SecMUAS – Secure Modular Unmanned Aerial Systems

Unmanned Systems, such as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), have become an essential element of US military operations. The rapid advancement of unmanned systems technologies and missions are requiring systems to evolve quickly. While techniques such as rapid prototyping can rapidly field new capabilities, the complexity of the software that controls these unmanned systems makes cybersecurity hardening of the system both essential and difficult to achieve in rapid deployment timelines. There is an opportunity to change the paradigm of unmanned systems development by extending modular construction techniques to implement high-assurance cybersecurity mechanisms. Secmation proposes SecMUAS, Secure Modular Aerial Unmanned System, as a cyber-secure solution for modular unmanned systems. A goal of SecMUAS is to “bake in” organic security features into a modular design framework for unmanned systems. SecMUAS provides a Configuration IDE providing a rapid unmanned system software development capability which automatically incorporates security features needed to implement security policy. SecMUAS incorporates a secure controller design with advanced security and performance features. SecMUAS also incorporates a library of validated UAS hardware/software components, an NSA certified communication system, and ground station design enabling full UAS system design and integration. Initial target of SecMAUS development will be Group 1 and 2 UAS.