Massive defense software under scrutiny

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Software developers in a secret Boeing plant are developing a weapons program some U.S. officials say is the largest such program in Defense Department history.

The U.S. military classifies its Future Combat Systems software program as dwarfing Microsoft Windows in the length of its code, The Washington Post said Thursday.

The combat software is a roughly $200 billion weapons program intended to give combat units the ability to communicate through a wireless network in real time with a variety of combat systems, such as unmanned vehicles, missiles and tank units.

Military officials question the integrity of the software code, cobbled together from a variety of sources, and the Congressional watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, said it was concerned Army developers underestimated the project.

Officials at Boeing, however, said the project is on target for completion by 2012 and an Army official said the project is within budgetary guidelines.

Critics of the program point to the combat-tested, and less expensive, Blue Force Tracking system as a similar system already in use and Army officials said they were looking at both systems while considering an integrated common platform.