Ada policy

Abstract

The first officially recognized Department of Defense (DoD) policy on Ada was issued in June 1983. At that time the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Dr. Richard DeLauer, issued a memorandum that mandated the use of Ada for all defense mission critical systems. Although this mandate was widely perceived by the defense community as “premature” (primarily because of the lack of available Ada compilers), the memorandum was effective in establishing a DoD posture regarding the Ada language.However, a DoD directive is the primary mechanism by which DoD policy is established. A memorandum that was used to issue policy, such as the June 1983 memorandum, remained in effect for a period of only 90 days. Those in DoD who were familiar with this distinction did not consider the Ada mandate to be valid over the long term.Several attempts were made during the following years to draft a DoD Ada policy directive that would be acceptable to the principal participants. Unfortunately, these attempts were unsuccessful, primarily because of the organizational restructuring and concomitant realignment of mission critical system responsibilities within the DoD.It was not until March 1987, that the first DoD directive on Ada (DoD Directive (DoDD) 3405.2, “Use of Ada in Weapon Systems”) was issued. DoDD 3405.2 mandated the use of Ada in weapon systems and required the use of validated Ada compilers, the use of software engineering principles, and the use of an Ada-based program design language. This directive also required each DoD Component to designate an Ada executive official responsible for monitoring programs relative to the use of Ada, supporting Ada program activities in that Component, and serving as a focal point in that Component for all Ada program activities. This directive also required each DoD Component to designate an Ada waiver control officer with responsibility for implementing the waiver procedures cited in the directive.A second DoD directive (DoDD 3405.1, “Computer Programming Language Policy”) quickly followed in April 1987. This directive provided an “umbrella” policy for the use of programming languages throughout the DoD. It specified the long-range goal of establishing Ada as the primary DoD higher order language. It mandated Ada for defense computer resources used in intelligence systems, for the command and control of military forces, or as an integral part of a weapon system. It also mandated the use of Ada for all other applications, except when the use of another approved higher order language was more cost-effective over the application's life cycle.Since the issuance of these directives, there has been a very positive and progressive movement toward the adoption and use of Ada within our defense systems. Meetings of the Ada Executive Officials have proven to be an extremely effective mechanism for the sharing of ideas, information, and support for various Ada-related initiatives. The list of DoD systems using Ada continues to increase. Based upon the U.S. DoD Ada policy mandate, many allied nations, as well as NATO, have issued similar Ada mandate policies for their respective defense systems.Despite this progress, however, there remains some resistance to the use of Ada, supported in part by the lack of a rigorous enforcement mechanism. The responsibility for enforcing these directives is divided: DoDD 3405.2 is within the purview of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition: and DoDD 3401 .l is within the purview of the DoD Comptroller.During the development of the DoD Software Master Plan (1989-1990) the consensus among the DoD participants was that the policy and oversight responsibilities with regard to Ada should be consolidated and that the mandate to use Ada should be more strongly enforced. This position was strongly supported by industry in its review of the February 1990 draft version of the plan.However, completely effective implementation of Ada policy will require more than stronger enforcement of the Ada mandate. It will require a more proactive stance by software-literate management within all DoD Components. It will require an increased availability of high quality Ada programming support environments. It will require more documented and demonstrated proof of Ada's successes in defense system development in order to counter current fears of program managers that “use of Ada” is synonymous with “increased risk”. Most importantly, it will require stronger cooperation between the defense and industry sectors to fully realize all of the benefits that we initially envisioned could be achieved through the use of Ada.