General Dynamics UK has chosen Praxis’ SPARK language as part of its £6m contract to develop the safety-critical Stores Management System for the Royal Navy’s new AW159 Lynx Wildcat helicopter.
The global supplier of critical systems engineering and assurance will be supplying its programme language and toolset for the development and verification of software that meets the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) safety standards.
The contract will involve up to seven developers creating the software that will control the deployment of weaponry from the AW159 Lynx Wildcat. The project is expected to cover more than 40,000 lines of SPARK code and will be complete by the middle of 2011.
The AW159 Lynx Wildcat, formerly known as the Future Lynx, will be the Royal Navy’s new maritime surveillance and attack helicopter and will enter service in 2015.
The helicopter has been designed to act in an anti-submarine role and protect ships against surface threats. The software will allow the AW159 to operate a lightweight Sting Ray torpedo as well as the Future Air-to-Surface Guided Weapon (FASGW).
Steve Hewitt, programme manager at Mission and Security Systems for General Dynamics, said: ‘Meeting strict safety-critical certification is central to the new Stores Management System for the AW159 Wildcat. Our ongoing partnership with Praxis meant that SPARK was the natural choice when it came to developing this mission-critical application to the highest safety standards.’
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