The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has set up an industry and academic consortium to provide research and guidance to improve the procurement and development of High-Integrity and Safety Critical Software.

The Software Systems Engineering Initiative, led by BAE Systems’ Military Air Solution, will aim to counter criticism that software procurement and development takes too long, costs too much to produce and does not always meet requirements.

The MoD says the software is “the critical enabling technology” for modern platforms used for defence purposes, network enabled capability and complex infrastructure.

By Elizabeth Clifford-Marsh