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Land Warrior Army Suits Simplified, Linux-ized
Dosco Jones writes 'The Army is drastically simplifying the makeup of its high-tech soldier ensemble, the Land Warrior, in an effort to make the system less prone to failures and easier to use,' National Defense reports. Defense Tech continues: 'After the last version of Land Warrior failed reliability tests earlier this year, the Army switched gears and decided to make the system less complex and modify the hardware to make it compatible with the new [and controversial] Stryker infantry vehicle. Changes include a more simplified data bus and a Linux-based operating system, as opposed to Windows. 'Evidence shows that Linux is more stable. We are moving in general to where the Army is going, to Linux-based OS', says the program's manager, Lt. Col. Dave Gallop."
This is exactly the sort of project that we geeks should build on an open sourced Linux based platform. The US military hogs all of the good technology, and poor countries are denied the ability to improve their armed forces because of proprietary technology.
So, who's going to start the GNU Land Warrior project?
Sadly, we run Windows NT. We'd also never get expensive crap like a warrior suit... hell, my deuce-gear was first issued in 1964 according to the supply ticket.
Sure, we got the cool new camouflague that makes us look like the Waffen SS, but as far as cool crap like this, we have to wait 5 years for the Army to get tired of playing with it.
All's true that is mistrusted
Pssst. Don't freak out on me now pal, but guess what OS our Aegis cruisers run? Windows is constantly used in mission-critical applications, for some odd reason.
I'll let other /.ers discuss the reliability of Linux over Windows, but an interesting note is that the original LW had 2 processors but the newer version has 1. The question is whether part of the reliability issues on 2 processors is due to Windows handling multiprocessors or simply the hassles of getting 2 processors to work together. The articles do not discuss in detail what really happened. Simplicity is however a good thing when it comes to reliability. It would be something if the stuck with a 2 processor design but made it work with Linux.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
The US Armed Forces has been activley recruiting "pimply faced geeks with thick glasses" for....well since forever.
My personal favortive was seening them setup shop at DEFCON. The CIA and FBI were also on hand doing a little recriuting. I'm sure they were also there in a differnt capacity.
Stryker info
And, of course:
Stryper info
Well thank god that's the exception and not the rule, especially since NT may or may not have been responsible for crippling one of those cruisers back in 98 or 99. I have a friend who is an electrical engineer who worked on a project for the navy involving nuclear submarines. While on board he noticed the computers (which were running Windows) and thought it was odd that something so high tech would have computers running Windows on them. He asked the tech guy on board why they used Windows and the guy said it was only for sending email and other menial tasks for the crew members. The "real" computers, that actually did "real" work were all running UNIX.
Time makes more converts than reason
All comments about the Stryker aside, maybe the Army's trying to learn something from the Navy. I'd like to think that leaving the cruiser USS Yorktown dead in the water for 2 1/2 hours due to a divide by zero error would motivate a switch from microsoft to something more robust. I'd also like to think asses of the dimbulbs in charge are still smarting from the cornholing courtmartial they received, but they probably got promoted instead.
So I've got a question... Does the government release the source for what they're doing? When the modifications made to the source are pivotal to "national security," could the government potentially violate the GPL and attribute it to the greater good of the nation?
How about this... how would any civilian even know they're violating the GPL? Access to these computers would presumably pretty tight. Just something to ponder over...
Cool, now linux will get dirty with killing people...
The Army has an extensive selection process for new weapons, and they have stayed with the M16 series for 35 years now-- had something that better fits the needs of the troops and logistical requirements come along in the interim, you can bet that DoD would be using it. Developments in the 1980s with lasers and caseless ammunition (e.g. the HK G11 rifle) failed to improve on the performance of the M16 series, and DoD has continued to procure the M16 and more recently the M4 Carbine (a popular shortened version of the M16 issued to officers, tank crews, and troops other than front line riflemen). The current manufacturer of the M16 is FN Herstal in Belgium, and Colt is the manufacturer of the M4 Carbine. Both pieces are high-quality compared to a lot of junk in the private market. There are any number of manufacturers of M16/AR-15-type rifles, but Colt consistently brings the highest prices in private sales-- "if it's not a Colt, it's just a copy," as they say. While it is certainly possible to buy a better-quality AR-15 from a custom manufacturer, the Colt/FN combination offers DoD the best balance of cost, quality, and production capacity. There are developments under way now that may limit the useful life of currently issued weapons, but every rifle the DoD issues is designed to serve for many years in many sets of hands, with parts being replaced as needed. Check out your local Army surplus store and you'll see all manner of accessories, uniforms, and equipment that the DoD issues to its troops-- most of the *officially issued* stuff is high quality, while the aftermarket knockoffs are junk. You might be surprised at what gets issued...the Soldier Systems Center recently added the Vietnam-style Tomahawk to the Army infantryman's basic load.
Drill Instructor: "This is the seven inch combat knife, affectionately known as the KABAR. It has zero electronics and zero moving parts. It is the most reliable weapon you will every carry."
Guys, it ain't the OS. Environmental, maintenance, electronic, and embedded application issues are far more likely to cause problems. The OS issue may be a red herring. The article seems to indicate that the original Land Warrior dual CPU hardware was flaky and is being replaced by a piece of hardware from a different project with a single CPU, simplified bus, and is already running Linux. It's not clear if WinNT is really to blame. Recall the initial speculation regarding the Navy's USS Yorktown incident. Many gleefully blamed WinNT, eventually folks talked to the Chief Engineer on board at the time and the actual software developer and found out that it was not WinNT, it was a debug version of application software that was at fault.
Personally, I'd wager that Linux was simply a better fit (size, overhead) for the "other" embedded application. Or maybe the team was more experience with Unix than Windows. Switching the Land Warrior over to Linux to maintain commonality with other systems would justify the change as well.
don't get me wrong, I love tech, but what prevents someone from DDOS's our soldiers?
This network performs intel in both directions. What prevents the soldiers from either having their signal blocked or worse, having their communication systems overwhelmed by data flooding and/or debilitating noise from their headsets?
[joke]Or worse yet... be distracted by streaming music and live porn video feeds..[/joke]
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