What software development tools are used?

Dear all,

Here is a slightly more serious question:

We have discussed the development cycles of software for the F-35 (3 million lines of code, etc).

I am not clued up on this part.

One mentioned that it is all coded in ADA. I don’t think I have seen an ADA compiler the last 200 years. Is there even any support for ADA?

What software development tools are used for the missiles in the likes of Storm Shadow?

Obviously, if one has to write 3 million lines of code in something arcaic, it will take time and effort and be prone to ‘bugs”. If you should use somewhat more up-to-date technology, yuo may actually finish the project faster and better (even C++ is a bit old, but compared to ADA? Please!).

I am at a loss to see the rationale behind using 40+ year old technology. It cannot be that ADA is less prone to ‘bugs” as there is no support for it anymore, etc. whereas newer tools are tested far more comprehensive by a user community counting millions.

PS: I did do Computer Science in the days when a computer had a switch panel. When PDP-9 was in, when PDP-11 was HOT, etc.

Ivan