Case Study: Beale Air Force Base – Secure Aviation Data Platform
Delivered
A secure, cloud-native platform supporting aviation data ingestion, validation, and operational delivery for Beale Air Force Base. The platform integrates iOS and web clients with containerized backend services, unified messaging, and an AWS-based DAFIF processing pipeline to support compliant, mission-critical aviation datasets.
The Opportunity
Operational and Security Requirements
Beale Air Force Base required a secure, resilient platform capable of ingesting, validating, and delivering safety-critical aviation data in compliance with FAA, ICAO, and Department of Defense standards. The system needed to support both web and iOS clients while enforcing strict access controls, auditability, and data integrity across the entire processing pipeline.
Technical and Architectural Challenges
Key challenges included enforcing strict schema and numerical precision validation for aviation datasets, maintaining container- and cloud-level isolation during secure DAFIF processing, avoiding messaging vendor lock-in, and sustaining operational reliability within a zero-trust security model. Any approach had to meet defense-grade security expectations while remaining flexible enough to evolve alongside mission requirements.
The Solution
To address these requirements, Webhead identified the need for a cloud-native, zero-trust architecture with strict validation and authorization enforced at every stage of the data lifecycle. The platform was designed around containerized services, IAM-scoped AWS workflows, and layered validation controls to ensure only compliant, authorized data progressed through ingestion and distribution.
A unified ingestion model was defined to process DAFIF data through secure APIs and orchestrated workflows, enabling precision checks, schema validation, and authorization prior to publication. Messaging and notification capabilities were abstracted to reduce vendor dependency and improve long-term resilience, while maintaining full auditability across APIs, containers, and cloud infrastructure.
Audience & Critical Journeys
Audience: Beale AFB operators and planners, administrators, DevOps and security teams.
Critical Journey: Authorized users access iOS or web clients → requests flow through secured APIs → data is validated and authorized → DAFIF uploads are processed via AWS API Gateway and Step Functions → verified aviation data is published to operational views → alerts and updates are delivered via secure messaging.
Approach
- Design: Modular, containerized architecture with clear service boundaries and least-privilege access
- Development: Node.js APIs with centralized validation, React + TypeScript frontend, isolated MongoDB services
- DevSecOps: Secure API Gateway, VPC-isolated Step Functions and Lambda processing, automated test suites, and environment-driven configuration for controlled deployments
Outcomes
- Automated, secure DAFIF ingestion via AWS Step Functions (~17 Lambda functions)
- End-to-end DevSecOps enforcement across containers, APIs, and cloud workflows
- Improved operational resilience through platform-agnostic messaging and reduced vendor dependency
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