Raytheon touts its Agile software development process

TEWKSBURY, Mass., Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Raytheon says its method of developing and building software has been validated in a test of the U.S. Navy's new Air and Missile Defense Radar.

The software built for the AMDR was validated with a track-loop simulation in which the software detected an anti-air warfare target and effectively tracked its path using data and feedback from the radar, Raytheon said.

The test was part of the Navy's AMDR Software Build Review and came just eight months after Raytheon received the contract for its software.

Raytheon said its Agile build methods promote accelerated development, early risk mitigation and increased software maturity. The process is segmented into monthly software increments that go through the full development cycle, including requirements, design, implementation, integration and test to identify issues, errors or defects to be resolved before all code has been written and functionality built in.

"By leveraging the Agile process, as well as reuse of radar software architecture, simulation data, and experience gained during the Technology Demonstration phase, execution of the AMDR program continues on schedule," said Raytheon's Tad Dickenson, AMDR program manager. "Realizing the benefits of best practices and the talent and expertise of our team, the program continues to advance toward targeted radar delivery for the first DDG 51 Flight III ship in 2019."

Raytheon began using the method as part of the DDG 1000 (Zumwalt guided missile destroyer) program for the development of more than 6 million lines of software code for the destroyers' computers.

The software build also included ballistic missile search and initial track, as well as other operational functions.