Slashdot Mirror
Software Bug in F-35 Radar Causes Mid-Flight System Reboot
Reader Lisandro writes: The F-35 Fighter jet can't seem to catch a break. An advanced AN/APG-81 AESA F35 radar system has been found riddled with a software bug that causes it to degrade and stop working. The solution? Rebooting the system while in the air.
Major General Jeffrey Harrigian, director of the Air Force's F-35 integration office at the Pentagon, was quoted as saying "radar stability - the radar's ability to stay up and running. [...] What would happen is they'd get a signal that says either a radar degrade or a radar fail - "something that would force us to restart the radar." The issue was spotted in late 2015, and thankfully, it was caught during the testing period. The software version "3i" is affected. An update aimed to resolve the bug is expected to be delivered to the US Air Force by the end of March.
Major General Jeffrey Harrigian, director of the Air Force's F-35 integration office at the Pentagon, was quoted as saying "radar stability - the radar's ability to stay up and running. [...] What would happen is they'd get a signal that says either a radar degrade or a radar fail - "something that would force us to restart the radar." The issue was spotted in late 2015, and thankfully, it was caught during the testing period. The software version "3i" is affected. An update aimed to resolve the bug is expected to be delivered to the US Air Force by the end of March.
Software Bug in F-35 Radar Causes Mid-Flight System Reboot
Alarmist headline.
First of all, the bug doesn't cause a reboot. It requires a reboot to put the radar back into a useable state.
Secondly, it is only the radar system that needs rebooting.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
As others below have mentioned, it is very difficult to formally verify large complex systems. However, it is made even more complex in that there aren't enough research results to cover such a system in its complexity. Also, computer scientists tend to think the world revolves around their code, so if they get that correct, then the system will run correctly. The real world isn't like that, and it is not all captured in software, much of the system is hardware. Trying to capture the correct interaction between hardware and software is very, very hard...and it isn't clear that even if you could that you could verify the result before the universe dies.
I don't feel like watching the video, because based on the Defense Response it is the normal F-35 hachet job by journalists. I've heard the same arguments again and again.
First off the F-35 was never meant to be a primary air supremacy fighter, it was meant to be a multi-role stealth strike thus the deficiencies in ACM are to be expected. It is sacrificing wing area to get an internal weapons bay large enough to fit a 2,000lb JDAM. Something that the F-22 can't do. It also has a much longer range than other fighter aircraft, literally 50% more on internal fuel than the F-16 with drop tanks, and the F-22 on internal fuel.
Second though the specs don't seem impressive compared to the hot rod that is are the F-16, and F-15. But neither of those aircraft are going to reach their max speeds and altitudes with a war load. Those specs were tested with no armaments on the hardpoints and no drop tanks (with exception of the F-16 where wingtip missiles reduce wing flutter). While the F-35 going to be capable of nearly reaching its specs with an actual warload in the aircraft, and that includes super cruise. Granted the specs might be down rated somewhat from the initial contract specs, but that is to be expected as they often don't know the exact weights of all the third party systems to be installed on the aircraft (some were yet to be developed when the contract was written).
Third the expected price of the aircraft is inline with the F-35 competitors, who are all non-stealth aircraft. The F-15SE is brought up as a replacement for the F-35 by some critics, saying it would be cheaper than the F-35. Well the F-15K which has a similar electronics suite as the F-35, cost the ROK $100M each. Compared to the current LRIP production cost of the F-35 at $90-100M each, with the full rate production cost to be in $90M. The Eurofighter cost just short $90M each. So the price for a stealth strike aircraft is actually inline with competitors.
Fourth Canada made another stupid decision with canceling the F-35. They did so without selecting a replacement. The CF-18 nearly at the end of their service lives if they haven't reached it already. And likely will become another Sea King with the replacement used as political football between the ruling parties until if has killed enough aircrews that both parties agree "Perhaps we should actually replace these eh?"
actually "rebooting", ie, flipping the power switch or circuit breaker, isn't at all uncommon on avionics equipment on military aircraft.
we aren't talking about typical computers that go through a boot process anyway. this is ruggedized equipment that largely lacks any thing resembling an operating system or RAM or much else a typical Slashdot reader would be familiar with.
anyone who's spent any time working on military aircraft as a maintainer, particularly the avionics systems, knows that inflight glitches are not at all infrequent. and when they pop up on the Master Caution* or elsewhere, often the first corrective action the pilot takes is to power cycle the specific piece of equipment. most every system is on its own breaker, and pilots are trained in what can and what cannot be power cycled in flight. the majority of the time, that's enough to fix the glitch.
and typically the first thing that happens when the pilot returns is a rep from each of the main work shops (avionics, flightline, airframes, ordinance, life support) meets him as he is exiting his aircraft, in order to ask if any gripes came up during the flight. this way they can get a jump on it before the pilot even gets back to the maintenance control to write the maintenance order describing the glitch.
there a thousands of wires, with hundreds of connectors, each connector a cannon plug consisting of several dozen pins, any one of which could have gotten slightly bent (or even broken) upon reconnection, making an imperfect electrical connection or faulty data bus signal (depending on system). Or a wire may fall out of the backend of the pin from a faulty installation of the retainer of the cannon plug. or the plug itself may be not quite fully seated; you'd think it would be easy, but there's a reason we have cannon plug pliers (aka "bi*ch grips"). There's also millions of solder joints and splices that can fatigue from vibration. sometimes a contact simply gets dirty cause oil or grease (we wipe everything constantly, but still happens).
(*speaking of PITA to maintain: due its nature, being tied into EVERYTHING (hundreds, sometimes thousands, of feet of wiring, depending on aircraft type), the Master Caution Panel (MCP) itself is often the actual point of failure, throwing false indications. one of the first things we frequently did in tracing a gripe was to first eliminate the MCP itself)
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
Yep, Russia meddled and took part of Georgia because the evil U.S. was there. And they decided to steal part of the Ukraine for the same reason.
Because the US State Department spending $5 billion to "influence" the political situation in a country directly on Russia's border couldn't *possibly* provoke a response, right? Crimea is one of Russia's few warm-water ports and an essential link to the Mediterranean. How do you think the US would respond to political instability in Panama, especially if it was caused by another major world power? Oh wait, we already know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
And those islands in the S. China Sea, why Vietnam and the other nations to which they are closer are only doing the bidding of the U.S. hence the need for China to militarize them.
Something like 80% of the sea traffic going through the SCS is either to or from China. China, which is ~20% of humanity, compared to ~2% combined for Vietnam and the Philippines. Do the Needs of the Many and the Greater Good not apply? And US think tanks have written extensively about strangling raw material imports to China in the event of a conflict. Yeah, no way the Chinese might have a rational self-interest in securing the lifeline to their economy in their own backyard.
. And Assad of Syria, we just know he was playing secret footsie with Americans before he decided to slaughter his people and chase a few million out of the country.
Don't you think Assad would rather have a few million additional taxpayers contributing to his economy, even if significant portions of them are the unhappy Sunni majority? He certainly seemed to be getting along fine in 2010. Funny how the provision of funding, foreign fighters, and weapons from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey (all Sunni states) roughly coincides with Assad's refusal to allow the planned Qatari/Saudi pipelines across his country. Pipelines to Europe that would undercut his patron Russia's economic interests.
On a related note, do you express as much disgust at the suppression of popular dissent in Bahrain, or is that ok because King Hamad of Bahrain "is our man"?