Defense & Sovereign Compute
Hardened, Relocatable Compute and Command Infrastructure
Overview
Ironclad builds and operates hardened, relocatable compute modules for sovereign and defense missions. The module is a purpose-built structure — welded steel, shielded, engineered to classified-facility construction standards, factory-integrated and tested in the United States before it ships. It is delivered as equipment on a pad rather than a construction program on a site.
Ironclad's scope is the infrastructure: the enclosure, the power, the network, the containment, and the sustained operation of all four. The mission — the software, the data, the decisions, and the people admitted to them — remains with the mission owner.
How We Deliver
For US federal and defense work, Ironclad delivers compute and command-and-control infrastructure as a subcontractor under a prime's existing contract vehicle. We do not present ourselves as a prime. Contracting, mission integration, and program authority remain with the prime and the government customer.
The Command Center — Autonomous Systems C2
Autonomous systems C2 is a distinct Ironclad market. Unmanned and autonomous fleets are commanded from somewhere, and that place increasingly needs to sit close to where the systems are built, integrated, and flown — and to keep working when the grid, the building, and the carrier network do not.
What Ironclad delivers
- Hardened, powered, networked command center
- Enclosure, containment, consoles, and comms
- Integrated and tested before shipment
- Sited with the operator, or forward at the operating site
- Equipment on a pad — siting is a decision, not a construction program
What remains the operator's
- The mission stack and autonomy software
- The fleet and the mission
- Who is admitted and what runs
- All operational decisions
Ironclad is software-agnostic. We do not build mission software or command-and-control applications, and we do not operate the mission. We build and operate the facility those applications run inside.
Sovereign & Allied Government Compute
Sovereign and allied government programs contract reserved capacity on a take-or-pay basis, with data residency pinned by data class. The module sits in-country; the workload stays in the jurisdiction it is required to stay in. Tenancy is single-tenant and physically isolated — never shared with another customer.
Sovereignty in Three Senses
- Legal. The asset is sited in-country and the data sits under host-nation law. Jurisdiction is a physical fact of the deployment, not a contractual assurance about a cloud region.
- Operational. The customer determines what runs and who is admitted. Ironclad operates the infrastructure, not the mission.
- Cryptographic. The customer holds the keys. Workloads run in hardware-attested confidential computing and are encrypted in memory, so Ironclad has no technical means to read customer data at any privilege level — including our own administrators.
The Ironclad Specification
Ironclad specifies and integrates; we do not publish vendor part numbers. What follows is the standard every module is built and tested to.
- Enclosure. Hardened welded-steel modular enclosure, rated to 250 mph wind and engineered for seismic loading.
- Shielding. HEMP shielded, with EMP, EMI and RFI protection engineered to MIL-STD-188-125-1A or -2 as the application requires.
- Classified-facility construction. Built to ICD 705 construction specifications, with SAPF and TEMPEST configurations available. RF attenuation of 60 dB standard, scalable to 100 dB against NSA 94-106 where required.
- Forced entry and ballistics. Built to Department of Defense forced-entry and ballistic-resistance requirements.
- Integration and test. Factory-integrated and fully tested in the United States before shipment, under access control, component-level inspection, and a transport security plan that holds through delivery.
- Scaling. Modular units join through RF-continuous seams to form a single larger facility without losing shielding integrity across the joint.
- Standing up. Set the module, connect power and fiber, and it is operational in hours.
- Increment. Deployed in approximately 1 MW increments.
Asset Classification — Equipment, Not Real Property
The module is equipment, not a brick-and-mortar building. It is not permanently affixed to real estate, so it can be acquired on a direct purchase order rather than a construction contract, depreciated on an equipment schedule, and relocated without abandoning an improvement. Capital treated as equipment moves faster to authorize, faster to depreciate, and remains recoverable when the mission moves.
Power and Network
Where utility power is available and adequate, modules run on it. Where it is not — or where the interconnection queue, capacity study, or host load makes it a liability — self-generation is available as an optional configuration: Ironclad-owned generation on a skid alongside the module, inside the Ironclad demarcation, configured N+1, with grid interconnection serving as standby only. In that configuration the deployment places no draw on host grid capacity.
Connectivity is specified the same way: dark fiber from the cable landing station as the primary path, satellite diversity as an independent second path on separate infrastructure, and no carrier in the data path.
Compute Platform
Modules are built on current-generation NVIDIA HGX B200 and B300 Blackwell platforms in 8-GPU HGX systems, selected per deployment, with 400 Gb Ethernet standard and NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand available for tightly coupled training fabrics.
Cooling and Density
Modules are available in air- and liquid-cooled configurations, including RDHx, direct-to-chip, and liquid immersion, which can be combined within a single enclosure so density scales zone by zone as compute generations change. Deliverable density is a function of generation, configuration, networking, cooling, and achieved PUE, and is sized against a defined workload during solution design. Ironclad does not publish device counts or a fixed devices-per-megawatt figure.
Provenance
Provenance is specified, not assumed. No supplier in the trust path — silicon, compute platform, containment, cooling, enclosure, or maintenance — originates outside the United States and allied jurisdictions. Hardware is US-origin and export-controlled where relevant. Field sustainment is delivered through a partner operating in 190 countries, certified to ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2. Ironclad describes supplier relationships by capability and credential rather than by name.
Certifications
Ironclad platforms are designed and built to satisfy the control baselines below — architecture, documentation, and operating procedures are specified against them from the start, not retrofitted to pass an audit later. Certification is scoped and contractually committed to service commencement, because these attestations audit a system in operation: a Type II report requires an observation window, and an authorization requires something to authorize.
- ISO/IEC 27001 — information security management system. Committed at service commencement.
- SOC 2 Type II — operating effectiveness over an observation period. Committed at service commencement.
- NIST SP 800-53, Moderate — security and privacy control baseline. Committed at service commencement.
- CMMC Level 2 — cybersecurity maturity for controlled unclassified information. Committed at service commencement.
Ironclad distinguishes what is held from what is committed and holds itself to the committed date. Accreditation of a classified facility is granted by the cognizant authority for a specific site and mission; where a program requires accreditation, Ironclad builds to the standard and supports the accrediting process.
Scope Discipline
Ironclad does
- Design, build, and integrate the hardened module
- Own and operate the infrastructure to a defined standard
- Provide power, network, containment, and cooling
- Operate 24/7 with monitoring and lifecycle management
Ironclad does not
- Build mission or C2 software
- Operate the mission or admit personnel to it
- Hold or require access to customer keys or data
- Act as prime contractor
Next Step
Requirements are scoped directly with Ironclad leadership. Every inquiry is reviewed by leadership — there is no self-serve onboarding.
Ironclad LLC · Request a consultation · ironcladcompute.com