CHELTENHAM, England, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- ARTiSAN Software Tools, a global leader for UML 2 and SysML-based, real-time systems and software modeling tools, announced today that ARTiSAN Studio has been selected by the Seeker Division of MBDA, the world's leading missile systems manufacturer, as their modeling tool for software development on the Meteor missile.

Jointly owned by BAE Systems, EADS and Finmeccanica, MBDA is the prime contractor on the six-nation Meteor missile program. Meteor is a highly maneuverable, fast, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air weapon system capable of operation by night or day, in all weather and in dense electronic warfare environments. The Seeker software design on Meteor, the most complex part of the missile, required engineers to take existing C code, re-purpose it and generate new functionality in Ada 95.

According to MBDA: "We looked at tools from several vendors and were immediately attracted by ARTiSAN Studio's excellent support for real-time software engineering and the strong integration with other software tools. Other factors influencing the decision-making process were its support for code generation for both Ada and C and the ability to combine them within the same UML model. ARTiSAN's continuing commitment to Ada and UML development was also an important factor in the selection."

An additional factor in the selection of ARTiSAN Studio was the ability of the tools to bring together the electronics and software components of the project design. The Hardware Architecture Diagram provided an intuitive view of the Electronics Architecture enabling the hardware engineers to readily define the bus interfaces, memory maps and details of how the electronics interfaced to the software.

Jeremy Goulding, President and CEO of ARTiSAN commented, "MBDA was extremely attracted to ARTiSAN's support for multiple languages within a single model, and particularly our pedigree with and support for Ada. Our continued commitment to support an Ada oriented process with UML2 and SysML modeling tools is a direct result of coupling the need to add the latest standards-based functionality, together with addressing the long-term support needs of our customers on major defense programs."

About MBDA

MBDA operates in all of the major world markets, and is the only company in its sector able to design and produce missile systems for land-based, naval and airborne requirements. The group offers customers high technology solutions and has unrivalled capability in key technologies. MBDA Seeker Division is an 'in-house' supplier of key missile elements. Its role is to design, develop, produce, and integrate RF seekers and fuzes and to merge existing capabilities and skills creating a 'Center of Excellence' and international skill pool. MBDA is jointly owned by BAE SYSTEMS (37.5%), EADS (37.5%) and FINMECCANICA (25%). For more information about MBDA, visit http://www.mbda.net/

About ARTiSAN Software Tools

ARTiSAN is the leading supplier of collaborative modeling tools for requirements analysis, specification, design and development of complex applications. The company provides standards-based, multi-user tool support from architectural frameworks through systems design to software implementation. ARTiSAN offers products, services and a process for systems and software modeling to accelerate the development of next-generation real- time systems while ensuring that they always meet requirements. ARTiSAN enables engineering teams to visualize, design and validate systems before building them, and simplifies implementation with code generation and software reuse. Winner of the 2005 SD Times 100 award in the Modeling category for bringing UML and SysML to real-time embedded systems, ARTiSAN offers the most advanced tools for complex applications development.

ARTiSAN Software Tools, Inc., founded in March 1997, is privately held with headquarters in Cheltenham, United Kingdom. The company has regional sales offices and distributors throughout the world. For more information, call +44-0-1242-229300 internationally, or 888-511-7975 from the US; or visit http://www.artisansw.com/

NOTE: ARTiSAN and Real-time Studio are trademarks or registered trademarks of Artisan Software Tools Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Richard Gastwirt of ARTiSAN Software Tools Inc.,
+1-781-772-1702, or richard.gastwirt@artisansw.com

Web site: http://www.mbda.net/

Web site: http://www.artisansw.com/