Tactical UAS for Europe will use AdaCore software tools
NewsSeptember 08, 2020
NEW YORK. AdaCore, which makes mission-critical software development and verification tools, announced that Airbus Helicopters (Marignane, France) has selected the GNAT Pro tool suite and the Ada programming language to develop new software components for the VSR700 prototype project; the VSR700 is Airbus Helicopters’ tactical unmanned aerial system (UAS) aimed at the demanding requirements of modern navies and armies around the world.
According to information from Airbus Helicopters, the company chose AdaCore’s GNAT Pro Ada for PowerPC VxWorks 6.x/Cert based on several criteria, including ease of integration into the existing development infrastructure, the ability to develop monitoring algorithms, and the capacity to help certify the software up to DO-178C Design Assurance Level B (DAL-B).
Matthieu Vatinet, head of embedded software products for Airbus Helicopters, said of the design win: “We selected AdaCore and the Ada language because we believe that this technology and related tools will increase the maintainability and quality of our software and make it easier to provide some evidence for certain software certification objectives. The quality of AdaCore’s support was an important advantage, and another anticipated benefit was the ease of developing mature code.”