Software Bug Halts F-22 Flight

mgh02114 writes "The new US stealth fighter, the F-22 Raptor, was deployed for the first time to Asia earlier this month. On Feb. 11, twelve Raptors flying from Hawaii to Japan were forced to turn back when a software glitch crashed all of the F-22s' on-board computers as they crossed the international date line. The delay in arrival in Japan was previously reported, with rumors of problems with the software. CNN television, however, this morning reported that every fighter completely lost all navigation and communications when they crossed the international date line. They reportedly had to turn around and follow their tankers by visual contact back to Hawaii. According to the CNN story, if they had not been with their tankers, or the weather had been bad, this would have been serious. CNN has not put up anything on their website yet." The Peoples Daily of China reported on Feb. 17 that two Raptors had landed on Okinawa.

Comments

Real redundancy

[chriss]

As far as I remember the Space Shuttle not only has redundant computer systems, but also redundant software, i.e. the software has been developed twice to ensure that software bugs don't cause a catastrophe. I'd prefer to know that systems capable of carrying weapons which can kill hundreds of thousands of people were designed with the same safety in mind.

Re:Real redundancy

[spagetti_code]

Actually, the space shuttle is not a good example.

NASA do not fly the space shuttle during 31 Dec -> 1 Jan as
they are not confident of what would happen. Better just
to avoid the problem.

That was one of the pressures to getting the Dec 2k6 flight off the ground.

Reminds me of the Bismarck

[blind biker]

The Bismarck battleship had a bug also: when the main turrets would fire, the aiming radars would be disabled. That's no joke when you're in the midst of a battle and everyone of those large caliber shells counts. As I understand, the radars would be disabled by the vibrations of the turret cannons firing. Not a software bug, but bug nonetheless, and you do wonder how did this battleship pass testing.

F16 Software had similar problems

[Anonymous Coward]

When F16s crossed the equator, the computer would roll the aircraft 180 degrees and fly inverted:

http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/3.44.html

READ: Get Ready For More

[N8F8]

I tried posting this on several sites but on March 11th, when the new daylight savingsregime kicks in for the first time there will probably be a lot of Java applications that will start having data issues because the latest Java version IS NOT BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE for several three character time codes that have bee removed. Several codes have been deprecated in a way that is not backwards compatible. I could be wrong about the severity, but for he last two weeks my software team has been dealing with this issue and the interaction between Oracle and Java.

Re:Don't worry

[MSFanBoi2]

Actually the whole story is a lot more exciting that 5 on 1...

The 27th Fighter Squadron (8 F-22s) at Langley AFB, Virginia fought against 33 F-15Cs and didn't suffer a single loss. The F-15's again didn't even detect the F-22's until they were all locked and targeted.

Then some months later during Exercise Northern Edge F-22's reached a 144-to-zero kill-to-loss ratio against F-15s, F-16s and F/A-18s. Only 12 of the F-22's accounted for nearly 50% of all kills for the Exercise.

not the only problem I read...

[Bobzibub]

All complex systems have bugs that need to be ironed out....

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IB10Ak05. html
"Keys notes, however, that the electronic spectrum around Baghdad is polluted by the myriad jamming devices that coalition forces primarily employed to thwart remote detonations of the improvised explosive devices that have inflicted 70% of all US fatalities in that war." ...
"The potential problem was discovered when the first F-22s were operating near US Navy ships off the Atlantic coast. Navy radars overwhelmed the F-22's automated sensors. Even now, larger, multi-station, purpose-built electronic-intelligence-gathering airplanes encounter difficulties around the Iraqi capital because of the extreme density of jamming devices."

Re:Overflow

[Dun Malg]

just as well it wasn't in the fire a [missile] flag byte ... or worse still, the ejector seat flag byte.
Yeah... uh... you know, in the same way they simply do not and never would have the navigation system connected to the In-Flight Entertainment system in an airliner, likewise they would never slave the ejection system to anything other than the mechanical operation of that yellow handle between the pilot's knees.

As for missiles? First, they fly unarmed on ferry missions because ammo is dead weight that reduces range; and second, even if they were armed, what do you really think would happen if an AMRAAM missile was free launched without being turned on, much less having had targeting info downloaded? Drop like a stone, it would, right into the pacific. Bloop. All gone.

Say it's also a good thing water isn't flammable, otherwise fire trucks would show up to fires and only make the situation worse, right?

F-16 had a similar bug

[Stephen Samuel]

Luckily they found it during simulations of the F-16. A bug in the fly-by-wire software caused the plane to think that it was upside-down whenever it crossed the equator. It would try to correct the problem immediately -- A maneuver that the plane could probably survive, but that would probably kill the pilot had it occured in real life.