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February 28, 2007

Windows For Warships Science/Technology

What's wrong with this picture? The Register (via Bruce Schneier):

The Type 45 destroyers now being launched [by the Royal Navy] will run Windows for Warships: and that's not all. The attack submarine Torbay has been retrofitted with Microsoft-based command systems, and as time goes by the rest of the British submarine fleet will get the same treatment, including the Vanguard class (V class). The V boats carry the UK's nuclear weapons and are armed with Trident ICBMs, tipped with multiple H-bomb warheads. [Emphasis added]

Nuclear weapons controlled by Windows boxes. Talk about nuclear terror.

But weapons system software gets thoroughly tested and debugged before deployment — right? The Register again:

Significant new capabilities have been added to the US Air Force's latest superfighter, the F-22 "Raptor". The USAF's Raptors cost more than $300m each, and are generally thought to be the most advanced combat jets in service worldwide. However, until recently they were unable to cross the international date line owing to a software bug in their navigation systems.

A group of F-22s heading across the Pacific for exercises in Japan earlier this month suffered simultaneous total nav-console crashes as their longitude shifted from 180 degrees West to 180 East.

Luckily, the superjets were accompanied by tanker planes, whose navigation kit was somewhat less bleeding-edge and remained functional. The tanker drivers were able to guide the lost top-guns back to Hawaii and the exercises were postponed. [Emphasis added]

It's funny, but it's not funny. Not at all, when you consider that the whole world's wired with weapons of mass destruction under software control. Are we nuts?

Posted by Jonathan at February 28, 2007 05:29 PM  del.icio.us digg NewsVine Reddit YahooMyWeb

Comments

Are we nuts?


Yes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz

Posted by: at February 28, 2007 07:08 PM

Everything on The Register should be taken with a grain of salt. They aren't exactly known for their great factual reporting.

Posted by: Chris at February 28, 2007 10:24 PM