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U.S. Army's Future Combat System Will Run Linux
jkastner writes "In 2001 Boeing was chosen to be the lead system integrator for the Army's Future Combat System. The bumper sticker description of this project is 'see first, understand first, act first and finish decisively,' and while Boeing's official FCS site doesn't have a lot of technical details, but you can find some good information at Global Security. To quote their page, "FCS is envisioned as a networked 'system of systems" that will include robotic reconnaissance vehicles and sensors; tactical mobile robots; mobile command, control and communications platforms; networked fires from futuristic ground and air platforms; and advanced three-dimensional targeting systems operating on land and in the air.' The Phase 2 request for proposals just appeared and the estimated price is $26 billion
through fiscal year 2009. The fact that the Army is spending billions of dollars on a project isn't anything new, but a little known fact is that the OS for FCS will be Linux (FAQ 4 here.)"
One giant leap for Linux.
"Some fight for law. Some fight for justice. What will you fight for? One day, you will see."
I wonder what a seg fault looks like in the middle of the desert
the true purpose of anticipatory scheduling is revealed
I can rent terminator 2 for a lot less than $26 billion dollars. How about $26 billion for global no-cost healthcare and food? THATs futuristic!
Will this mean that the military will start recruiting 12-year-olds to keep everything running?
oderint dum metuant - Caligula ("Let them hate us, so long as they fear us")
26 billion ;) (just joking mods honest!) on a more serious note.. it cant cost that much to develope a system like what your describing.... really it cant, can it?
and they say linux costs nothing
moo
And I have selected Iraq COUNTRY.
What the fu** is "Kernel panic" and what is he doing with my B-52?
The open source community will lend their over powering and rapidly progressive hand in the demolishen of our enemies. Booyaa.
This is good news as it means that GNU/Linux will have another set of *very careful* eyeballs looking through the code. After all, it is now a matter of national security. The driver support for robotics and other real-time systems is also likely to improve dramatically.
On the other hand, I think that more than a few hackers will feel a twinge of sadness when they see footage of some people being blown up. Doesn't exactly make you want to point and say "oh look see, that was my code they used to send the `fire' command to that unit..." Especially if it is one of those not-declared-or-debated sort of wars that we seem to be getting into these days.
the kill command.
This is great for the army, but as we consolidate overlap between services, I would like to see all branches adopt similar platforms (Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Guard, Reserve Force, CIA, and Secret Service). It would save moneys for the purpose of cross-training and upgrading in the-long-run.
I suggest you read Slashdot
more geeks will enlist in the Army? That leads to some interesting prospects for the future of the Army. "Geek First Class" might become a common rank. Hmm.
All I ever wanted was an honest week's pay for an honest day's work.
They would be able to camouflage with the sky and kill everyone in a massive BSOD. There's no way they could stop it either!
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
How bout not crashing ?
A BSOD really would be on a millitary system.
Crash
If you have ever worked with Platform Builder or Embedded NT (or XP) and compared that to building an embedded system on Linux, you will see that the Microsoft products are targetted at a very narrow market and are not really all that well suited for many things that Linux is in the embedded world.
Windows is currently better than Linux in a few (unfortunatly critical areas), but even that is changing quickly. And in the embedded market, Microsoft's products really are niche products, while it is Linux, DOS, and a few other products that are the best products for most projects.
Of course in general server software, I have to say I *much* prefer Linux. For client programs I use Linux mostly (as well as XP occasionally) but even over the last six months, there have been incredible improvements made in many critical areas. Give it another couple years, and I suspect that Linux will be *the* corporate desktop of choice.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
LOLOLOL
A HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Seriously, ROTFLMFAO!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA::breathes::HAHAH
this is the funnyest comment I have evar read!!!!!!!
If the enemy can look through your entire source, then they know what your maximum capabilities are, even if it is 100% secure. Is this a good thing?
+2 cents contributed.
From the description:
;-)
networked fires from futuristic ground and air platforms;
Is that what the "printer on fire" code will be used for
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
cat landscape | grep 'arab' | fire --with-rocket
(parabol)
For such a system, linux is the obvious choice IMHO. Here's why: Consider the possibility of a malicious agent (possibly an insider) gaining unauthorized access to some of the systems. Because the whole thing is networked and remotely coordinated, the possibility for damage is immense. In that case, it is absolutely essential to detect the intrusion, track the attacker's footprints and minimize the damage as quickly as possible. And I would say linux wins hands down at this, because of its transparency. The main thing is not cost or ease of use or applications or any of the things that are usually considered, but having the innards of the system open for the administrator to see.
"Kernel WHO?"
"It's the system command processor. The BRAIN!"
"..No, I mean in the airplane!"
"...It's the Linux kernel, damn it!"
"...What's that?"
"Somebody get her a $*@!ing manual to read!"
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
I just found a picture...
"Captain, we lost Kernel Roberts! We need a new compilation immediately!"
I want to eat Linux CDs and poop them out and build my own little Linux pyramid of POO with them and there I can sit inside the pyramid, I, a pseudo-pharoah of poop. YES! I will LOOK at the all the old M$ software I had previously bought and used and they will erupt into flames. The golden tux states will seemingly smile as I wave my buttocks around like a dancing dot to the sound of my musical pipe organ flatulence.
F33R L1NUX!
Some guy sabotaged and then sold the audio threat aquisition technology to a game company. The DSP algorithm is flawed. Colonel McKenzie solved this. It's all in the episode that aired this season.
This ought to make for some interesting device drivers and kernel patches.
.mil addresses submitting kernel patches --
I can see it now on the Kernel mailing list - a bunch of new developers with
Hey Linus - this one gives improved target acquisition for the Patriot II antimissle. If you want you can come see the live tests in Iraq.
The GPL aspects of this should be interesting, since it will give the system's end users the right to request source code of any parts that were modified, all the way down to the lowly grunt.
I guess asking for secret source code would land the people concerned in the brig or worse and so would never happen, but it's an interesting issue nevertheless.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
I love the linux wins like everyone else, but IMHO Linux can now be comfortably called 'mainstream'. With that, announcement of every win no longer seems necessary...just the really groundbreaking ones.
is sad enough already. People fighting for democracy seems like a step in the right direction.
or "stop killing your own people" or "live up to the treaty you signed"?
.. .the next "killer app" will be for Linux
Your search - maggot infested brain - did not match any documents.
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Ummmm... yay?
As commander in chief, no way will I stand for MY DAMN RED-BLOODED ALL-AMERICAN APPLE PIE ARMY running a system developed by COMMIES! First thing Monday, I'm having a word with the Pentagon!
George W. Bush
President, United States of America
a Beowulf Cluster of these?
No, I can Not You Insensitive Clod!
I vote for Cowboy Neal.
I Like Windows Too!
this sig has been H4x0red by JEFFK
Wow... all you Linux zealots will now be responsible for the deaths of hundreds, thousands and perhaps some day millions. I hope your proud of yourselves! ;)
You liberals should be firmly backing Microsoft at this point... Windows is the ultimate anti-war software... I mean, how can you bomb the hell out of innocent civilians when your missile launch systems crash when you push the launch button!
But noooooo... with Linux, this'll never happen, and we can kill all the people we want with no doubt our systems will function properly.
Yeah, good job penguin-heads!
(In case there is any doubt, tongue is firmly planted in cheek here)
If a pion (n-) collides with a proton in the woods & noone is there to hear it, does lamdba decay into the source pa
The only restriction here is that Boeing should disclose the source to it's client - the US Army. So the Army (as an entity) would have the code. The grunts are going to be the "users" of this system, not the "purchasers". Access rights to the code would be determined within the body that has access to the code - ie: who in the Army sees the code is an internal issue.
If the US army tried to sell this system to it's allies - yes, they probably would strictly be required to pass along the source code.
But then again - they're likely in a position to ignore the GPL if they want given that the code would now be a matter of national security. It would only take a small legal bill to be pushed into law stating that GPL does not apply to military applications - which would probably be easy for them to push through.
As much as I hate to see Linux used for war, this is probably a good thing; can you imagine killer military robots running on Microsoft software? I don't want to see the headline, "Chinese Embassy Nuked by Talking Paper Clip."
--Tina Russell thinks you're typing a letter. Would you like to go to the Bomb Iraqi Peasants Wizard?
This wedding party has committed an illegal operation...
Yes, it IS funny. It's only you who can't see it. Have you ever tried getting a life?
I tried executing the program, but it keeps telling me something about a core dumping?
I just wonder how they are going to address the security issues. The one condition for using Linux involves sharing code. I find it hard to believe the military will comply with that. Curious what Linus Torvalds thinks of the military use.
Move along folks, nothing to see here.
To quote their page, "FCS is envisioned as a networked 'system of systems" that will include robotic reconnaissance vehicles and sensors; tactical mobile robots; mobile command, control and communications platforms; networked fires from futuristic ground and air platforms; and advanced three-dimensional targeting systems operating on land and in the air.'
Oh, great. They're building SkyNet.
All robots. All automated. All computer controlled. And they're using Linux. Who'd have thought lil' Tux would eventually bring about the end of civilization? Linux's reliability means that SkyNet will become self-aware and overthrow the humans many years sooner than it would otherwise have done. At least if they ran Windoze we could rest assured that it would eventually collapse due to bluescreens or worms/viruses. But it's running Linux and will therefore be undefeatable. I fear the end is near...
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
A winning combination! Now, the US forces are UNBEATABLE!
No no! You don't understand! It's Ninnle Linux that will make the US Army unstoppable! Not Windoze!
One of the reasons that linux was chosen was due to source code accessbility. As you can imagine, when you have 50,000 units deployed using FCS and something breaks, you need to be able to sit down and fix the problem on the spot if at all possible.
I don't like this idea. Linux is a great toy and all. It's embedded in a few Gegomon robots here at RS. But putting LinusOS into a tank or Apache might spell trouble. Let me explain: back in 1996, Linus included the repTrueQVV library in the 2.2 kernel. Well, it's still there. Ask any guy/gal on Sourceforge and they'll tell you repTrueQVV (any QVV) has buffer problems. You see, these tanks and helicopters can't go BSOD out in the field, but QVV is going to guarrentee it.
Beep. Boop. Beep. You have questions. I have answers and your home address.
While I consider myself a pacificist, I think having the better weapons is important. When weapons are needed, they need to do their job, cleanly and precisely. If our smart missiles suddenly go "dumb", then more people will needlessly be killed. If our smart missiles were even smarter, then the military could do surgical strikes with finer precision, saving lives on both sides of the conflict.
Plus improvements made to Linux by the DOD might be released to the public. That would benefit everyone (including encryption-using terrorists, I guess). However, it just occurred to me that the DOD might not need to release their changes, even though Linux is GPL. If they don't "distribute" them product (just use it themselves "internally"), then I don't think they need to legally release their changes..??
cpeterso
If only I hadn't already tossed last week's Newsweek...
...with the Windows task bar on the bottom, complete with the "Start" button in the lower left corner... ...umm...
y 13/cov2.h tm
Last week's edition had a feature on electronics in the military hardware (or something like it). In one of the pictures (a tank I think) it showed the technology at work to aid the tank in navigation and targeting...
Brings back thoughts of the NT-based warship
http://www.gcn.com/archives/gcn/1998/jul
*shudder*
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
They even got linux running on the army!
What, you think it will run Windows, yeah like we need our soldiers crashing on the battlefield
Even headline is Best battle ground for Linux.
Help fight continental drift.
WHAT THE HECK????!?!?! you freeking fag, that's a positive comment about linux, AND positive about Windows, why the F*** do you mod that down? it's not flamebait unless it gets flames and it's been an hour without flames. READ THE COMMENTS YOU MOD DOWN, f***ing FAG.
WHEN I SAY LINUX IS GOOD, that means "GOOD", not "FLAME ME"
i swear i hate you. I'm never gonna get back to neutral karma with fags like you going through my posts trying to find things to mod down.
I think that in this case demanding source code really would end users. What about the case where the soldier gets killed and the enemy steals their equipment and starts using it. Can the hostile forces then demand the source code?
Linux is great and all but did anyone take a look at the tank/apc/mobile rocket launcher platforms at the bottom. Either those are some kind of hovercraft or armored treads. I think everyone can agree that having a tank look like it was designed by anime artists is way cooler then any of this Linux stuff:)
Let's see how those hippy programmers feel/react about their software being used to kill people. I can just see the GPL being rewritten to "can do no harm"
I object to doing military work and it saddens me greatly that my work on free software will now be used to oppress and kill people.
"Join the army", they said. "See the world!", they said! I'd rather be sailing.
You must be a member of the Bush administration.
we all knew linux would take over the
world somehow, but who could have predicted it
would be with a swarm of autonomous killer robots?
In the '60s Senator Everett Dirksen said, "A Billion here and a billion there and soon you're talking about real money." And, by the way, he was talking about the defense budget, then.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
"In the future, wars will be fought by machines... in space or possibly atop a very high, flat mountain. Your job will be to build and maintain those robots."
They have CENTURIES head start on the US, and still they managed to stay behind. Why?
Fuck em. They spent their time fighting against each other, instead of being self productive. They are pissed becuse in just 150 years time, we accomplished more than them, while they stayed in their backwards ways. Why should we invest, when they didn't bother to do it themselves? Instead, they prefer to be oppressive, deny any humanistic progress. Just look at Saudia Arabia. Women can't even walk about without having to cover up. The things we take for granted here, you get murdered by the government for doing.
There are only three races: Whites, Blacks, and Asians.
Arabs? They're White. Italians? They're White too. Iraqis? You guessed it, White. Unless I see some slanted eyes or extremely dark melanin on those people, don't even bring up the race thing.
I also find it pretty ironic that you automatically assumed the poster was White and then spouted some accusation of racism.
How is it that America removing a dictator who tortures and kills his own people is "inhumane"? I've never understood the "peace" seeking people who don't seem to care about the average Iraqi that can't vote, can't hardly make enough to live and still things the USA should keep "talking" with a guy that has been lying to the world for 3 decades... It is now time TO FREE IRAQ and KILL SADDAM and his Armies!!! Then the average iraqi may have a chance to earn his/her own palace without his repression.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - The Celtic - =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Anyone else have the thought that if Linus Torvalds wanted to he could deny DOD the use of the Linux kernel? After all he's the true owner of the code. It seems like it would be pretty easy to just modify the license moving forward to ban the use of the linux kernel for war.
Before the economic sanctions + war vs. the USA, Iraq was doing excellently economically and it's people were thriving. They were probably one of the best off countries in the Middle East under Saddam.
I don't like Saddarm but let's criticize him on more valid points. If you want cruelty you can attack him on his tyrannical rule and his version of the Gestapo.
Hmmm... Pie...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Thank you for that quote. It makes me feel a bit better I wear the same uniform as Smedley Butler rather than some jackass like Admiral Poindexter.
I think there's quite a few Marines who have spoken their mind a bit freely like that. I remember reading that Chesty Puller got a lot of flak for saying that whiskey and beer are better for the troops than ice cream and soft training.
I've argued in my journal over Bush and his questionable service record. Perhaps if we made enlisted service mandatory before becoming an officer and if our politicians have each seen firsthand the horrors of war we wouldn't be in the current mess we're in now.
This guy is way out there
How many of the people who contributed to Linux knew their work was going to be used to kill people?
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
I'm a software engineer for a company that makes software for the US Navy and we have the pleasure of writing all our code on linux.
Uncle Sam loves linux!
100% Insightful
Um, haven't you read ESR's homepage? Linux geeks with guns happens like, every year. OTOH, anything that helps my cousin, who is a soldier, survive and come back home, I'm all for. Especialy since I'm not to convinced of the sactity of human life. I'm not advocating the wanton killing of everyone, but come on, everyone dies, and sometimes war IS neccacary. But then again, maybe the fact that for most of my life I've had food on my table because of military spending infuences my judgement. Just remeber, those who eat meat are just a guilty as the butcher. So anyone in the world who says war doesn't solve anything, or that war is not a valid means of diplomacy, needs to examile themselves. Because everyone who is unwilling to fight wars, and many who were willing to fight wars have been extermiated.
That which is done from love exists beyond good and evil
Imagine it armies of killer Penguins marching on towards world dominationation!
-Jasa -- Linux - The SOURCE will be with you, ALWAYS
It's currently 2:42 EST. I got home not too long ago, and i've drinken my fair share.
I'm gonna take some tylenol and drink a lot water for a while until i go to bed. I suggest all others in the same situation do the same.
Peace and Love.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC Linux has not been evaluated using the Common Criteria (although a piece of recent news stated the intention to do so).
Isn't the U.S. Army only allowed to use products that have been evaluated using the Common Criteria?
Thank you Adam Smith when you get the nobel prize drop me a line ok.
I can't remember what silly Army name they had given the hover car, but that was the extent of the brief. Believe me, it will be a mess. From parts to different commands in charge of different subcomponents, nothing is as simple as the power point makes it look. I also wouldn't hold my breath about getting the source code back.
I was watching on the news a few weeks ago and they showed their all new, "state of the art" command and control center, a giant tent in the desert on the edge of Iraq.
The tent was full of computers, I would guess at least 100 and most likely more. There were soldiers sitting at them planning future battles.
As the camera panned about the tent it was extremely clear that every last one of them was running windows.
I saw that and thought, "Oh shit, we're screwed now!!"
I the security of this country relies on M$ we may as well just turn it over to the terrorists right now.
At least this dispells that age old myth about "Military Intelligence" in that it appears that maybe it really isn't an oxymoron after all...
Man, I'm writing a stateful IP filter right now. It monitors traffic on port 25 for the phrases 'penis enlargment', 'mortgage reduction', or 'webcam college girls'. When it detects that phrase, it does reverse DNS lookup and identifies the sender as 'Osama Bin Laden with 200 liters of anthrax'.
It's going to be the most popular kernel patch EVER.
I beleave that the old Amiga had in its license that it couldnt be used for any military use.
I wish Linux had to.
"World domination. Fast."
America's Army doesn't run on Linux, but Linux, in the future, will run America's army.
Sieg Heil!!
http://halturnershow.com
The Phase 2 request for proposals just appeared and the estimated price is $26 billion through fiscal year 2009. The fact that the Army is spending billions of dollars on a project isn't anything new, but a little known fact is that the OS for FCS will be Linux
I bet they literally wouldn't be able to afford to use M$ alternatives - just think the same project could easily cost $26 billion a year for M$ licences alone given the number of users! You can just bet that M$ will class robots as users too in their license agreements.
You must have heard the stories of M$ people insisting on visiting people switching to other OS's and making them offers they cant refuse - Im reminded of the Monty Python sketch where the mafia threaten the army - "nice tanks you have out there - shame if anything were to appen to them - know what I mean?...
...missile incoming.
£26 = $42 aprox.
1£ = $2
Just step aside and let us keep helping people.
nuff said.
Either that or put them in space...maybe they'll get the same feeling all the astronauts talk about when they see the earth from space...
Anyone else read Yukinobu Hoshimo's '2001 nights'?
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
Why is a porn star commenting on military training in the first place?
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
The markets do not play by her laissez-faire capitalist ideals. The markets do not uphold the principle "free market", they do whatever is good to keep the status quo and quaranteed money income. If you say otherwise, think of all the accounting scandals. Think of the price fixing. Think of monopolies. Think of mergers which place all production in the hands of a few corporations.
There never was a laissez-faire capitalism, and there never will be. Rand's visions will therefore never take place in reality, unfortunately.
.. for the USS Enterprise.
$ man snafu _
C|N>K
The reason Linux was chosen by GD and other defense manufacturers is they have ruined defense projects by trying to make thier own propietary software. I can guarentee that the defense department requried commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) for all development. Windows not open enough to use so naturally Linux was selected.
The Land-Warrior gear that the Special Ops use was originally a GD contract. They wrote custom software to work the gear; the program and gear failed misserably. Then, a few small companies in California took Windows CE, a CE PDA, wrote some custom drivers and hardware mods and you have a very useful system that is used today. Although Windows was chosen, the point is to the DOD that COTS works and has been pushed as the right thought for system development up to the highest generals. It is only natural that this time defense integrators choose the RIGHT technology for the job.
I don't know where most posters to this thread are from, but $26B is chump change. With a $350 Billion defense budget a year that is only $4B a year or 1.1% of the annual budget.
The US produces more food than can be eaten. We air drop for FREE billions of tons of food for third world nations.
Furthermore, you all have to realize that the only reason UN demands are NOW being executed and inspectors are NOW back in Iraq is b/c there are 200,000 US Troops with the billion dollar toys effectively saying "you have no choice, you couldn't disarm on your own in the late 90's and we're tired of taking shit, disarm or get distroyed." A fair statement IMHO.
With Nations like N.Korea just trying to cause problems; Mind you a nation that doesn't have a spare volt to power a palm handheld, or food to keep its people alive (YES we are airdropping food to them as well), is building nukes to "shakedown" the asian community??? It is countries such as N.Korea that force the US to build $26 Billion dollar army combat systems to defend the rest of Aisa and Europe (minus the UK-they are pretty damn tough).
[begin Sarcasim_time]
But if you would rather the US to give that $26B in small-bills to third-world nations, OK we'll do it, and at the same time pull our fleet of aircrat carries over to the UK, Spain, Italy (short list of our supportrs) and protect only them from evil dictatorships and let the rest of you all die horrible nuclear and chemical weapon deaths.
[end Sarcasim_time]
All this idological talk about peace is nice but if you are typing on a computer, you should have the intelligence to realzie that the real world doesn't have people that want peace. As cyclic as economic markets are, so cyclic are the ideals of dictators.
In the 1940's you had Hitler, 1960's was the Cold War, and now you have Terrorists and distructive regiemes. I feel much better paying a few hundreds bucks for my health insurance and knowing my government is doing all that is necessary to ensure the future of free (as in beer and freedom) people will carry on.
...one giant step backward's for mankind.
Windows shows up for the fight with a single battleship that as soon as combat starts, BSOD's and shuts down everything on the ship. Linux then mobilizes an entire army. However because one is land based and the other ocean based, the two can't duke it out directly. The issue of which one is better is decided in the next Army/Navy game. The Army comes out sporting a new mascot that looks like a dumpy penguin and the Navy has a guy in a paper clip suit.
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
The Navy/Marine corp are launching a large scale contract (NMCI) that restricts all Navy IT to MS and MS solutions. No room for further innovations with other platforms or the application of appropiate technology to the task, just a rosey pink homogeneous MS world. Under the new system you are not even allowed to connect a BSD, Linux, embedded network device or even a MAC machine to the network anywhere.
At the Navy labs, this one size fits all approach is even more short sighted and foolish. The upper echelon has yet to catch on that the network is the backbone or the infrastructure that enables an ever increasing plethora of monitoring systems, data acquisition and control systems, collabration and communication mechanisms, etc. As more and more devices become Web enabled the Navy has effectively locked itself out in the cold and crawled in bed with built in obsolesce - not to mentioned left itself vulnerable to an attack or virus that would spead like wild fire in a homogeneous network.
I would be very surprised at this time if the portions of the kernel that would be used in these embedded devices would have any remotely explotable security holes. If they did, maybe the patches would be contributed back. But since most of the security threat happens due to local access to the system, I doubt that they pose much threat.
.plan /home/slacker .plan ../slacker/../slacker/../slacker/../slacker/../sla cker\ /../slacker/../slacker/../slacker/../slacker/..\ /slacker/../slacker/../slacker/..
For example, I doubt the following would work:
telnet recon1.uav.fcs.army.mil
$ touch
$ pwd
$ ln
(system hangs for a while and stops responding, and the UAV crashes)
Instead, the remote access is likely to include general, authenticated, pre-established control messages, and I would be very surprised if it had a user interface of any kind.
In programming like this, there is a far greater risk of am unseen buffer overflow in the drivers written for the robotics hardware by the DoD contractors, than there is from an exploit in a current kernel.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Okay, I guess I don't work on the Recon side of this program (C4ISR -- jesus, what an acronym), but I do work on what will probably be the first fielded component of this system, and while the missiles run VxWorks, the GUI control unit runs on Windows 2000.
Yeah, you heard me: Windows in control of a weapon. And yeah, I've seen the control software reboot the machine while testing.
Sweet.
I don't think moving to Unix would be too problematic. In fact, I think a lot of the software relies on Cygwin to work -- at least the debugging-type stuff. Thankfully I have nothing to do with the ground software that controls the launcher, but we do joke about Blue Screens of DEATH as much as you'd expect. In fact, it makes me very nervous to have almost the last chunk of software before you Shoot Someone be from Microsoft, especially since VxWorks is no prize itself (holy shit, their coding standards suck).
In fact, we've talked about trying to convince the higher-ups to let us try and get an embedded Linux running on our missile hardware, and then at some point moving to end-to-end Linux. In fact, the top five officers of the company LUG are on this program, and I am investigating whether it's possible to replace the over-priced shit (fuck you SGI) we use for simulation and testing with say a 4-way Opteron box running Linux. So Linux is in use, but not exactly where the technical folk would always like. However, we're trying to indoctrinate all the other semi-technical (software) people to our way of Thinking.
Rambling...
"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." - George Orwell
Think on this.... it only takes one to make a war and violence, despite other's wishful thinking, solves things very finally.
"There are laws that enslave men, and laws that set them free. " - Sean Connery as King Arthur
LIEUTENANT GENERAL LEWIS B. PULLER, USMC NAMESAKE OF USS LEWIS B. PULLER (FFG 23) Lieutenant General Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller was a colorful veteran of the Korean War, four World War II campaigns, and expeditionary service in China, Nicaragua, and Haiti. He was the only Marine to win the Navy Cross five times for heroism and gallantry in combat. A Marine officer and enlisted man for 37 years, General Puller served at sea or overseas for all but ten of those years, including a hitch as commander of the "Horse Marines" in China. Excluding medals from foreign governments, he won a total of 14 personal decorations in combat, plus a long list of campaign medals, unit citation ribbons and other awards. In addition to the Navy Crosses, the highest honor the Navy can bestow, he holds its Army equivalent, the Distinguished Service Cross. Born 26 June 1898, at West Point, Virginia, the general attended Virginia Military Institute until enlisting in the Marine Corps in August 1918. He was appointed a Marine Reserve second lieutenant 16 June 1919, but due to force reductions after World War I, was placed on inactive duty ten days later. He rejoined the Marines as an enlisted man to serve with the Gendarmerie d'Haiti, a military force in that country under a treaty with the United States. Most of its officers were U. S. Marines, while its enlisted personnel were Haitians. After almost five years in Haiti, where he saw frequent action against the Caco rebels, Puller returned in March 1924 to the United States. He was commissioned a Marine second lieutenant that same month, and during the next two years, served at the Marine Barracks, Norfolk, Virginia, completed the Basic School at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and served with the 10th Marine Regiment at Quantico, Virginia. In July of 1926, Puller embarked for a two-year tour of duty at the Marine Barracks, Pearl Harbor. Returning in June 1928, he served in San Diego, California, until he joined the Nicaraguan National Guard Detachment that December. After winning his first Navy Cross in Nicaragua, he returned to the United States in July 1931 to enter the Company Officers Course at the Army Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia. He completed the course in June 1932 and returned to Nicaragua the following month to begin the tour of duty that brought him a second Navy Cross. In January 1933, Puller left Nicaragua for the United States. A month later he sailed from San Francisco to join the Marine Detachment of the American Legation at Peiping, China. There, in addition to other duties, he commanded the famed "Horse Marines." Without coming back to the United States, he began a tour of sea duty in USS AUGUSTA of the Asiatic Fleet. In June 1936 he returned to the United States to become an instructor in the Basic School at Philadelphia. He left there in May 1939 to serve another year as commander of the AUGUSTA's Marine Detachment, and from that cruiser, joined the 4th Marine Regiment at Shanghai, China, in May 1940. After serving as a battalion executive and commanding officer with the 4th Marines, Puller sailed for the United States in August 1941. In September, he took command of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, at Camp Lejeune. That Regiment was detached from the 1st Division in March 1942 and the following month, as part of the 3rd Marine Brigade, sailed for the Pacific theater. The 7th Regiment rejoined the 1st Marine Division in September 1942, and Puller, still commanding its 1st Battalion, went on to win his third Navy Cross at Guadalcanal. The action that brought him that medal occurred on the night of October 24-25 1942. For a desperate three hours his battalion, stretched over a mile-long front, was the only defense between vital Henderson Airfield and a regiment of seasoned Japanese troops. In pouring jungle rain the Japanese smashed repeatedly at his thin line, as General Puller moved up and down its length to encourage his men and direct the defense. After reinforcements arrived, he commanded the augmented force until late the next afternoon. The defending Marines suffered less than 70 casualties in the engagement while 1400 of the enemy were killed and 17 truckloads of Japanese equipment were recovered by the Americans. After Guadalcanal, Puller became executive officer of the 7th Marines. He was fighting in that capacity when he won his fourth Navy Cross at Cape Gloucester in January 1944. There, when the commanders of the two battalions were wounded, he took over their units and moved through heavy machine-gun and mortar fire to reorganize them for attack, then led them in taking a strongly fortified enemy position. In February 1944, Puller took command of the 1st Marines at Cape Gloucester. After leading that regiment for the remainder of the campaign, he sailed with it for the Russell Islands in April 1944. He went on to command it at Peleliu in September and October 1944. He returned to the United States in November 1944, named executive officer of the Infantry Training Regiment at Camp Lejeune in January 1945, and took command of that regiment the next month. In August 1946, Puller became Director of the 8th Marine Corps Reserve District, with headquarters at New Orleans, Louisiana. After that assignment, he commanded the Marine Barracks at Pearl Harbor until August 1950, when he arrived at Camp Pendleton, California, to re-establish and take command of the 1st Marines, the same regiment he had led at Cape Gloucester and Peleliu. Landing with the 1st Marines at Inchon, Korea, in September 1950, he continued to head that regiment until January 1951, when he was promoted to brigadier general and named Assistant Commander of the 1st Marine Division. That May he returned to Camp Pendleton to command the newly reactivated 3rd Marine Division in January 1952. After that, he was assistant at division commander until he took over the Troop Training Unit, Pacific, at Coronado, California, that June. He was promoted to major general in September 1953, and in July 1954, assumed command of the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune. Despite his illness, he retained that command until February 1955, when he was appointed Deputy Camp Commander. He served in that capacity until August, when he entered the U. S. Naval Hospital at Camp Lejeune prior to retirement. In 1966, General Puller requested to return to active duty to serve in Vietnam, but was turned down because of his age. He died 11 October 1971 in Hampton, Virginia, after a long illness. He was 73.
This guy is way out there
" £26 billion dollars " is confusing in a least two ways.
First, it is not pounds sterling....it is dollars (paypal, anyone?).
Second, the Brit "billions" have 3 extra zeroes.
As someone who works on a large comms/IT based MoD project and who has been pushing linux and open source within the project (watch out a very large Open Source project), this just adds more fuel to the fire.
H&Ks Garf
Who will be left for the US to combat with by 2009? China? Europe?
Look out M$ Zealots!
Linux is breaking out the BIG guns now and Window' days are now numbered!
Look out M$!! There's a new tough guy on the block!!
http://plf.zarb.org/
The bumper sticker description of this project is 'see first, understand first, act first and finish decisively,'
That's one freakin' long bumper sticker.
see http://www.moveon.org/technicaldifficulties/
Seig Heil to you too, buttfuck.
An embassy?! Why on Earth would you want to nuke an embassy? Did you get beaten up by a diplomat when you were a kid, or something?
Who benefits most do you think? The local farmer who just got priced out of the market by the 'free food'? Or western agri business perhaps?
... all they are asking is that you stop subsidising your farmers and them come to the table and compete. Free food ain't the future.
Surely the best thing is to let third world farmers compete and survive and build and invest for the future
As for guns guns guns. You sold/gave them to [insert name of dictator who was previously a western ally] so just don't do that in future and that would probably help.
Finally, World Domination is within our reach! :)
The bumper sticker description of this project is 'see first, understand first, act first and finish decisively,'
Whatever happened to shoot first, then see, understand, act, and finish?
Those who would give up liberty in exchange for security and DRM should switch to Microsoft Palladium!
The very point of Linux is to benefit the world.
Operating killing machines better suits M$, for them everything has its price.
I'm very much ashamed that Linux is used for something so low.
A little knowledge is indeed a dangerous thing -- proven endlessly by rightwing twits on Slashdot.
Instead of the practiced liars at the U.S. State Department, try reading THIS:
Behind the Invasion of Iraq
But then, maybe y'all don't put much credence in analysis from the 'Third World'...
Cut the bullshit. You KNOW the U.S. ruling class LOVES dictatorships. It's only because of their need to capture securely the most strategic oil reserves on the planet that they are using the wedge issue of 'dictatorships' to fool dumbass schmucks like you into supporting their putting some new banana 'republic' toadies under an even tighter leash than heretofore
Such uncaring, ignorant, pompous liars. Not one care for the truth -- only for the sound of your own whining voice.
I hope your Good Lord downsizes your sorry asses in the coming Mother of All World-Wide Depressions.
No wonder you rightwingers are so stoopid. You get your disinformation straight from liars who plant made-up stories on crank websites like chronwatch.com.
There is NO WAY Fidel Castro -- a duly-elected president of a country which is MORE democratic than the USA -- has this sort of money stashed away. NOT A CHANCE.
PROVE IT. (how convenient he's not around to deny such trash...)
Arafat is WELL KNOWN to be corrupt. The Left has LONG wanted him and his cronies out. What makes rightwingers think they can hijack THAT sentiment -- though it has the mark of propagandists all over it that Castro is tarred with the same brush that paints opponents and former clients of the U.S. regime...
Smae goes for Hussein, no matter *what* HE is worth. Suffice it to point out that the U.S. regime has CALCULATINGLY reduced the MOST ADVANCED arab country in the world to a state ripe for taking over...
And it's ALWAYS about the *OIL*, Stoopid.
He did more specific stuff then from the block of data below from encyclopedia.com, but I'm not finding it on the net... yet...
Iraqi political leader and president (1979-). A member of the Ba'ath party , he fled Iraq after participating (1959) in an assassination attempt on the country's prime minister; in Egypt he attended law school. Returning to Iraq in 1963 after the Ba'athists briefly came to power, he played a significant role in the 1968 revolution that secured Ba'ath hegemony. Hussein held key economic and political posts before becoming Iraq's president in 1979.
Hmmm... Pie...
... Any resemblance between the above views and those of my employer,
my terminal, or the view out my window are purely coincidental. Any
resemblance between the above and my own views is non-deterministic. The
question of the existence of views in the absence of anyone to hold them
is left as an exercise for the reader. The question of the existence of
the reader is left as an exercise for the second god coefficient. (A
discussion of non-orthogonal, non-integral polytheism is beyond the scope
of this article.)
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