7 Challenges Delivering Secure Aerospace Software in the Age of AI (with Solutions)

The challenge of any aerospace company is to deliver new capabilities without compromising safety, reliability, or precision. 

At our current juncture, legacy technology runs into conflict with modern tool stacks. Artificial intelligence (AI) creates fissures in compliance and auditability, and innovation and productivity gains come at a cost of greater complexity. Despite these seismic shifts, the central question remains the same: 

How do you prove every requirement is met, every change is controlled and tracked, and every release can be reproduced long after a program ships?

This guide provides a blueprint for modernized workflows that expedite aerospace development while preserving trust in the digital thread. It addresses the top seven aerospace challenges that teams face today by dissecting each challenge, examining real-world impacts, and offering clear software-based solutions. 

Additional Resource: Aerospace Solutions from Perforce

The State of Aerospace Software Development

The aerospace and defense industries operate with unique constraints where stakes are high and consequences can be catastrophic. Products with millions of lines of code must meet the world’s most stringent regulations and function flawlessly for 20 to 40 years in demanding conditions.

According to the Perforce 2025 State of Aerospace and Defense Software Development Report, the biggest developmental obstacles cited by respondents when meeting safety, security, and other issues include:

• Time consuming testing
• Tool qualification for compliance
• Source code management, including complex branching and traceability
• Managing assets across both hardware and software 
• Unauthorized access to onboard/off-board systems
• Lack of skilled workforce

To complicate things, over half of companies that responded are now incorporating AI into product design. Meeting these challenges will require updated workflows and a suite of modern DevOps tools that includes: 

• Version control (Perforce P4) to manage massive sets of files and facilitate secure collaboration across teams. 
• Requirements management (Perforce ALM) to ensure traceability throughout development cycles.
• IP governance (Perforce IPLM) to bridge software and hardware development and manage IP release and reuse efficiently. 

Let’s look more closely at the top aerospace challenges and how to meet them using this tool stack. 

Challenge 1: Managing Complexity and Scale in Safety Critical Systems 

The Industry Challenge

Modern aircraft are software-defined machines. Avionics, flight control systems, and autonomous operations all depend on millions of lines of code working in perfect harmony with complex hardware. Complexity arises in:

• Meeting safety standards like DO-178C, DO-254, and ARP4754A
• Long product lifecycles spanning decades
• Multi-tier global supply chains with hundreds of suppliers
• Tool sprawl across engineering disciplines
• Legacy tools not designed for modern DevOps practices

Additionally, aerospace projects generate massive volumes of diverse data such as CAD models, firmware, source code, and test data that must be versioned and managed. Teams require secure data management platforms that can handle the size and scale of aerospace design files without slowing during branching and merging.  

Real-World Impact

Boeing, one of the world's largest aerospace manufacturers, faced the challenge of maintaining version control across massive, complex codebases while ensuring every change could be traced and audited. With aircraft programs lasting decades and involving thousands of engineers, they needed a solution that could scale without sacrificing precision. Watch the video testimonial

The Perforce Solution

Perforce P4 (data management) provides the foundation for managing complex, safety-critical aerospace workflows:

Boeing uses Perforce so that every team member has complete visibility into version history without guesswork. As their team noted, addressing quick changes is easy with full version history and intuitive branching. 

Challenge 2: Traceability to Meet Aerospace Compliance

The Industry Challenge

Aerospace regulations demand end-to-end traceability from requirements through code to tests and defects. To address these complex development cycles, teams need a tech stack that features stringent requirements management that is backed by secure data management and IP governance. Yet many organizations still rely on manual traceability matrices and spreadsheets. Using this approach, you risk missing links between requirements and test cases that can take days or weeks to trace with disconnected tools. Teams must also handle growing use of AI components and model-based design while keeping the certification narrative clear.

Real-World Impact

EuroAvionics develops mission planning and weight-and-balance software for emergency aircraft such as police helicopters and air ambulances. Operating in a DO-178B regulatory environment, they use Perforce ALM to demonstrate complete traceability from change requests through requirements, design, implementation, testing, and delivery, with signoffs at every stage.Read the Case Study

The Perforce Solution

Perforce ALM (requirements, test, issue management) delivers built-in traceability for aerospace compliance:

EuroAvionics uses Perforce ALM throughout their development process. Engineering Manager Martin Beeby explains: 

"With ALM's reporting platform, we can dump project data into a relational database and query the database to get exactly the reports we need ready for publishing."
 

Challenge 3: Bridging Systems, Software, and Hardware

The Industry Challenge

Fragmentation is the enemy of efficiency. As the bridge between hardware and software development becomes shorter, systems engineers, software developers, and hardware designers need tools that connect the digital thread from concept to production across all silos. 

Without a clear collaboration strategy, it is difficult to trace system requirements bi-directionally through detailed design, implementation, and verification stages. The result is a clunky pipeline that is fraught with developmental risks. 

Real-World Impact

Modern aircraft programs like the Boeing 787 or Airbus A350 involve thousands of engineers across multiple continents, working on interdependent systems. A single change to flight control software might impact avionics displays, structural load calculations, and maintenance procedures. Without a unified view, these dependencies often remain hidden until integration testing. Unfortunately, by this point, time is lost and fixes are more expensive.

The Perforce Solution

Perforce IPLM (IP Lifecycle Management) bridges the gap between systems, software, and hardware through an IP-centric view of design:

By connecting disparate engineering disciplines, Perforce IPLM (supported by P4) eliminates data silos and provides visibility across your entire product lifecycle. Track design changes from their system-level origins through implementation and testing for full compliance traceability. 

Side Note: AI in Aerospace Development

Artificial intelligence can speed up development, but AI-driven insight is only as useful as the integrity of the underlying lifecycle and configuration data. The Perforce IPLM partnership with Siemens EDA tools powers software-defined, AI-powered product development that safely integrates artificial intelligence into workflows without losing traceability. 

Read the eBook: Unifying Software and Semiconductor Development

Challenge 4: Overseeing Variants and Programs Across Long Lifecycles

The Industry Challenge

Aerospace programs rarely develop a single product. Instead, they create families of variants such as engine configurations, mission-specific avionics packages, and regional customizations. Each variant must be developed in parallel, with changes to the baseline flowing selectively to derivatives.

Complicating matters, aerospace products have extraordinarily long lifecycles. A commercial aircraft might remain in service for 30 years. During that period, it may need periodic engineering, upgrades, and retrofits. Configuration drift across programs becomes a serious risk when teams lose track of which changes apply to which variants.

Real-World Impact

The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) launches sounding rockets and stratospheric balloons, using complex software across OpenVMS, Windows, and Linux environments. With monthly release cycles and mission-critical deadlines, they needed version control that could handle diverse platforms while maintaining stability over the long term.

Read the SSC Case Study

The Perforce Solution

The combination of Perforce P4, ALM, and IPLM provides full developmental lifecycle management:

This approach provides aerospace organizations with a scalable solution to maintain multiple product lines simultaneously, support legacy platforms, and develop next-generation systems while keeping compliance top of mind. 

Challenge 5: Security and Collaboration Across the Aerospace Supply Chain

The Industry Challenge

Aerospace supply chains are vast and complex. OEMs work with Tier 1 suppliers, who in turn work with Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers. The resulting web of dependencies can span multiple countries and security domains, elevating the risk of export control violations, IP theft or “leakage,” unauthorized modifications, and version mismatches.

To keep development on track, suppliers need secure access to specifications, interface definitions, and test data. Without visibility into supplier changes, teams may discover incompatibilities late in the process when fixes are expensive and schedule impacts are severe.

Real-World Impact

A typical commercial aircraft contains components from hundreds of suppliers. The engines alone might involve dozens of companies contributing designs, manufacturing processes, and software. Coordinating these efforts while protecting proprietary information and maintaining audit-ready change history is a monumental challenge.

The Perforce Solution

P4 provides secure supply chain collaboration:

Suppliers can access exactly what they need with changes tracked across the entire supply chain.
In addition, Perforce IPLM features strict geofencing guardrails. Protect valuable property and prevent IP leaks by restricting access across geographical borders.

Challenge 6: Digital Transformation and Model-Based Systems Engineering

The Industry Challenge

Digital twins, model-based systems engineering (MBSE), DevSecOps for safety-critical systems, and data-driven decision-making are changing how aerospace design cycles spin. While these initiatives promise faster development, better quality, and reduced costs, they also introduce new complexity and traceability challenges. 

Digital twins, for instance, consume vast amounts of data from design, manufacturing, testing, and operations. Maintaining consistency between the digital twin and physical asset demands rigorous data management.

MBSE replaces document-centric systems engineering with executable models. While this approach improves project clarity, it also creates new artifacts that must be versioned, traced, and verified alongside traditional code and documentation.

Real-World Impact

According to recent aerospace industry trends, over half of aerospace developers now use AI in product design, with spending on AI expected to reach $44 billion by 2030. Cloud-based technologies are transforming design processes, with the U.S. Air Force reporting a 70% reduction in time to implement new ideas.

These technologies generate unprecedented volumes of data including simulation results, ML training datasets, and sensor telemetry. Legacy file systems and version control tools cannot operate at this scale.

The Perforce Solution

A complete Platform to drive digital transformation and grow with your organization as technology changes:

These tools work together to support modern development practices while maintaining the safety, security, and compliance that aerospace applications demand.

Challenge 7: Skill Gaps and Talent Shortages

The Industry Challenge

The aerospace industry relies on highly specialized engineering talent to design, build, and maintain safety-critical systems. However, organizations currently face a severe deficit of well-trained designers and software engineers. As a generation of highly experienced engineers retires, they take decades of invaluable domain knowledge with them. 

This talent shortage results in frustrating operational bottlenecks. New hires require extensive onboarding to understand complex regulatory frameworks, legacy codebases, and rigorous safety standards like DO-178C. When teams operate without adequate staffing or necessary expertise, innovation slows, certification risks increase, and project timelines inevitably slip.

Real-World Impact

A comprehensive McKinsey study examining how to maximize the return on talent in aerospace and defense highlights this crisis. Their research indicates that the industry faces significant hurdles in attracting and retaining critical digital and software engineering talent. Without closing these skill gaps, organizations risk severe delays in delivering next-generation aerospace systems. 

The Perforce Solution

McKinsey’s top recommendation is to “Reimagine workflows via enhanced technology: build a foundation of tech-enabled, fast, and frictionless workflows and empower employees to drive transformation.” They also suggest companies nurture upskilling as part of their overall business strategy.  

To aid companies in both ventures, Perforce provides a comprehensive ecosystem of technology and education. We offer expert guidance to help aerospace organizations overcome their talent shortages and maximize the output of their engineering teams through:

By combining industry-leading tools with exceptional support and training, Perforce empowers aerospace organizations to bridge the talent gap.

Aerospace Design Solutions That Balance Precision and Efficiency

Meeting current developmental needs while planning for a quickly evolving technological future requires a toolset that modernizes aerospace design without sacrificing compliance-based traceability. Organizations need solutions that:

• Are reliable
• Satisfy compliance
• Scale with growing assets
• Secure sensitive data and IP
• Facilitate global collaboration
• Maintain digital thread continuity
• Offer continuous product support and training

Perforce makes an ideal partner for aerospace companies in growth mode. We’re dedicated to supporting your innovation not only through our digital tools, but through continuous support and training to help your teams excel in the face of shortages and talent gaps. 

Talk to a Perforce expert today to learn how our solutions address your biggest roadblocks. 

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