representatives passed a bill requiring that all internet of things (IoT) devices purchased by the government meet minimum security requirements.

COVID-19 is driving the demand for Collaborative robots (Cobots), which are designed to interact with humans in a shared space or to work safely in close proximity.

Gartner has started to postulate that in a few years’ time, laws could be made and enforced where CEOs are held liable for the (mis)operation of IoT systems that a specific company produces.

It was interesting as most of the pieces about 5G have been about the elements of this technology that a customer can tangibly see, such as improved performance and, more importantly for industrial and automotive applications, improved latency. 

Factories are increasingly expected to be nimble and adept. Instead of creating hundreds, thousands or even millions of the same thing, the new move is toward flexibility, allowing swift reconfiguration of equipment to support different builds.This might involve information that is extremely sensitive, which could result in OEMs writing some or all of the associated manufacturing software themselves.

We are seeing exciting and innovative work in autonomous cars, especially around Level 4, where the car is in complete control of
certain parts of the driving. 

Factories are increasingly being challenged to be nimble and adept. Instead of creating hundreds, thousands or even millions of the same thing, the new paradigm is flexibility allowing swift reconfiguration of equipment to support different builds.

UAVs and flying taxis (that bring controlled democratisation of access to airspace), affordable satellite technology (low-cost satellite vehicles and launchers), industrial digital transformation, and self-driving
vehicles, are among today's most exciting trends.

Edge computing offers connected applications improvements in flexibility, intelligence and lifecycle management. By integrating software tools and systems that support safety, security and real-time determinism, mission-critical applications can also benefit from these properties without the need for inflexible, closed-off embedded implementations.

Thanks to certification steps, Lynx Software’s MOSA.ic virtual-machine partitioning system becomes easier to use.

The opportunity for self driving cars remains extremely exciting even if the short-term prospects look difficult in a post-Covid economy.

Lynx Software Technologies has added three new product bundles to its MOSA.ic platform to enable secure mission critical edge computing capabilities to be added to industrial, avionics, satellite and UAV applications. The first of these will be rolled out for industrial robotics.

Lynx refers to this as the Mission Critical Edge, which it estimates to be a $16bn software opportunity.

Lynx Software Technologies is aiming at high-reliability multi-core edge computing with three custom software bundles for industrial, avionic and UAV/satellite applications.

Zurich-based Daedalean has written a 136 stage report with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency on assurance for the emergent properties of neural networks for autonomous aircraft.  

As recently as March 2020, AI analyst Emerj pointed out that despite the bullish public pronouncements of the auto industry CEOs it is “still a long way off before self-driving vehicles become available to people at any legitimate scale."

Fears over catching the coronavirus have led to chaos during this normally busy trade show season.