Introduction to Ada: a project-based exploration with rosettas

So is there a list or statistic of how many DOD projects actually use Ada?

Worked in the defence industry for a few years in the 2000s. I worked on exactly one Ada project. The rest were C/C++. I presume the shift away from Ada has accelerated if anythinng.

This might be a US/EU difference. It's pretty popular in the EU still, although some of the market has been taken by various Simulink to C tools.

Every Rolls-Royce gas turbine FADEC runs ADA binaries on a custom processor [1].

It's also used extensively at Airbus. Lots of DO-178C (safety critical aerospace).

1: https://www.his-conference.co.uk/session/visiumcore-a-high-i...

I worked in that industry and never saw a single project using Ada, but I've always been fascinated by different programming languages.

The DOD mandate was very short-lived, and many projects sought and received exemptions to it. So it's not surprising that, at that time, you only saw one project.

> Worked in the defence industry for a few years in the 2000s.

The Ada mandate for mission-critical software was only in place from 1991-1997.

There were a lot of waivers back in the day. A couple big companies (Boeing) still use it.

Nvidia is notably using Ada for serval modern projects.

I’m interested. Do you have a link or can you elaborate?

Looks like they're using the SPARK subset of Ada:

"NVIDIA began implementing SPARK in its security strategy in 2019 on select pieces of firmware. They began training additional personnel in SPARK and eventually developed an in-house training program.

Several NVIDIA teams are now using SPARK for a wide range of applications that include image authentication and integrity checks for the overall GPU firmware image, BootROM and secure monitor firmware, and formally verified components of an isolation kernel for an embedded operating system, to name just a few."[0]

https://www.adacore.com/nvidia

[0] https://www.wevolver.com/article/nvidia-adoption-of-spark-us...

Thank you for sharing this! I'd love to know more about what led them to develop their own CPU, and what the instruction set looks like. It looks like AdaCore actually merged their support for VISIUMCore into upstream GCC. The slides state it features SEU detection/correction, which is pretty interesting.

Seems to be standard in India as well. E.g. the newly announced made in India space microprocessor is targeted by an in house Ada compiler: https://thestateindia.com/2025/09/02/vikram-3201-india-unvei...

The Marines had an entire MOS dedicated to it, 4067 Ada programmer. That was when LCPL (E-3) could own the software for a chuck of the supply system and make changes with almost no oversight... Man those were the days!

Here’s a related talk: “NVIDIA - Securing the Future of Safety and Security of Embedded Software”

https://youtu.be/2YoPoNx3L5E

> NVIDIA is working with AdaCore to implement Ada and SPARK programming languages into certain firmware elements to reduce this potential error. In this webinar you will learn how the combination of NVIDIA hardware with Ada and SPARK delivers robustness and security, improving efficiency and safety in the development pipeline.

There are enough commercial projects to keep 7 vendors in business, in a day and age where many devs refuse to pay for their tools.

https://www.adacore.com/

https://www.ghs.com/products/ada_optimizing_compilers.html

https://www.ptc.com/en/products/developer-tools/apexada

https://www.ddci.com/products_score/

http://www.irvine.com/tech.html

http://www.ocsystems.com/w/index.php/OCS:PowerAda

http://www.rrsoftware.com/html/prodinf/janus95/j-ada95.htm

One interesting project is Saab Gripen jet fighter, whose entire software stack (other than software that is treated as "black box" firmware of certain physical components) is written in Ada, and AFAIK every sale includes complete source code and SDK to make modifications.