These systems will be terminated following a complete transition to the new systems in 1998. Under the 1993 contract for support of warning system software, Kaman also provides continuous assistance to the Cheyenne Mountain alternative missile warning center, located at Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, Nebraska. The more recent contract, awarded last October, refers to the task as the Cheyenne Mountain complex mission support software contract. The program covers software development, integration, engineering, installation, software security management, operating system support, network engineering and scenario development. DEC provides programmer and analyst support for space operations within the Cheyenne Mountain complex.
Analysts provide first-line assessments of software problems as they occur during actual operations.
Kaman employs a Microsoft Office network linking more than 200 users to provide administrative support. Software management practices developed by the Software Engineering Institute are used to standardize, document and improve the technical processes, according to Kaman officials. New releases are developed over a 12-month period and scheduled for introduction each April and October. This regular scheduling of new release introductions, he stresses, provides both performance upgrades and allows error correction. Roughly 60 percent of the software development, Young maintains, consists of modifications that add new capabilities.