# F5 release cadence calendar

> F5 moved to a monthly security cadence in July 2026. This computes the upcoming hardened-release and security-notification dates so you can plan patch windows. Local, no network.

- Tool: https://ronutz.com/en/tools/f5-release-cadence-calendar
- Family: Networking

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## What it does

On 6 July 2026 F5 announced a move from a quarterly to a monthly security release cadence. This tool turns that schedule into concrete dates you can plan against. Pick a starting date (it defaults to today) and it lists the upcoming F5 hardened software releases and the security notifications that follow them, and tells you the next of each.

The whole cadence reduces to one rule. Hardened software releases ship on the **third Wednesday of every month**, starting 15 July 2026. A **security notification** for each release is published one month later, and because F5's own anchor dates line up to third Wednesdays (15 July release, 19 August notification), each third Wednesday carries both events at once: that month's hardened release ships, and the previous month's security notification is published. The one-month gap is deliberate, giving you a window to update before the vulnerability detail becomes public.

The dates are computed locally by simple arithmetic; nothing leaves your browser. They are the scheduled dates: F5 continues to issue out-of-band security alerts and engineering hotfixes for urgent issues at any time, and it explicitly retains flexibility to adjust the timing or content of a notification where legal, disclosure, exploitation, or customer-protection considerations require.

## Standards and references

- [F5 blog — A faster release cadence: What's changing at F5 (Kunal Anand, CPO, 2026-07-06)](https://www.f5.com/company/blog/release-cadence-security-notifications-frontier-ai) - monthly hardened releases on the third Wednesday from 2026-07-15; monthly security notifications one month after each release, first on 2026-08-19 covering the 2026-07-15 release; out-of-band alerts and EHFs continue; F5 retains flexibility on notification timing
- [F5 SIRT — Announcement of Monthly Security Notifications (2026-07-07)](https://www.f5.com/company/blog/release-cadence-security-notifications-frontier-ai) - official SIRT notification confirming the monthly cadence dates and recommended actions (F5 Insight for ADSP, Ansible automation, Professional Services)
- [F5 blog — Securing our code with frontier AI: What F5 built and learned (Kunal Anand)](https://www.f5.com/company/blog/securing-our-code-with-frontier-ai-what-f5-built-and-learned) - the rationale: an AI-driven scan/triage/fix/test/release cycle surfacing more issues, motivating the move off a quarterly cadence
- [F5 — Vulnerability disclosure policy (K4602)](https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K4602) - F5's overarching vulnerability disclosure policy referenced by the cadence blog

## Related reading

- [F5's faster release cadence: monthly hardened releases and security notifications](https://ronutz.com/en/learn/f5-monthly-release-cadence.md): On 6 July 2026 F5 moved from a quarterly to a monthly security release cadence: hardened software releases on the third Wednesday of every month from 15 July, and security notifications one month later starting 19 August. Here is exactly what changed, why F5 says it changed, what stays the same, and what it means for how you patch.