Silicon Valley, Jan 30 (NNN-PTI) -- An alliance between a leading US software engineering services company and an Indian-based partner to outsource avionics software development to India has come under fire from opponents questioning the wisdom of offshoring mission-critical software.

Avista Inc and Silver Software (Malmesbury, England), a world leader in offshore high-integrity software engineering services, last week announced an alliance they said would allow aircraft makers and avionics companies to shift software development offshore while retaining US-based project management, the EETimes, an online technology publication reported Tuesday.

"This new offering allows avionics customers to enjoy the benefits of experienced, US-based project management and onsite support while realising the cost savings of offshore software development services," Avista president James T Schneller said.

However, Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California at Davis and a leading US opponent of offshoring, said that overseas development of avionics software is a bad idea.

He also questioned whether the alliance between Avista and Silver Software, which has a software development facility in Bangalore, would actually result in cost savings.

While aircraft makers and avionics contractors might benefit, Matloff said, "the software costs amount to a minuscule portion of the average airline ticket." -- NNN-PTI