FAA Automation Evolution — R&D Environment Lifecycle Support

FAA / LSTech (ANG NextGen Office)

Cignus provided lifecycle management and development support services to LSTech as part of their FAA Automation Evolution program, supporting the ANG (Air Navigation and Governance) NextGen office effort to establish a dedicated R&D environment for next-generation Air Traffic Management (ATM) services and applications.

The Automation Evolution program aims to develop and validate novel ATM services — including advanced automation, machine-learning-assisted conflict detection, and data-link integration — before transitioning them into operational NAS infrastructure. The R&D environment provides an isolated platform where new applications and services can be developed, tested, and demonstrated against realistic traffic scenarios without risk to live operations.

Cignus contribution spanned requirements management, configuration control, lifecycle documentation, and hands-on development support — ensuring the environment met FAA programme standards while enabling rapid iteration. Our team dual expertise in FAA systems engineering processes and modern software development practices made Cignus a critical bridge between the government programme office and the technical delivery team.

Outcomes

Supported architecture of a fully operational R&D environment enabling LSTech and FAA to prototype and test novel ATM services independently of the production NAS.

Delivered lifecycle management processes covering requirements traceability, configuration control, and verification for the development platform.

Supported application and platform development sprints targeting ANG NextGen office requirements.

Provided systems engineering expertise bridging FAA operational domain knowledge with modern DevOps tooling.