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USS Zumwalt — a Guided Missile Destroyer Running On Linux
New submitter SanDogWeps writes "Sean Gallagher over at Ars Technica reports that when the U.S.S. Zumwalt (DDG 1000) puts to sea later this year, it will be different from any other ship in the Navy's fleet in many ways. The $3.5 billion ship is designed for stealth, survivability, and firepower, and it's packed with advanced technology. And at the heart of its operations is a virtual data center powered by off-the-shelf server hardware, various flavors of Linux, and over 6 million lines of software code. From the article: 'Called the Common Display System, or CDS (pronounced as "keds" by those who work with it), the three-screen workstations in the operations center are powered by a collection of quad-processor Intel motherboards in an armored case, which gives new meaning to the nautical phrase "toe buster." Even the commanding officer's and executive officer's chairs on the bridge have CDS workstations built-in. Each CDS system runs multiple LynxOS-based Linux virtual machines, which can run on various networks partitioned by security level and purpose. '"
Stallman would be proud.
Are we supposed to be happy that the blood, sweat and tears of the thousands of developers who gave their time to an ideal of free software are now being used by the world's favorite rogue state to bring death and destruction to far flung corners of the globe?
Isn't there a provision in the license stating the software cannot be used for weapons purposes or something of the like?
The captain's name is James Kirk.
does it run linux?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that anti-ship missile technology has been ahead of defence systems now for quite some time, such that basically any ship that gets within range of them is basically always sunk. What's more, Russia, Iran and China all have such missiles. What exactly are these ships being built for, beyond the jobs they produce?
LynxOS is a proprietary Unix, compatible with Linux binaries.
It does not contain the Linux kernel and is closed source.
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Perhaps it's appropriate that the first commanding officer of the Zumwalt will be Captain James Kirk (yes, that's actually his name).
Come on US Navy, you can tell us: you saw the name and went for it :)
As for the article, very nice! I never did get what "DDG-1000" stand for, but I think it's ominous. The T-800 and T-1000 were not the best names for hardware, and anything close to it is suspect by default.
A commenter said: "Also of note: the ship has a totally electric propulsion system, and has an integrated power system that will support future weapons like railguns and laser/RF system" - pretty interesting.
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
mis-read that as the USS Zubaz?
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Their displacement would raise the global sea level another few inches.
What's a "virtual data center"? It's either a data center or it isn't.
The design of the Zumwalt solves that problem by using off-the-shelf hardware—mostly IBM blade servers running Red Hat Linux—and putting it in a ruggedized server room.
Many servers are running Linux not Lynx.
figure you have to track multiple fast moving threats like missiles and lots of other potential targets and non-combatants. that's a lot of processing power
one of the features of this ship is stealth. they won't shoot it down if they don't see it.
but it is a scary idea that a $10K missile can take out a $3.5B ship.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
And I still can't get dual screens to work reliably/painlessly. Sigh.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
to transfer taxpayer dollars to the pockets of MIC CEOs - all else is padding.
That is not true. It was, in fact, designed to transfer taxpayer dollars to the campaigns of certain politicians. The CEOs are just the middlemen.
But does it run Windows?
Table-ized A.I.
the lead character in Rick Cook's Wizardry books?
The first commanding officer of the Zumwalt will be Captain James Kirk (yes, that's actually his name).
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
I'm sorry Navy but I have to tell you, "keds" is not how you would pronouce that acronym. It would be CODS- COmmon Display System! First you guys write your name on your ass and then you command your ships via the cods...come on guys, this stuff just writes itself!
I hope they have 7 firewalls because the Cylons would go through that fast.
I heard of the Admiral via his brother, my civics teacher. This is the same admiral that was involved with the hover craft stuff the D.O.D. does. This linux vessel is right down his alley. My civics teacher, a good guy, but a round peg in a room full of square holes.
All hale the class of '72
the year of Linux in the Navy!
I misread the name as USS Umwelt and I figured it appropriate that nobody could agree what OS it was running.
Also, the stealth features would have to be impressive: ... how did a giant wooden rabbit get this far out to sea?
Enemy1: What's that on our radar?
Enemy2: It looks like a US Navy Destroyer
Enemy1: I don't know it could be a small fishing boat
Enemy2: No, wait
Knowledge Brings Fear
The CDS uses the LynxSecure Hypervisor with Linux as the Guest OS. Other systems on the ship use the LynxOS hard real-time OS, which is not Linux, and does not have any Linux source code in its kernel. Unlike Linux which last time I looked did have LynxOS code in it.
Linux runs on old hardware.
Linux runs on embedded hardware.
Linux runs on XBOX.
Linux runs on a toaster.
Some geek out there is smugly telling his friends "I made Linux run on a US Navy Destroyer".
Even if there's an advantage to the offense once the missile has been launched, in order to get to that point the attacker must
(1) Find the ship (stealthy, under EMCON, and moving)
(2) Get within range
(3) Live long enough to fire the missile.
Use of open source software in a military context violates the ethics of open source software systems.
These ethics are inherent I would like to point out, and are not arguable. Particularly if you are from a country this weapon will be parked next to if your private central bank refuses to do business in federal reserve notes.
Open source is a human endeavor and since it holds no boundaries such acts as including it in state weapons is blasphemous.
The blow back from this sort of weaponization of LINUX will be EPIC I can assure you.
-Hack
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
Windows for warships was used in the past and one it crashed taking down a few systems with it.
I just can't wait for it. Sounds really cool. I just hope they don't use D-Link firewalls with backdoors.
Isn't there a rule against this?
Besides just the core operating environment, there are literally dozens of other systems, from Hull-Mechanical-Electrical (HME) to unclassified NMCI email terminals, and everything in between. The core combat system will run off about three dozen racks, while the rest are random systems scattered throughout the ship, and a 'rack' might mean a small switch cabinet in a closet somewhere.
AEGIS does it all with about 20 racks. The rest, like I said, is HME, NMCI, Vertical Launch System, etc. I haven't worked on the DDG-1000 program, but I'd expect their architecture to be very similar to what AEGIS uses.
Agreed. I've deployed about DDGs and CGs as a contractor, and they're knee-knockers.