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Strengthening Security and Cyber Resilience
Introduction
Modern defence systems are built from complex, interdependent software components: avionics and flight controls, mission computers, C4ISR platforms, autonomous and semi-autonomous systems, secure communications, and ground support tooling. These systems must operate correctly first time and every time, often in degraded or contested environments, and they must resist sophisticated cyber threats throughout long service lives. Traditional test-only approaches to software development are not enough at this scale, as even in the most rigorous tests, not all paths through the source code are considered. Static analysis is a technique to statically assess all paths through the source code and through that strengthen software assurance from the outset. By examining code without executing it, static analysis identifies defects, security vulnerabilities, and maintainability issues early, when they are fastest and least costly to fix, and builds a durable body of evidence to support certification, accreditation, and through-life sustainment. It is especially valuable across mixed language stacks, complex toolchains, and legacy codebases that are common in defence programmes. In the sections that follow, we outline why static analysis is a strategic necessity for military applications and set the stage for how a tool like CodeSonar can operationalise these benefits at programme scale.
Why static analysis matters for military and defence software
Software for constrained environments
Defence software frequently executes in real time under strict safety constraints. Static analysis uncovers memory errors, concurrency defects, undefined behaviour, and interface mismatches before they manifest in flight or field testing. This proactive assurance reduces rework late in the lifecycle and supports rigorous safety cases aligned to standards such as DO-178C/ED-12C and similar domain requirements.
Reduce cybersecurity risk
Military systems are high-value targets. With growing geopolitical tensions comes the heightened risk of cyberattacks as a means of modern warfare. The increasing use of third-party and open-source software has expanded the attack surface of applications used throughout government systems, making them vulnerable.
Static Analysis tools like CodeSonar fill the gaps in securing the software supply chain by identifying and scoring vulnerabilities especially at the software component boundary, assessing risk, and helping software developers to strengthen the code to prevent infiltration of high-risk components.
Accelerate certification and accreditation with credible evidence
Software needs auditable artefacts: coding-standard conformance (e.g., MISRA C/C++, CERT, DISA STIG), justification of residual risk, and traceable defect closure. Static analysis produces repeatable findings, trends, and waivers with rationale, creating a defensible evidence trail for authorities and easing surveillance audits and re-certification across variants and blocks.
Control cost and schedule risk across long lifecycles
Beyond the need to meet stringent requirements, aerospace and defense projects have a unique challenge in that software is deployed for a very long time, and upgrade timeframes can see significant change throughout a system’s life. Static analysis helps teams understand and manage technical debt in legacy code that they might not be not familiar with, reduce latent defect density before integration, and prevent regressions via policy gates in the development pipeline. The result is fewer late-stage surprises, more predictable integration, and lower total cost of ownership.
Strengthen the supply chain and third-party software assurance
The recent European Union Cyber Resilience Act and White House directives have recommended that software suppliers secure their Software Supply Chain Security (SSCS). Static analysis provides an independent assessment of third-party code quality and security posture, complements Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) workflows, and helps stipulate measurable acceptance criteria for suppliers, improving trust across the chain.
Reduce release timelines
Mission parameters change, often rapidly. Military systems have an increased need to be adaptable on the fly, in rare cases even as a mission is being conducted. To enable this, many development projects are switching to a DevSecOps way of working utilizing continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) platforms. Static analysis can be natively integrated into the automation pipelines of a CI/CD platform, thereby providing its findings directly into the developers workflow, empowering them to delivery higher quality, more secure code at the speed that the mission requires.
Conclusion
Static analysis is no longer a “nice to have” in defence software; it is a foundational control for safety, security, and programme certainty. By preventing classes of defects from entering the codebase, quantifying risk in third-party components, and generating auditable evidence throughout the lifecycle, it strengthens assurance while reducing cost and schedule volatility. Crucially, it scales to the realities of mission systems: mixed-language stacks, legacy code, stringent certification regimes, and supply-chain scrutiny.
For programme leaders, the path forward is clear: make static analysis a first-class citizen of the engineering toolchain and the assurance case. When embedded in CI/CD, aligned to standards (e.g., MISRA, CERT, DISA STIG), and integrated with SBOM and supplier acceptance criteria, it delivers measurable improvements in software quality and cyber resilience. Tools such as CodeSonar operationalise this approach, providing deep defect detection, supply-chain risk visibility, and the evidence trail required for accreditation and in-service sustainment. The result is mission software that is safer to deploy, faster to certify, and stronger against evolving threats.
