BAe introduces system to track missile development

Matra BAe Dynamics, Europe's leading guided-weapons producer, has launched a major project to track software development.

Matra BAe, an Anglo-French venture between British Aerospace and Matra, has deployed process configuration management software at its Bristol systems technology department.

The company, which produces guided weapons such as the Rapier missile, is responsible for certifying weapon systems software.

George Woodward, head of systems technology at Matra BAe, said: 'A typical missile has 50,000 lines of embedded code plus half-a-million lines of code for testing. The software is vast.'

The company, which bought PCMS Dimensions tool from US company SQL Software, had relied on a paper-based, home-grown system and on low-level configuration management tools.

The fatal effect of shoddy software testing was highlighted last year when the billion dollar Ariane 5 rocket exploded.