AdaCore

Defense primes and developers of unmanned and autonomous systems must manage increasing software complexity while meeting strict safety, security, interoperability, and compliance requirements.

AdaCore provides development, verification, and certification technologies that help organizations engineer reliable software for UAVs, avionics, mission systems, and other high-assurance defense applications.

UAV & Avionics Software Certification

Avionics and UAV software certification requires organizations to demonstrate that safety-critical code has been developed, tested, and verified through controlled, traceable processes. As aircraft incorporate greater autonomy, advanced sensors, and interconnected systems, certification can become a major source of cost, delay, and program risk.

AdaCore helps teams address certification objectives throughout the software lifecycle rather than treating them as a final-stage activity. For airborne programs where DO-178B/C applies, the company’s technologies support projects up to Design Assurance Level A (DAL A), including structural code coverage up to Modified Condition/Decision Coverage (MC/DC) and qualification material for verification tools.

More information: UAV Avionics Developer Toolkits

Software Assurance

Software defects can compromise flight safety, cybersecurity, platform availability, and mission performance. Identifying these issues late in integration or certification can lead to extensive rework, making continuous software assurance increasingly important for complex autonomous and defense systems.

AdaCore combines static analysis, dynamic analysis, formal verification, unit testing, code coverage, and fuzzing to help developers identify errors and vulnerabilities earlier. Across its product portfolio, the company supports Ada, SPARK, C, C++, and Rust, providing language-specific capabilities for establishing rigorous and repeatable assurance processes.

Safety-Critical & Mission-Critical Software

Safety-critical software must prevent failures that could endanger personnel, platforms, or surrounding infrastructure, while mission-critical software must remain dependable in contested and rapidly changing environments. These demands are increasing as defense systems incorporate autonomy, artificial intelligence, advanced sensors, and more complex software architectures.

AdaCore provides high-assurance development technologies for applications including:

• Flight control, guidance, and navigation
• Propulsion and subsystem management
• Communications, surveillance, and data networks
• Mission and platform-management systems
• Command-and-control, radar, and tactical platforms

The company’s expertise in programming languages, compiler technology, formal methods, and software verification helps organizations select and implement appropriate assurance approaches for new systems and long-established codebases.

Secure Software Development & Supply Chains

Defense software depends on compilers, runtimes, libraries, operating systems, and third-party components that may introduce hidden vulnerabilities or dependencies. Secure software development and supply chain visibility are therefore essential as organizations adopt connected toolchains, reusable components, and automated DevOps processes.

AdaCore provides industrial-grade GCC- and LLVM-based toolchains, configurable runtimes, and analysis technologies that can be integrated into established development pipelines. The company also supplies Software Bills of Materials for its products in SPDX format, helping organizations understand dependencies, manage vulnerabilities, and maintain trusted development environments throughout long defense program lifecycles.

Defense Software Compliance

Airborne certification is only one part of the wider defense software compliance landscape. Programs may also need to satisfy interoperability frameworks, coding standards, procurement requirements, and platform-specific constraints across multiple suppliers, languages, and development environments.

AdaCore supports these broader compliance requirements through:

• FACE-conformant runtime libraries and capability-set enforcement
• MISRA C and MISRA C++ coding-standard checking
• Compatibility with more than 100 off-the-shelf and custom platforms
• Long-term toolchain support for evolving and legacy systems

This combination of compliance expertise, broad platform coverage, and long-term maintenance helps defense organizations introduce new capabilities while sustaining critical software throughout extended program lifecycles.

More information: Software Compliance for Military-Grade Systems