A combat-ready military force depends on cutting-edge, secure software to power its weapons and support systems. Yet, the Department of Defense (DoD) remains tied to aging IT infrastructure and security frameworks that have not evolved in over 30 years, exposing vulnerabilities in both legacy and advanced technologies.
Cyber attackers are actively exploiting these gaps to breach critical networks, steal sensitive defense software, and reengineer key systems to undermine U.S. national security.
In response, DARPA is leading efforts to introduce formal methods—a mathematically driven approach to software development that identifies and eliminates vulnerabilities at the earliest stages. The U.S. Air Force is applying this method to the MQ-9 Reaper program to build software resilience into the system from the ground up.
Securing Software Before Deployment
Formal methods enable developers to mathematically prove software functions correctly while it’s being written, rather than detecting flaws after coding is complete. DARPA’s formal methods tools are already moving into operational defense platforms but require accelerated, widespread use to fully strengthen cybersecurity defenses.
Capstone Program: Accelerating Secure Software
Through its Resilient Software Systems Capstone initiative, DARPA is collaborating with the Army, Navy, Air Force, and NASA to integrate formal methods across mission-critical platforms. These projects, each lasting approximately two years, aim to:
Deliver inherently more secure software
Speed up ATO approvals
Reduce the burden of software testing
Develop scalable best practices
The Air Force chose the MQ-9 Reaper as its pilot Capstone project due to the system’s readiness and relatively low barriers to entry.
Legacy platforms typically face extended software test cycles—sometimes over a year—for each upgrade. Formal methods can significantly reduce these delays by verifying system integrity earlier in the development process and even analyzing existing legacy code for cyber resilience and safety.
DARPA’s software assurance tools now give defense programs the ability to accelerate software updates while maintaining strict security standards.
