SBIRS, Ada and Ignorance

[Robert Love <rblove@airmail.net>]

Let me quote from the December 19th "Space News" article entitled 
Pentagon Scales Back SBIRS Program.  For those who don't know, SBIRS is 
a multi satellite program to detect missile launches via infra red 
sensors.  It is way behind and billions over budget, mostly due to the 
sensor and bad initial design.

Air Force Sectretary Michael Wynne is quoted as saying:

    One of the biggest problems with SBIRS lies with its opearting 
software, which is based on a programming langauge called Ada that was 
developed in the 1970's, Wynne said.

   "Ada is a program that is not popular any longer," Wynne said.  "It 
is a software design that was literally invented around the time DOS was 
invented.  DOS is no longer even being talked about nor should Ada be, 
but we still have Ada-based programmers trying to do it."


   The Air Force hopes to use a more modern language like C+ (yes, they 
used a single +) for SBIRS follow-on system, Air Force Undersecretary 
Ronald Sega told reporters in a Dec. 15 briefing at the Pentagon.


Lord, there is so much wrong here.  Where to start.  Is it even worth it 
to try and educate the Air Force?  I suppose I'll try and write one of 
these bozos once I calm down but I would say this is a huge slam against 
our favorite language.