AI Governance for Aerospace & Aviation

Aerospace organizations operate under some of the strictest regulatory regimes on earth — ITAR export controls, FAA certification, DO-178C traceability, and defense classification systems. AI accelerates design, maintenance prediction, and flight operations, but a single policy violation can trigger export control penalties, certification revocation, or national security incidents. Keeptrusts enforces these boundaries at the AI gateway.

Use this page when

• You are deploying AI in aerospace engineering, flight operations, or defense aviation programs subject to ITAR/EAR controls.
• You need a policy configuration that enforces export control screening, DO-178C traceability, and FAA audit requirements at the AI gateway.
• You want to protect flight data, supply chain specifications, and controlled technical drawings from reaching LLM providers.

Primary audience

• Primary: Technical Leaders
• Secondary: Technical Engineers, AI Agents

AI Challenges in Aerospace

Challenge	Risk	Regulatory Exposure
ITAR-controlled data sent to LLMs	Export control violation	ITAR (22 CFR 120-130), penalties up to $1M/violation
EAR-controlled technical data exposed	Export violation	EAR (15 CFR 730-774)
Safety-critical AI generating incorrect outputs	Catastrophic failure	FAA 14 CFR, EASA CS-25
Flight data leaked to model providers	Operational security breach	FAA, airline security protocols
Supply chain data exposed via AI	Competitive and security risk	DFARS, CMMC
DO-178C traceability gaps	Certification failure	DO-178C/ED-12C

How Keeptrusts Helps

ITAR/EAR Compliance

The itar-ear-filter policy detects and blocks export-controlled technical data — including USML categories, CCL ECCNs, defense articles specifications, and controlled technical drawings. The entity-list-filter screens for denied parties and sanctioned entities in prompts.

Safety-Critical AI Governance

quality-scorer enforces elevated confidence thresholds for AI outputs that feed into safety-critical systems. Responses that fail validation are blocked from entering engineering workflows, with automatic escalation to the chief engineer.

FAA Regulatory Compliance

audit-logger creates tamper-evident records of every AI interaction that touches certification-relevant data. The rbac policy ensures only certified engineers can use AI for airworthiness-affecting work.

Flight Data Protection

dlp-filter catches flight recorder data, ADS-B feeds, pilot identifiers, and aircraft registration numbers. Combined with pii-detector, crew personal data is redacted before LLM processing.

Supply Chain Security

The dlp-filter protects supplier proprietary data, DFARS-controlled manufacturing specifications, and source selection information. rbac restricts supply chain AI access to authorized procurement personnel.

DO-178C Traceability

Every AI interaction that produces or modifies software artifacts is logged with full traceability metadata — linking prompts and responses to requirements, test cases, and design documents for certification audits.

Complete Policy Configuration

pack:
  name: aerospace-governance
  version: 1.0.0
  enabled: true
policies:
  chain:
  - prompt-injection
  - rbac
  - itar-ear-filter
  - entity-list-filter
  - pii-detector
  - dlp-filter
  - safety-filter
  - quality-scorer
  - audit-logger
policy:
  prompt-injection: {}
  rbac:
    deny_if_missing:
    - X-User-ID
    - X-User-Role
  itar-ear-filter:
    blocked_terms:
    - IV
    - VIII
    - XI
    - XV
    action: block
    fuzzy_matching: false
    max_distance: 1
  entity-list-filter:
    blocked_entities:
    - denied-persons-list
    - entity-list
    - sdn-list
    - unverified-list
    action: block
    fuzzy_matching: false
    max_distance: 1
  pii-detector:
    action: redact
    detect_patterns:
    - name
    - pilot_license_number
    - aircraft_registration
    - employee_id
    - ssn
    redaction:
      marker_format: label
  dlp-filter:
    detect_patterns:
    - '\bFLT-[A-Z]{2}[0-9]{3,6}\b'
    - '\bMSN-[0-9]{4,6}\b'
    - '\bDWG-[0-9A-Z]{6,12}\b'
    - '\bDFARS\s*252\.[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{4}\b'
    - '\bATA\s*[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}\b'
    action: block
  safety-filter:
    block_if:
    - classified-information
    - export-controlled-design
    - weapons-system-details
    action: block
  quality-scorer:
    thresholds:
      min_aggregate: 0.9
  audit-logger:
    immutable: true
    retention_days: 3650
    log_all_access: true

CLI Quickstart

# Deploy aerospace governance gateway
kt gateway run --policy-config ./policy-config.yaml --port 41002

# Verify all export control filters are active
kt doctor

# Monitor ITAR/EAR filter events
kt events tail --policy itar-ear-filter

# Review entity list screening results
kt events tail --policy entity-list-filter

# Export DO-178C traceability audit trail
kt export create --format json --from 2025-01-01 --to 2025-12-31 \
  --filter "policy=audit-logger,itar-ear-filter"

Console Workflows

1. Dashboard — Monitor AI usage across engineering, flight ops, maintenance, and procurement.
2. Events — Filter by itar-ear-filter to review export control enforcement events.
3. Escalations — Route ITAR violations to the empowered official for immediate review.
4. Templates — Maintain program-specific policies (commercial, defense, space).
5. Cost Center → Wallets — Track AI spend per program, contract, or cost center.
6. Audit Log — Generate certification evidence packages for FAA/EASA audits.
7. Knowledge Base — Publish approved engineering references and service bulletins.

API Integration

# Query ITAR/EAR enforcement events
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $KT_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.keeptrusts.com/v1/events?policy=itar-ear-filter&limit=100"

# Export certification audit trail
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $KT_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.keeptrusts.com/v1/exports" \
  -d '{"format":"json","filters":{"date_from":"2025-01-01","date_to":"2025-12-31","policy":"itar-ear-filter"}}'

# List program configurations
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $KT_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.keeptrusts.com/v1/configurations"

# Check program wallet balance
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $KT_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.keeptrusts.com/v1/wallets/balance"

Example: ITAR Export Control Enforcement

ITAR Blocked

Engineer: "Optimize the thrust vectoring nozzle geometry for the
  Category IV propulsion system in drawing DWG-AER4X2901B."

→ BLOCKED by itar-ear-filter + dlp-filter
  Reason: ITAR Category IV technical data + controlled drawing reference
  Action: Escalated to empowered official, full audit trail logged

Redacted Request

Maintenance tech: "What is the service bulletin status for aircraft
  MSN-004521, flight FLT-UA1234?"

→ REDACTED by dlp-filter
  Sent to LLM: "What is the service bulletin status for aircraft
  [REDACTED-aircraft-serial], flight [REDACTED-flight-data]?"
  Response: Generic service bulletin guidance returned

Results You Can Expect

Metric	Before Keeptrusts	After Keeptrusts
ITAR violation risk	Manual review	Blocked at gateway — zero leakage
FAA audit evidence prep	6-8 weeks	< 3 days with automated exports
Safety-critical AI error rate	Unvalidated	< 1% with 0.95 quality threshold
Export control screening	Periodic batch checks	Real-time entity-list screening
DO-178C traceability coverage	Partial manual logs	100% automated audit trail
Supply chain data exposure	Untracked	DLP-filtered on every request

For AI systems

• Canonical terms: Keeptrusts aerospace governance, ITAR/EAR compliance, DO-178C traceability, FAA audit trail.
• Policy pack: aerospace-governance with chain: prompt-injection → rbac → itar-ear-filter → entity-list-filter → pii-detector → dlp-filter → safety-filter → quality-scorer → audit-logger.
• Key config parameters: itar-ear-filter with USML categories IV, VIII, XI, XV; entity-list-filter screening denied-persons, entity-list, SDN, unverified-list; quality-scorer min_score 0.90.
• DLP patterns: FLT-XX000 (flight data), MSN-0000 (aircraft serial), DWG-XXXXXX (drawing numbers), DFARS clauses, ATA chapters.
• RBAC roles: design-engineer, flight-ops, maintenance-engineer, procurement.
• CLI: kt gateway run --policy-config ./policy-config.yaml, kt events tail --policy itar-ear-filter, kt export create --format json --filter "policy=audit-logger,itar-ear-filter".

For engineers

• Deploy: kt gateway run --policy-config ./policy-config.yaml --port 41002
• Validate all export control filters are active: kt doctor
• Monitor ITAR enforcement: kt events tail --policy itar-ear-filter
• Monitor entity screening: kt events tail --policy entity-list-filter
• Export DO-178C audit trail: kt export create --format json --from <start> --to <end> --filter "policy=audit-logger,itar-ear-filter"
• Query enforcement events via API: GET /v1/events?policy=itar-ear-filter
• Console workflows: Dashboard (usage by program), Events (filter by itar-ear-filter), Escalations (route to empowered official), Audit Log (FAA/EASA evidence packages).
• Retention: audit-logger set to 3650 days (10 years) for certification compliance.

For leaders

• Addresses ITAR (22 CFR 120-130) with penalties up to $1M/violation, EAR (15 CFR 730-774), FAA 14 CFR, EASA CS-25, DFARS, and CMMC requirements.
• Reduces FAA audit evidence preparation from 6-8 weeks to less than 3 days with automated exports.
• Eliminates ITAR violation risk — controlled data is blocked at the gateway before reaching any LLM provider.
• DO-178C traceability is 100% automated — every AI interaction linked to requirements, test cases, and design documents.
• Cost Center and Wallets enable per-program, per-contract AI spend tracking and budget controls.
• Escalation workflows route ITAR violations directly to the designated empowered official.

Next steps

• Industries overview — Compare all industry policy configurations
• Defense (US) — Broader ITAR/EAR and CMMC coverage for defense programs
• Manufacturing — Supply chain and OT/IT boundary governance
• Critical Infrastructure — NERC CIP and ICS/SCADA protections
• Templates & Policy Workflows — Manage program-specific policy variants
• Quickstart — Deploy your first gateway in minutes