Air Force Special Operations Command Tests Shift5’s Observability Platform

The Air Force Special Operations Command has tested Shift5’s observability platform for onboard operational technology to gather and analyze data from a flying aircraft to detect cybersecurity anomalies in real time for dispatch to a Department of Defense cloud environment. 

The technology demonstration follows a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. announcement in May that it was integrating the Shift5 platform into the MQ-9A Reaper drone for AFSOC. The demo presented the platform’s support capability in mission readiness and the DOD’s joint force goals, Shift5 said. 

The company said that its platform is deployable using current onboard computing systems and is designed to capture data from any onboard source.

The tool, designed by officers who established the U.S. Army Cyber Command, delivers several module support, including cybersecurity to pinpoint and alert on threats. It also provides an integrity module enhancing situational awareness through real-time alerts on GPS spoofing. 

Josh Lospinoso, Shift5 co-founder and CEO, underscored electronic warfare as vital for the resilience and mission readiness that U.S. warfighters need for American dominance in the Great Power Competition. AFSOC can “mitigate cybersecurity and operational risks” by using an observability platform delivering real-time intelligence data for smarter and faster battlefield decisions, he said.