The Department of Defense’s (DoD) F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office (JPO) Cyber Team seeks to advance its cyber capabilities to better protect against cyber threats and increase mission assurance.
The F-35 JPO is responsible for defining next-generation strike aircraft weapon systems for the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and allies. The F-35 is not only a fighter jet, but also collects, analyzes, and shares data with military personnel.
The office is seeking “technologies to be a part of an aircraft-based real-time capability to enhance resilience through automatically detecting, responding, and/or recovering from a range of cyber events (IP and non-IP based) to mitigate existing and emerging threats,” according to a special notice on SAM.gov.
The JPO said possible solutions could include alerts to attack attempts pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight, and isolating or preventing such attacks – all while keeping flight safety top of mind.
“The optimal solution will leverage open system design and cyber resiliency principles to facilitate the integration of components (hardware/software/firmware) from various sources, and allow for seamless updates and technology insertions to respond to emerging cybersecurity threats,” the notice says. “For this challenge, the JPO seeks all forms of creative and innovative advancements and technologies.”
The public is invited to submit a single-page response to this challenge by March 3.
The office said future versions of the challenge may include submissions of additional technical information, prototypes or live demonstrations, and a pilot of technology on aviation platforms.
