Development Engineering on System 465L

The development engineering involved in large scale systems is but one of many problems included in acquisition of these systems. The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the engineering problems encountered in the development of the Strategic Air Command and Control System 465L and to indicate how the interaction between the technical problems and the nontechnical problems affects the final engineering decisions. In this paper we will indicate the basic requirements for the system and show how the system was configured to meet these requirements. The deficiencies uncovered in the design and first cut solutions to the problems and the compromises which were necessary to implement the system will also be discussed. Illustrative examples will be used to show how the design evolved into the final system configuration which is now in use.