A major integration tool that started to emerge after contract award and eventually
achieved program wide acceptance was computer aided design and classified networking.
NCAD/NCAL was a Northrop Computer Aided Design (NCAD)/ Northrop Computer Aided
Lofting (NCAL) tool developed under independent R&D that was extremely effective and useful
for the task of integrating all the companies and their design staffs. It was a major aide to the
systems engineering process. The system was user friendly, very capable, and easily adaptable
to a classified network among the companies. While CAD tools are commonplace now, this
technology did not exist in the early 1980s; the B-2 was the first all-CAD designed aircraft