US Military Drones Migrating To Linux

DeviceGuru (1136715) writes "Raytheon is switching its UAV control system from Solaris to Linux for U.S. military drones, starting with a Northrop Grumman MQ-8C Fire Scout helicopter. Earlier this month Raytheon entered into a $15.8 million contract with the U.S. Navy to upgrade Raytheon's control systems for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to a recent Avionics Intelligence report. The overhaul is designed to implement more modern controls to help ground-based personnel control UAVs. Raytheon's tuxified version of its Vertical Takeoff and Landing Unmanned Air Vehicle Tactical Control System (TCS) will also implement universal UAV control qualities. As a result the TCS can be used in in all U.S. Navy, Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps UAVs that weigh at least 20 pounds. By providing an open standard, the common Linux-based platform is expected to reduce costs by limiting the types of UAV control systems that need to be built and maintained for each craft."

Comments

2014 year of the linux des!!!!##^^!@#!@#$

[Anonymous Coward]

NO CARRIER

Re:2014 year of the linux des!!!!##^^!@#!@#$

[K. S. Kyosuke]

...the year of Linux approaching your desktop at Mach 4 with all the precision of terminal laser guidance?

Re:2014 year of the linux des!!!!##^^!@#!@#$

[Bugamn]

Year of the linux destroyer?

Re:2014 year of the linux des!!!!##^^!@#!@#$

[MRe_nl]

Who Says Penguins Can't Fly?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2VLpUBFRM4

time for a new public licence

[cleveralias]

free to use unless you intend to kill people.

Re:time for a new public licence

[i kan reed]

Why is killing people with closed source software morally superior?

Re:time for a new public licence

[Anonymous Coward]

The freedom to run the program, for any purpose, shall not be infringed.

Re:time for a new public licence

[innocent_white_lamb]

The folks using these things will argue that they're operating on the side of the "good guys", so they still fit within the parameters of that license.

Re:time for a new public licence

[aliquis]

Obama wanted to be able to claim his drones help spread freedom.

Re:time for a new public licence

[aliquis]

It's the follow up of winnuke!

Also: "Death on flaxen wings"

Re:time for a new public licence

[Anonymous Coward]

Even the GPL covers this. You can argue that a shell shot by the drone is like a linked library to the drone. Therefore the victim has to see the GPL before being killed.

Re:time for a new public licence

[Charliemopps]

Why is killing people with closed source software morally superior?

Because, if you're a software engineer working on the Linux Kernel you can do so knowing that your work wont be used to kill people.

(ok, they could just ignore the license... but you get my point)

Re:time for a new public licence

[K. S. Kyosuke]

By the same logic, people working in knife factories should quit en masse.

Re:time for a new public licence

[Goaway]

Yes, maybe not always such a great idea after all.

Re: time for a new public licence

[K. S. Kyosuke]

I specifically went for knives because most of them is used for non-lethal purposes, even though every now and then, someone gets knifed. It's the same thing with Linux: most of the time, it powers web servers and routers and other peaceful applications. Now, every now and then, someone will get droned. Does that really justify some sort of massive outrage against knife manufacturers/Linux developers?

Re:time for a new public licence

[Xtifr]

free to use unless you intend to kill people.

Would violate clause six of the Open Source Definition (and the Debian Free Software Guidelines): No discrimination against fields of endeavor.

Re: time for a new public licence

[SylvesterTheCat]

Yes. Also UAVs / UASs are not limited to only military applications and even within military applications only a few are weaponized. They just happen to get most of the media attention.

Re:time for a new public licence

[Goaway]

Yes, forbidding killing sure is a slippery slope. I'm so happy we don't do that anywhere else!

Re:time for a new public licence

[DRJlaw]

free to use unless you intend to kill people.

So you're willing to throw out "free as in speech" the moment that the person using the software uses it in a way that you don't like, or just isn't somebody that you like.

Good luck with that. Everyone has activities that they don't like and people that they don't like. Those dislikes might even, *gasp*, be directed at you.

Double good luck with that given that Linux is about as likely to change its license as you are to recognize the hypocrisy of a "public license" that is limited to your ideological friends.

Re:time for a new public licence

[evilviper]

if you're a software engineer working on the Linux Kernel you can do so knowing that your work wont be used to kill people.

I guess if they switched from Linux to OpenBSD, it would make EVERYBODY happier:

"software which OpenBSD uses and redistributes must be free to all (be they people or companies), for any purpose they wish to use it, including modification, use, peeing on, or even integration into baby mulching machines or atomic bombs to be dropped on Australia." - cvs@openbsd.org mailing list, May 29, 2001

Re:time for a new public licence

[Charliemopps]

I was explaining the afore mentioned posts reasoning. Not agreeing with it.

Re: time for a new public licence

[Richy_T]

Paper zombies have feelings too.

Re:time for a new public licence

[0xdeaddead]

I don't know why it seemed so laughable back then, but now entirely plausible.

Re: time for a new public licence

[ozmanjusri]

Strawmen, however, are fair game...

Re:time for a new public licence

[lister king of smeg]

which the nuking ausies or baby mulching machines?

Re:time for a new public licence

[torsmo]

Annihilating Australia, of course, coz prior to current events, its existence was entirely hypothetical.

Re:time for a new public licence

[kthreadd]

free to use unless you intend to kill people.

See JSON license. "The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil."

It's probably noteworthy to point out that programs under that license is not accepted in at least Debian.
https://wiki.debian.org/qa.deb...

Re:time for a new public licence

[Sockatume]

Freedom means letting people do things you don't want them to do. I mean that's practically the definition.

Re:time for a new public licence

[Gavagai80]

If knife developers had the option of adding a license clause forbidding the use of their knives in muggings, perhaps they would.

Re:time for a new public licence

[martin-boundary]

Freedom means letting people do things you don't want them to do.

That's idiotic. Free people aren't free to torture and kill anyone they like, no matter how much they want to. Freedom has natural boundaries, and doesn't include murder for a start.

Re:time for a new public licence

[DRJlaw]

To understand the concept, you should think of "free" as in "free speech," not as in "free beer".

We campaign for these freedoms because everyone deserves them. With these freedoms, the users (both individually and collectively) control the program and what it does for them. When users don't control the program, we call it a âoenonfreeâ or âoeproprietaryâ program. The nonfree program controls the users, and the developer controls the program; this makes the program an instrument of unjust power.

A program is free software if the program's users have the four essential freedoms:
* The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
*The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
* The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
* The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

GNU's Free Software Definition

Your failure to research the philosophy of the license you wish to see changed does not constitute an argument. It is rather an admission that you're a willing member of the rabble... as if posting AC wasn't enough of one.

Re:time for a new public licence

[DRJlaw]

That's idiotic. Free people aren't free to torture and kill anyone they like, no matter how much they want to. Freedom has natural boundaries, and doesn't include murder for a start.

That's idiotic. Free people aren't free to criticize anyone they like, no matter how much they want to. Freedom has natural boundaries, and doesn't include interfering with their "elected president" for a start.

"Natural boundaries...." an almost infinitely malleable concept useful for turning "freedom" into an arbitrary means of exercising pervasive control.

Re: time for a new public licence

[cStyled]

Yes. Also UAVs / UASs are not limited to only military applications and even within military applications only a few are weaponized. They just happen to get most of the media attention.

Linux can also be used to serve content people many not want it to, such as pornography or political beliefs the linux developer disagrees with.

Re:time for a new public licence

[Goose In Orbit]

*ducks*

I can't wait

[Vinegar Joe]

To see the mascot!

Re:I can't wait

[tomofumi]

...penguin with guns and drones flying above?

So...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

When can we expect the hellfire driver to make its way in-tree?

A killer new Linux distro?

[Anonymous Coward]

n/t

Re:free software can be used for evil?!

[bobbied]

Android is NEXT!!!! Buhaahaaa.....

What distro?

[MAXOMENOS]

Red Hat Military Edition? Killbuntu? Debian For Drones?

Re:What distro?

[CanHasDIY]

BSD - Blowing Shit up with Drones

Re:What distro?

[aliquis]

Possibly their own?

One advantage of Solaris over Linux/GNU is that things don't break/stop existing over time.

Linus want the same for the Linux kernel afaik but the rest may not be as reliable.

Re:What distro?

[bobbied]

Slapware? GenToBoom? Puppy - Attack Dogfight version?

Re:What distro?

[aliquis]

Surely they will use bash.

Re:What distro?

[bobbied]

Or, one that I just came up with..... Wait for it....

Wait...

"Attack of the killer tomato.... "

I know you liked that one... I saw you simile...

Re:What distro?

[ColdWetDog]

Dandy Drone

Re:What distro?

[tomofumi]

Red Hat Duty - Modern Warfare...

Re:What distro?

[aliquis]

e problem with Solaris is that you'll have to licence every bullet, individually from Oracle.

Or what?

"We've seen your yacht Larry Ellison and you don't stand a chance!"

.... on their own volition

[0xdeadbeef]

Imagine what Slashdot in 1999 would have made of the headline "US Military Drones Migrating To Linux".

Re:.... on their own volition

[pushing-robot]

It's been my experience that drones usually migrate to Microsoft products.

Re:.... on their own volition

[FrankieBaby1986]

Imagine no more:
"Yes, but does it run linux?"
"I, for one, welcome our Linux Powered Drone Over(head)lords!"
"Linux powered drones pour Hot Grits on Natalie Portman from the Sky!"

Re:.... on their own volition

[Obfuscant]

Yes, but can you make a Beowulf cluster of drones?

Re:.... on their own volition

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Darl McBride would be demanding $699 for every drone flight.

Which makes me wonder . . . Gates and Ballmer financed the attempt to kill Linux . . . and now drones have Linux . . . now if Linux gets advanced AI technology . . . will it be aware that Gates and Ballmer tried to kill it . . . and will the Linux drones adjust their flight plans and targets accordingly . . . ?

Sounds like an excellent trashy movie . . . "Colossus: The Forbin Project Redux"

Re:.... on their own volition

[stoploss]

Given the fact that SCO v IBM apparently refuses to die (still going as of 2013), perhaps the US military should consider deploying SCO's legal team to areas in need of interdiction.

Finally

[gmuslera]

The killer app for linux has been finally released. This will be the year of the linux desktop, or at least the one when it will take off.

Re:Finally

[bobbied]

Well, let's hope it doesn't crash and burn on launch...

Come to think of it.. Gives a whole new meaning to "Open Office" and "Blow the Doors off" of things.

Re:Finally

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

Killer app... Awesome, now we can all feel better about being spied on, and/or killed because the drone doing it is running open source software. I know I feel better already. :)
What a time we live in.

Linux is not controlling the drones

[Missing.Matter]

As far as I can tell from reading the report, Linux is not installed on the drones themselves, but is running under the operations control suite. They would be absolutely insane not to be running an RTOS on the avionics of the drones. I do research on drones (no, not the $100 quadcopters you can buy from Toys R' Us) and autopilots, and wouldn't let Linux anywhere near the avionics.

Re:Linux is not controlling the drones

[TechyImmigrant]

Ditto in automotive.

Life critical functions (E.G. ABS braking) don't even get an RTOS. There's one program running on a micro. You don't recurse. You don't loop (except for the while true at the outer). All state is static global variables.

Re:Linux is not controlling the drones

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Or, you could just use something like an application processor with properly timed peripheral MCUs. BeagleBone Black is already doing that in the hobbyist-on-the-budget area. I don't think anyone has ever suggested that Linux should be in control of the active PID loops.

Re:Linux is not controlling the drones

[Charliemopps]

Funny! While growing up my father was in charge of a team of guys that designed and built GMs first electronic speed sensor. Well, I'm not sure if it was their first but it was the first one to go into wide production and was also not-mechanical. He was working so much I ended up in the lab with him a lot. Watching those guys solve those problems is one of my most vivid memories from childhood. They had to babysit me while I played with all their test equipment and answer my silly questions about their project. Later my dad told me that was good for them. If they couldn't explain it to me, they wouldn't be able to explain it to GMs executives. lol

Re:Linux is not controlling the drones

[BitZtream]

Thats what he just said, but you don't know enough about it to understand that.

The primary functions are autonomous self contained units that can function on their own and get its general commands from another system. Cut them off from the central controller (your beagle bone black) and they (ABS, ECU, ect) still function as needed.

Re:Linux is not controlling the drones

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Thats what he just said, but you don't know enough about it to understand that.

Oh, really?

The primary functions are autonomous self contained units that can function on their own and get its general commands from another system. Cut them off from the central controller (your beagle bone black) and they (ABS, ECU, ect) still function as needed.

I don't need you to teach me what I've already known from my EE courses on control theory and control electronics fifteen years ago.

Re:Linux is not controlling the drones

[TechyImmigrant]

I don't need people telling me to suggest to a car manufacturer that they should include a "beagle board" in an automotive control system.

Re:Linux is not controlling the drones

[K. S. Kyosuke]

First, I was referring specifically to the small drone business, not to any automotive application (or, in English: that was aimed at the grandparent, not you). Second, what I wanted to illustrate by the reference to BB Black was that the notion of reducing the pressure for having hard-RTOSes by providing extra hardware instead is already so widespread that SoCs combining application processors with RT controllers are already being dumped onto people on the cheap by millions even in the consumer hobbyist area. I have absolutely no idea how you came to the conclusion that I was suggesting that automobile industry with its established parts and designs should switch to something like that.

Re:Linux is not controlling the drones

[PseudoCoder]

For the on-board avionics, amateurs will run embedded controllers, -maybe- running Linux with some kind of kernel preemption. Pro's like what I used to be will use VxWorks or another one I can't currently remember that starts with a "U". This article is talking about the ground station software. Solaris was the OS of choice until Sun made the hardware impossible to procure and the software impossible to support.

I remember working with one of the prime vendors of ground control software to use their software in a training system's ground control software. The original software runs in Solaris in old Sun hardware, and I asked them to port it to something I could run on x86. I suggested porting it over to OpenSolaris to make it easier for them and they told me they'd rather port it to Linux and they did since I agreed to be their usage tester/guinea pig. This was way back in 2006-2007.

Re:Killer question

[bobbied]

Just init.tab entries.. RunLevel 1 = take off, 2 is cruse, 3 is crash (not that kind...)

Re:Killer question

[aliquis]

No-one uses upstart.

Also mir is dead. NASA confirms it.

Re:But.... Windows 8

[bobbied]

I'm telling you it's that danged metro interface.... Even drones hate it.

Re:But.... Windows 8

[aliquis]

But.... Windows 8
Why is Windows not an option?

They couldn't find the start menu.

Re:free software can be used for evil?!

[CODiNE]

Nonono, Mac OS X is NeXT.

Supervillains run Linux

[Compholio]

I'm still waiting for it to be on their orbiting brain lasers.

Re:Neck beard rage

[rubycodez]

funny, most of the neck-bearded people I know were in the military.

Re:Killer question

[rubycodez]

I hear the reiserfs is a killer filesystem

Re:Killer question

[lorinc]

Also mir is dead. NASA confirms it.

Given that mir also means peace and considering what is happening in Ukraine, I sadly suppose you are right. Nonetheless I prefer puns when they don't carry a grim presage.

Re:Killer question

[armanox]

Clearly they use smf right now.

Re:Pacifist Linux developers... LMAO

[rubycodez]

on the other hand, a lot of Linux users are libertarians and gun nuts. this might piss off the developers, but hey, we're the ones with the guns.

Re:But.... Windows 8

[Wookact]

Judging from experience. If you installed WIn 8 for the drone it would turn on you.

Re:Killer question

[aliquis]

I obviously meant the space station and the display server of which only the former is dead whereas the later seem to have got some trouble getting lift under it's wings / lift off so to say.

You obviously got that and I had no idea mir meant peace but the idea was never to say peace was dead :)

Checking Wikipedia: Mir was only up for 15 years? So young, so young! :(
And now I've learned there was a Skylab too!
NINE! Saljut!

Kermit

[DaveAtFraud]

I vaguely remember that Kermit had a prohibition on military use back in the 1980s; maybe longer. That seems to have gone away. No sure if it's because Kermit is no longer controlled by Columbia University.

Cheers,
Dave

Re:Kermit

[GameMaster]

Probably for the best, Ms. Piggy is violent enough for the two of them.

Re:Reminds me when

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Sounds like one hell of an implausible urban legend.

Re:Killer question

[BitZtream]

Wow, we haven't seen that one posted a thousand times over the last 8 years.

Finally, "kill" or "killall" really work!

[whoever57]

killall -9 "myenemies"

Re:Finally, "kill" or "killall" really work!

[whoever57]

Next question: will they now work on Zombie processes?

Re:Finally, "kill" or "killall" really work!

[Col. Bloodnok]

They should stick with Solaris.

'preap' is the command for killing zombie processes.

Re:Finally, "kill" or "killall" really work!

[penguinoid]

killall -9 "myenemies"

Sadly, due to a bug in the drone's hardware, that command spawns 9 new enemies.

Re:TCO

[hey!]

And shit is cheap! People will pay *you* to haul their shit way.

not FreeBSD?

[HtR]

I would have guessed FreeBSD, as the logo might be more appropriate.

Shooting, its an Olympic sports

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe not knives as they have other utility but certainly the case could be made for guns. They have only one purpose. Hitting either a living or non-living target.

And what is wrong with hitting a non-living target? Target shooting is a sport. Its even a part of the Olympics.

As far as a living target goes, if its hunting and the hunter is going to eat the meat I don't see much problem unless you are a vegetarian. Those of us who pay Ronald McDonald to hit a cow on the head with a hammer in order to make us a burger are not really in a position to criticize the hunter that sees his meat go to good use.

Year of the Linux everything but the desktop

[Dega704]

Yes, Linux is still a long way away from becoming prominent in that one particular area, but it certainly isn't having any trouble taking over everything else in the meantime. Every OS vendor is looking out their window and finding themselves surrounded by penguins.

Re:Killer question

[MouseTheLuckyDog]

When the kernel panics, it's time for everyone to panic.

A second shell with source code ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Even the GPL covers this. You can argue that a shell shot by the drone is like a linked library to the drone. Therefore the victim has to see the GPL before being killed.

People so frequently misunderstand the GPL. There is no obligation to provide source unless someone has the binary, and the publisher can wait until they ask. So to be GPL compliant the publisher only has to provide source to strike survivors if and when they ask. The publisher is also free to choose their own delivery mechanism so long as it is something commonly used, given the precedent of the first shell a second shell containing source would be compliant.

Just a thought.

[MouseTheLuckyDog]

Maybe hackers can program it so that any coordinates given to it, cause it to fly to Seatle.

Seems wrong

[GameboyRMH]

...like that time I met a guy running a telemarketing company on Asterisk :-(

Not really

[s.petry]

There are and were many benefits to running military applications on Sparc, RS6000, and PA style chips. Primarily that if your enemy gets the code they can't do shit with it. Not just that, but the chips tended to be higher quality and better shielded from influence. Not that our politicians seem to care any more mind you, but many military people still do.

So now we have Drone code running on cheap commodity chips and an OS that bad guys run too. It may save a few dollars (studies indicate very few mind you, work in defense and you will see) at the expense of giving enemies a chance to rebuild a drone. Before you "but but but.." that comment away, Iran has at least 2 of our most powerful drones in their possession and undamaged.

Sad times we are living in, truly.

Re:Not really

[s.petry]

Because the materials are supposed to be somewhat disposable you make the whole thing easy to compromise? Come now AC, that does not make any sense. At all!.

Sure, every board should have a white phosphorus cartridge hanging next to it that when a button is pushed the whole thing cooks. Iran showed that even if this was built in, they could jam the codes. So it's not just one vector we have to consider. I'm guessing that not too many Iranian hackers have access to debugging Sparc code on a Sparc chip, unlike everyone and their brother with the ability to debug Intel code.

If they can debug the small drones they can debug the larger drones too, we don't run different codes on different drones. The same companies are making drones for all 4 branches of service and the private sector to boot. That "cost saving" was put in place decades ago.

Re:Not really

[Alioth]

SPARC isn't exactly hard to get, and it's supported by gcc. You can even download the HDL for the SPARC processor (which you can't do for intel).
If Iranians needed SPARC kit, they would get it in pretty short order.

Re: Air Vehicle Uses RTOS

[4wdloop]

Yes I was thinking solaris or linux as flight control system can't be it. Ground station make more sense. Thanks for clarifying.

Btw what rtoses do they use?

Re:Oracle Linux?

[symbolset]

So you have heard of Oracle Linux.

Re:Food for thought

[symbolset]

Oh, I don't know about that...

Re:But.... Windows 8

[Joe_Dragon]

clippy says.

It looks like you are in a war zone do you want to trun on auto fire?

Re:Killer question

[tomofumi]

Next time you'll see this in a SF movie: take control & type init 0 to halt an UAV...

Re:Killer question

[tomofumi]

it's a killer's filesystem...

Re:But.... Windows 8

[tomofumi]

and your enemy pick this up don't know how to shutdown this damn thing too (with MetroUI)...

Which CPU?

[unixisc]

One question - which CPUs are being used here? Pentiums or SPARCs?

wasnt there some quote

[YoungManKlaus]

it went in the lines of: "I dont care if you write a killer robot built on my code, I just want to get your changes back so I can build one myself"? Though I dont find it :(

Excellent!

[Errol backfiring]

So if the NSA now knows of backdoors, it must inform the military so they can be patched, who will then be forced to publish the fixes. Right?

Re:Killer question

[Zaiff Urgulbunger]

Doesn't need any shutdown scripts though so that'll save space!

Re:But.... Windows 8

[aliquis]

Touch interfaces are more suitable for mines.

Re:But.... Windows 8

[ClickOnThis]

Why is Windows not an option?

The drone is about to strike a target, and suddenly the OS starts to update itself. The drone circles and circles...

Gov't in MS's pockets?

[Mathinker]

> Military drones migrating to Linux

I smell a rat. And what are all those drones going to do when they get there? Mate? Hibernate for the winter? Migration, my foot! It's all a plot by Microsoft, I say!