Defense Unicorns Demonstrates Key Enabler for Continuous Software Delivery on the F-22

EDWARDS AFB, Calif., March 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Defense Unicorns, the Airgap Software Company, in partnership with the Air Force Sustainment Center Software Directorate, successfully demonstrated a key enabler for continuous software delivery to the F-22 Raptor. For the first time, software in the F-22 open mission system compute enclave was installed and upgraded on the aircraft in a matter of minutes. When operationalized, this will help enable rapid deployment of new capabilities across the fleet. This demonstration lays the groundwork to enable future Air Force personnel, including pilots and maintainers, to update software capabilities within an Open Mission Systems (OMS) computing environment on the aircraft.

Defense Unicorns' Unicorn Delivery Service (UDS) helps make deploying modern software to military systems, like the F-22, simple and secure. Trusted by software teams across the Department of War, UDS enables warfighters to deploy approved software to open mission enclaves within their mission systems. In the future, this technology will enable pilots to update software on their aircraft, ensuring they take off for every mission with the latest software capabilities.

"UDS enabled the rapid deployment of a critical capability and the flexibility to adjust," said Lt Col Gregory "LAB" Bieler, Materiel Leader Software, Autonomy & Teaming. 

The F-22 now joins several other DoW aircraft demonstrating the efficacy of UDS. The product's open, modular design and use of commercial standards is helping enable Raptor to field a government owned open compute environment, orchestrating commercial and government software. UDS also enables loading of portable software payloads allowing software capabilities developed for the F-22 open compute environment to be readily installed on other fourth, fifth, and sixth-generation aircraft with compatible compute environments and integration efforts.

"For decades, getting new software onto a fighter jet meant months of integration work and dependency on the OEM," said Rob Slaughter, co-founder and CEO of Defense Unicorns. "With UDS, the F-22 can receive software updates in minutes, on demand, at the edge. Future wars will be won by whoever can adapt fastest. This demonstration proves the U.S. Air Force is building that advantage now."

Capabilities such as UDS are advancing the F-22's combat effectiveness by creating a pathway for the Air Force to independently accelerate software development and insertion for specific onboard systems. This approach complements the significant, parallel modernization efforts being led by the OEM, together ensuring the F-22 weapon system has the latest capabilities to dominate the battlespace.

About Defense Unicorns

Defense Unicorns is a service-disabled, veteran-owned defense technology company founded in 2021 to make software a strategic deterrent for the U.S. Department of War. The company builds open-source, airgap-native technologies that enable the secure development, delivery, and sustainment of mission software across cloud, on-premises, and tactical edge environments. Defense Unicorns' technology is trusted by the operators of some of the most critical systems in the world, including the U.S. Navy, Army, Air Force, and Space Force.

SOURCE Defense Unicorns