USAF certification underscores the value federal agencies place on being able to use near real-time and consistent data from systems of record
Enterprise AI software company C3 AI has announced that the United States Air Force has granted the Rapid Sustainment Office’s (RSO) Condition Based Maintenance Plus (CBM+) program with a continuous Authority to Operate (ATO) at impact level 5 (IL5).
A federal ATO is a security authorization process and operating at IL5 means the CBM+ program is processing data in a National Security System (NSS), high Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) environment. Enabled by the C3 AI Suite and the C3 AI Readiness application called the Predictive Analytics and Decision Assistant (PANDA), the CBM+ program is the solution used by the Air Force to optimize fleet maintenance, increase aircraft availability, and minimize aircraft downtime.
By having a C3 AI–enabled program granted this authorization, C3 AI can operate in a USAF production environment and deploy enterprise AI/ML capabilities across a range of Air Force use cases. The ATO will also reduce the time it takes to stand up applications for future government customers. C3 AI applications can help federal agencies use real-time and consistent data from systems of record.
“Achievement of ATO enables the RSO and C3 AI to utilize near real time data and increase data automation, while ensuring proper safeguards are in place,” said Chris Damani, RSO CBM+ Program Office Chief. “The accomplishment will result in more accurate predictions and enable better decision making, increasing fleet readiness and give the USAF a decision advantage over its adversaries.”
C3 AI is the first application in the USAF Cloud One to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Kubernetes Services (EKS) in a production application at the IL5 level. Working together with the RSO to earn this certification since September 2020, the authorization permits C3 AI to directly ingest terabytes of historical and incremental data from USAF systems of record at an enterprise scale, including logistics, supply, maintenance, and telemetry.
Additionally, the ATO permits C3 AI to:
- Ingest and utilize USAF supply, maintenance, status, and utilization data across 22+ aircraft platforms to enable the forecasting and predictive removal of components — ultimately enabling higher levels of aircraft readiness and availability.
- Establish direct data connections to USAF systems of record to receive both historical and incremental data feeds from national security systems.
“We are excited to continue our work with the USAF and help modernize their technology infrastructure,” said Ed Abbo‚ President and CTO of C3 AI. “Following C3 AI’s expansion of its agreement with the United States Air Force Rapid Sustainment Office last year, C3 AI has supported the expansion of predictive analytics and maintenance across the Air Force enterprise, as well as enhanced RSO’s overall AI and machine learning capabilities. This authorization recognizes C3 AI’s commitment to security and is a critical milestone for our Air Force partnership which allows them to innovate at scale.”
About C3.ai, Inc.
C3 AI is the Enterprise AI application software company. C3 AI delivers a family of fully integrated products including the C3 AI Suite, an end-to-end platform for developing, deploying, and operating enterprise AI applications and C3 AI Applications, a portfolio of industry-specific SaaS enterprise AI applications that enable the digital transformation of organizations globally.
