MICKAI®SectorsDefence, Aerospace and Dual-Use
Team
Sector · Bunker-grade AI for work that can never touch the public cloud.

Defence, Aerospace and Dual-Use

Defence primes, aerospace manufacturers and dual-use producers hold blueprints, telemetry and live tender material that export-control and secrecy regimes prohibit from leaving controlled facilities. They want modern AI for structural, CAD and supply-chain analysis, but ITAR, EAR and the Official Secrets framework bar that data from commercial cloud, where a foreign-jurisdiction provider and its sub-processors would gain access. Mickai runs the full capability inside the secure facility, fully offline, on hardware the customer owns and keys it holds, with network cards disabled at the BIOS so there is no connectivity to exfiltrate through. The data never leaves the building, which removes the third-party cloud-exposure vector entirely.

The problem and our solution
The buyer

Defence primes, aerospace and dual-use manufacturers handling export-controlled and protectively-marked technical data.

The problem

ITAR, EAR and the Official Secrets regime bar blueprints, telemetry and tenders from commercial cloud, freezing these firms out of modern AI on their most critical work.

Our sovereign solution

Bunker-grade blueprint and CAD diagnostics run fully offline inside the secure facility, on customer-owned hardware with network cards disabled at the BIOS.

The value

Structural and supply-chain analysis at AI speed with no external connectivity, removing the cross-border-transfer and third-party-processing friction while the customer keeps its own accreditation and physical controls.

The sovereign advantages

These architectural choices support control over the workflows in your deployment. Their benefits depend on configuration, integrations and operating practices. Review external connections, physical security, access and compliance responsibilities together.

Control the processing boundary

Scope inference, extraction, retrieval and storage on infrastructure you control. Document and test any external connector, support channel or transfer before describing a workflow as zero-egress.

Plan for disconnected work

Workflows with local models, data and supporting services can continue offline. Live external email, calendars and other services need an approved connection or controlled import, with clear unavailable and pending states.

Make data location inspectable

Map prompts, documents, indexes, logs and backups to their processing and storage locations. Local hosting supports control of location; access, retention and any transfers still need review.

Use approved company knowledge

Prepare and classify source records, preserve permissions and evaluate answers against the originals. Retrieval and model training are separate choices; agree data use and licences for each.

Budget for the whole service

Compare hardware and licences alongside integration, power, administration, support, updates, evaluation and recovery. Measure cost at the required workload and quality before claiming savings.

Verify access and authority

Define who holds keys, who can administer the system and which actions need approval. Test denied requests, revoked access and audit records. Physical security, insider risk and incident response remain operational responsibilities.

Control change and exit

Agree version selection, signed update procedures, rollback, data export and licence rights. Reassess requirements as software and obligations change; owning hardware does not remove maintenance or compliance work.

Requirements to assess

Review the requirements relevant to your organisation, jurisdiction and intended use with your responsible teams. Cloud services can be appropriate subject to applicable safeguards; on-premise deployment alone does not establish compliance or remove supplier responsibilities.

ITAR and EAR export controls (US State and Commerce technical-data rules)
Official Secrets Act and the UK protective-marking regime
MoD Secure by Design and JSP 440 (Defence Information Security) with JSP 604 networking rules
CMMC 2.0 (US DoD supply-chain cybersecurity certification)
Organisations of this profile

The kind of organisation this serves, named illustratively from public information to characterise the market. These are target profiles, not customers: Mickai has no relationship, engagement, trial, or endorsement with any of them.

BAE SystemsQinetiQRolls-RoyceLockheed MartinNorthrop GrummanThales Group
The lead studios

The enterprise studios that lead in this sector, drawn from the eighteen that sit on the one sovereign substrate. Scope their local processing, operator-held keys and Open Audit Record coverage for the proposed deployment. Confirm availability and any external integrations before relying on a workflow.

Department studio

Predictive Maintenance and OT

Reads platform telemetry, structural and CAD diagnostics inside the air-gapped facility, so airframe, hull and OT analysis runs where the controlled technical data already lives.

Department studio

Contract Review and Legal-Ops

Triages tenders, subcontracts and export-licence conditions on classified bid material without that text ever reaching an external counsel platform or cloud.

Department studio

Compliance and Regulator Mode

Maps work against ITAR, EAR, Official Secrets, Secure by Design and CMMC obligations on-site; the customer keeps its own accreditation and authority-to-operate.

Department studio

Audit

Produces a local, tamper-evident record of who accessed which controlled data and when, supporting accreditation evidence without shipping logs off the estate.

Department studio

Sovereign Meeting Note-Taker

Captures and transcribes classified design reviews and programme meetings entirely on owned hardware, so what happens in the server room stays in the server room.

See all eighteen on the sovereign services catalogue.

The opportunity

Defence and aerospace primes have largely been locked out of mainstream AI productivity gains because their most valuable data is the data most strictly barred from the cloud, leaving a wide gap between the tooling they are allowed to use and the tooling they need. An on-premise, offline capability that fits inside existing accredited facilities addresses a buyer with deep budgets, long programme horizons and a structural reason to insist on sovereignty.

The outcome

Measure value, cost and risk on hardware you control.

Unlocks AI-grade structural, CAD and supply-chain analysis on material that previously could not be processed by any modern tool, compressing engineering review cycles while removing the third-party cloud-exposure vector entirely; physical and insider controls remain the customer's own. It displaces the recurring cost and accreditation burden of attempting to certify a commercial cloud for controlled work, and it runs independent of the internet and cloud vendors so capability is not contingent on a foreign provider's terms or availability.

Lawful B2B engagement

Map the sovereign stack to your defence, aerospace and dual-use estate.

Briefings are for organisations weighing a sovereign, on-premises deployment. Tell us about your estate and we will walk the pack, the regulatory crosswalk, and the deployment that fits your estate.

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