Software is increasingly important to the development of effective network-centric Department of Defense combat systems. Next-generation combat systems such as total ship computing environments, coordinated unmanned air vehicle systems, and national missile defense will use many geographically dispersed sensors, provide on-demand situational awareness and actuation capabilities for human operators, and respond flexibly to unanticipated run-time conditions. These combat systems will also increasingly run unobtrusively and autonomously, shielding operators from unnecessary ...