MoD chooses BAE

has been chosen by the

(MoD) to lead a pan-industry and academic consortium to improve the procurement and development of high integrity and safety critical software.

The Software Systems Engineering Initiative (SSEI) aims to reduce the cost and speed up production of the software, while ensuring final products meet requirements.

The MoD has identified such software as ‘the critical enabling technology’ for modern platforms but there has been concern that a more coherent and efficient approach is needed to further development. The software is used for defence purposes, managing network enabled capabilities and complex infrastructure.

Management and research work is expected to take place across the UK in organisations and institutions such as York and Newcastle Universities, IBM, MBDA and Qientiq.

‘We expect the SSEI will build on an initial programme of research, creating a body of experts able to provide consistent advice to the MoD - in particular into procurement and support projects,’ said Jane Fenn, programme manager for SSEI.