Today, Defense Unicorns, a veteran-founded, Department of Defense (DoD) focused, software delivery company, announces the launch of the Airgap App Store™, a marketplace of applications that support national security missions. The Airgap App Store will arm mission operators for modern warfare one application at a time, going from an initial release of dozens of applications to its intended catalog of thousands of mission capabilities.
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(Graphic: Business Wire)
Empowering Modern Warfare, One App at a Time
With this new offering, Defense Unicorns expands on its groundbreaking Unicorn Delivery Service (UDS) platform, delivering software solutions that can be deployed anywhere the mission requires.
As the name implies, the Airgap App Store focuses on capabilities that are supported in airgap environments, which means fully disconnected, semi-disconnected, or secure environments with strong firewalls, such as DoD cloud environments or corporate networks that support critical infrastructure.
The CEO of Defense Unicorns, Rob Slaughter, views this capability as a game changer for the United States and its allies.
“Modern warfare has changed dramatically over the last decade. It’s no longer acceptable to continue to go to war with outdated non-modern solutions,” Slaughter said. “The Airgap App Store is an easy-to-use on-demand solution for DoD mission partners to discover and determine what mission capabilities they can easily deploy to any environment.”
Breaking Down Deployment Barriers
The Airgap App Store utilizes the robust capabilities of UDS, providing DoD program managers and mission operators with rapid access to pre-integrated applications tailored to the unique needs of the defense sector. The catalog offers a broad range of mission-critical software that is portable, secure, and compliant with DoD requirements. Powered by the UDS platform, the Airgap App Store ensures software is always available at the speed and scale required by complex and highly secure military operations.
“Delivering software in the DoD starts with understanding what capabilities actually exist that can deploy to a mission environment,” said DoD veteran and UDS lead Austen Bryan. “This requires an understanding of cyber security, disparate infrastructures, security classifications, and the Federal Acquisition Regulation. The truth is, these capabilities were impossible to find. That changes today with the launch of the Airgap App Store. Government program managers and their teams can find, research, and decide among a growing list of capabilities that can deploy to where their needs are.”
UDS, an airgap-native platform, has already been deployed across critical systems in the Navy, Air Force, and Space Force. It has enabled the seamless delivery of software from development to deployment, simplifying and accelerating the Authorization to Operate (ATO) process and ensuring secure operations across hundreds of deployments and multiple classification levels.
Jeff McCoy, the CTO and co-founder of Defense Unicorns, said, “The Airgap App Store combines the technology we developed for UDS with a set of mission applications that we felt many of our mission customers were commonly requesting. It’s things we either felt we wished we had when we ourselves were active duty or things we see a large demand for across the DoD.”
The Airgap App Store offers a searchable catalog of secure, compliant applications ready to be rapidly deployed in disconnected, semi-disconnected, and highly secure environments. With these tools, program managers and mission influencers can quickly find the solutions they need to meet operational requirements, accelerating deployment timelines and reducing barriers to mission success.
Key features of UDS that will be included in all Airgap App Store deployments:
Fast – UDS accelerates initial ATOs and on-demand updates by automating many parts of the software delivery lifecycle, allowing for the delivery of an initial ATO security documentation in as little as 2 weeks.
Secure – UDS is committed to a 0 CVE posture with continuous monitoring, logging, and alerting across a defense-in-depth approach to cybersecurity.
Compliant – UDS satisfies up to 90% of the NIST 800-53 technical controls that program offices are responsible for in IL-4, 5 environments.
Airgap Native – UDS is designed for, but not limited to, airgap systems. As a defense-first solution, UDS was designed from the beginning to support disconnected, semi-disconnected, and highly secure environments.
Highly Distributable – UDS is infrastructure agnostic, designed to deploy where the mission requires: cloud, on-prem, and tactical edge alike.
Portable – UDS’ portability enables mission capability providers to rapidly develop, test, deploy, and operate regardless of infrastructure, supporting cloud, bare-metal, and tactical edge with uniformity.
Decentralized – UDS reduces mission dependency on single centralized solutions and is instead deployed to many environments, giving your mission the assurance it requires in real wartime scenarios.
Lower the Barrier of Entry – UDS makes complex software delivery easy by providing a user-friendly experience that doesn’t require technical expertise.
Free of Vendor Lock – UDS is a solution built entirely through open source capabilities, that use flexible software licenses that allow any user to continue to leverage the solution, even if not on contract with Defense Unicorns.
Looking Ahead
By the end of 2025, Defense Unicorns aims to have hundreds of mission-critical applications available through the Airgap App Store, ensuring that the U.S. defense apparatus can operate with maximum agility and security in any environment. This innovation aligns with Defense Unicorns’ long-term vision of revolutionizing how national security software is delivered and sustained.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241029142989/en/