WASHINGTON, DC, November 5, 2026 / Business Wire / Second Front (2F), a public-benefit company powering software for the free world, today announced a new contract with the Department of War Innovation Unit (DIU). Under DIU’s Bridge Program, a strategic initiative to eliminate critical bottlenecks specifically around security clearances, access to classified spaces, compliance requirements for commercial technology adoption, and testing to help non-traditional companies sell and scale commercial solutions within the military, 2F will build an automated tool to simplify and accelerate the critical first steps of the Risk Management Framework (RMF) process. 

RMF is the standard the Department of War (DOW) uses to verify if a software system is secure enough to operate on its networks. For newcomers to defense tech, navigating this complex framework is often frustrating and slow. This new initiative introduces a web-based, guided application that functions much like online tax-preparation software. Instead of requiring deep regulatory expertise, the AI-native tool prompts users with basic questions to categorize their systems. 

The effort is part of the DIU Bridge Program’s broader push to supercharge the defense industrial base under the 2026 National Defense Strategy. By addressing three core friction points: Classified Infrastructure-as-a-Service (CIaaS), Commercial Technology Accreditation, and Integrated Test Teams — DIU is removing the toughest barriers preventing commercial tech from scaling across the DOW. The ultimate goal of this RMF effort is to build the fastest, most trusted accreditation pathway in the Department. 

“The Bridge Program exists to clear the bottlenecks that keep commercial technology from reaching warfighters,” said Sarah Pearson, Chief of Strategic Initiatives and lead for the Bridge Program at DIU. “Indexing toward accreditation for every program, and earlier in development, is critical to adoption. But shifting RMF left only works if teams have the right tools, without having to build deep expertise in the process themselves. Second Front brings proven experience to that challenge, and a 90-day sprint together is exactly the pace Bridge was built for.”

This new tool embeds deep RMF expertise and agentic AI directly into the user interface. Program teams simply describe their mission, system requirements, deployment environment, and data types. The platform then guides them step by step through the first three RMF steps: Prepare, Categorize, and Select. These initial steps are notoriously difficult for Program teams. By automating these steps, anyone can generate the high-quality artifacts typically expected of an experienced cybersecurity professional. 

“As an authorizing official, my job is to make an informed risk decision,” said Lowell Usrey, Authorizing Official, Defense Innovation Unit. “We are using software and AI capabilities to empower program teams by leveraging automation to accelerate the execution of the process. The result will be a more consistent starting point and a faster process for every authorization the Bridge Program touches, representing a concrete step toward the Program’s mandate to cut cyber authorization timelines in half. Instead of moving fast and breaking things, we want to move fast and fix things.”

“RMF was built to manage risk. Somewhere along the way, the process became a risk in itself. Proven technology sits on the shelf while the mission waits,” said Tyler Sweatt, CEO of Second Front. “The standards aren’t the problem. The path through them is. We’ve spent years carrying commercial software through authorization at every level, and this solution puts that experience in the hands of every program manager and system owner who needs it. We’re proud to keep building with DIU.”

The award expands a multi-year working relationship between 2F and DIU, which previously awarded 2F a contract for its Proving Grounds project, a special operations testbed for rapidly accrediting and testing emerging capabilities against real defense networks. The RMF platform continues that relationship through the Bridge Program, giving commercial companies a faster, trusted path from contract award to operational use.