Sandia developed the first ground station for NuDet data processing in the early 1960s. In an effort to make sense of the increasing number of signal feeds from USNDS satellites, the first ICADS was delivered in 1992, with upgrades in 1998 and 2005. Each iteration has included significant new hardware and software functionalities. As a whole, ICADS now is considered a national command structure asset, said Williams.
“This is a complex, data-rich environment,” he said. “It would take a very long time to integrate, correlate, and assess the signals from dozens of sensors about a single event. But U.S. decision makers need answers immediately. The analysis provided by ICADS before an operator ever sees the data helps make real-time interpretation possible.”
Last year Sandia delivered ICADS version IIF, the latest USNDS military ground station system, including more than a million lines of custom software code and a heavy emphasis on human-computer interface theory, which makes the job of interpreting ICADS data more intuitive and increases the operators‘ chances of success. (IIF signifies the next generation of GPS satellites; the first GPS IIF is scheduled for launch in 2009.)
The $18 million Sandia ICADS IIF program was unusual in its size and complexity; and because it was delivered, fully qualified and verified, under budget, and on time based on a delivery date set half a decade earlier, it is a rarity for a large military software development program, said Sandia project manager Don Rountree.
“A program this complex is almost expected to fall behind schedule,” said McDowell. “To keep the promise we made back in 2000 required an incredible level of dedication and expertise by hundreds of people.” The program required a spectrum of Sandia expertise, from atmospheric phenomenology and high energy physics to software development and systems engineering.