Lionfish Tech Advisors Calls for Digital Golden Dome to Shield Aging Defense Software from AI-Powered Attacks

Washington DC, US, September 14th, 2026, FinanceWire

Lionfish Tech Advisors has released a new report, "The Call for a Digital Golden Dome," making the case that the U.S. Department of War and the broader federal government need a new line of defense: Operational Software Assurance. The report zeroes in on a long-standing weak point in national infrastructure — memory-unsafe code written in languages like C and C++, which still underpins everything from weapons platforms to the power grid and financial systems.

Rewriting that code from scratch, the report estimates, would run as high as $34.5 trillion. Lionfish's alternative is Embedded Runtime Security: a way to shield software that's already deployed — and difficult or impossible to patch — from being exploited while it runs, without touching the underlying source code or forcing systems through recertification.

Legacy Systems Face Increasing Security Risks

Much of America's military and civilian infrastructure runs on code that was built decades ago, when performance mattered more than security. According to the report, memory-safety flaws are behind roughly 70% of serious vulnerabilities and 75% of zero-day exploits in use today. What's changed is speed: AI tools are now finding and weaponizing these flaws far faster than agencies can push out fixes. Many of the most sensitive systems are air-gapped or otherwise offline, which makes traditional patching not just slow but often unworkable — leaving critical assets exposed to adversaries operating at machine speed.

How the "Digital Golden Dome" Works

Lionfish's proposed framework doesn't wait on patches or bet on a rewrite that could take decades and tens of trillions of dollars. Instead, it applies runtime exploit mitigation straight to compiled binaries and firmware already in the field. The core mechanism continually randomizes a program's memory layout, so an attacker's exploit path — which depends on predictability — simply stops working. Because it operates beneath the source code, it requires no rewrites, no compiler changes, and none of the costly recertification that normally comes with modifying safety-critical systems.

What the Report Found

• No source code touched: Runtime protection is applied directly to compiled binaries and firmware, with no source-level changes or compiler updates required.
• Attack surface cut by more than 98%: Usable return-oriented-programming (ROP) chains dropped by over 98% in software containing more than 1.6 million potential exploit gadgets.
• Real-world results: Field data show runtime protection neutralized 49% of all fielded vulnerabilities, and 77% of the critical-severity ones.
• Targets the biggest threat category: Memory-safety defects — responsible for an estimated 70% of serious vulnerabilities and 75% of zero-days — are precisely what this approach is built to stop.
• Wide reach across defense programs: The report maps the approach against more than 140 funded programs across 19 Department of War components, covering $87 billion in FY2026 procurement and $159.5 billion requested for FY2027.

The Budget Case

Beyond security, Lionfish frames this as a fiscal argument. The report estimates that just 25% adoption across eligible defense and federal programs could save the government roughly $1.4 billion a year in patching, sustainment, and recertification costs. Lionfish is urging the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of War to make software memory protection an enterprise-wide standard, using acquisition channels that already exist — including Software Fast Track and the Iron Bank registry — to move quickly.

What Lionfish Is Saying

"The United States must stop paying thirty to one hundred times over to rewrite what it can protect, and stop paying in perpetuity to patch what it can immunize," said Rob Smith, CEO of Lionfish Tech Advisors. "Artificial intelligence is finding flaws in our fielded systems faster than any human pipeline can fix them. Runtime protection is the only control that scales with this threat."

Brad LaPorte, a former Gartner analyst who advises Lionfish, framed it as a shift in philosophy: "The strategic shift underneath all of this is the move from detect-and-respond by default to prevent-by-default. We are building a physical dome to intercept missiles, and our software deserves the exact same logic. Operational Software Assurance ensures that our mission-critical systems stay certified, available, and lethal, even when under sustained cyber attack."

About Lionfish Tech Advisors

Lionfish Tech Advisors is a global IT advisory firm focused on competitive intelligence, technology buying decisions, and market analysis. Staffed largely by former Gartner analysts, the firm combines AI-driven research with human verification to deliver insights for enterprise technology buyers and vendors.

Learn more at www.lionfishtechadvisors.com.

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