One of the under-the-radar problems that has “plagued” SBIRS—and some other DOD programs—is its reliance on the Ada programming language, said Wynne. He added that it is “not popular any longer” and like DOS, which was invented around the same time and is “no longer even talked of,” should be abandoned. “We still have Ada-based programmers trying to [use] it, noted Wynne. He’s convinced that the Air Force—considering technology advances over the past seven years—will be better able to configure the next generation of programs.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
