Royal Navy goes with 'Windows for Subs'
(Credit:
MOD)
Bucking the open-source trend, the British Royal Navy has developed a modified version of Microsoft Windows XP and has begun installing it on its fleet of nuclear submarines.
The new Submarine Command System Next Generation (SMCS NG) employs standard multifunction consoles with double LCD screens, linked with "commercial grade" cables and software to internal Ethernet local area networks (LANs) aboard each sub.
Ever thrifty, the spit-and-baling-wire Brits went with Windows in part because it was cheaper to maintain. The use of commercial off-the-shelf technology is expected to save the U.K. taxpayers up to $32 million over the next 10 years -- or about one-thousandth of the operating costs of a Vanguard class submarine, according to one estimate.
"This is a fantastic achievement," Capt. Pat O'Neill said in a press release. "From speaking to operators and maintainers, I know how much they like SMCS NG. BAE Systems' work is proof that we can get commercial off the shelf technology to sea quickly and support it affordably."
The Royal Navy, working with defense contractor BAE Systems, installed an entire Windows SMCS NG LAN on the HMS Vigilant in a mere 18 days, according to BAE.
Training time is faster as well. Given that Windows runs on approximately 85 percent of the world's PCs, there is a good chance sailors are familiar with it. However, so are hackers -- both the amateur and the cyber warfare pro variety. Not a problem, according to BAE, since all hack-prone elements of Windows "were tended to during the modification."
Meanwhile the Yanks, citing better security and more versions to choose from, continue to go all-in with Linux to boot up both warships and the long awaited Future Combat Systems. But then, they still drive on the wrong side of the road.
Mark Rutherford is a West Coast-based freelance writer. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Email him at markr@milapp.com. Disclosure. 
Not "LOL VISTA IS BLOAT, XP SLEEPS WITH MOM SO IT ROOLS".
"since all hack-prone elements of Windows "were tended to during the modification."" I also wonder how this will play out. No software is hack-proof.
XP was chosen because of the development cycle of the software. Military hardware/software have a very slow development cycle compared to civilian. Basically if they used Vista the testing process would take so long that we would be looking at Windows 8 before it was finished. Despite rabid fanboy opinion the choice of XP has nothing to do with the merits of Vista. If it did then you could apply the same logic to why OSX and other *nix OSs weren't chosen.
Nothing could have really been gained by the additional Vista security features in this scenario. Again.. no public network, physically secured environment etc..
Portions of the American Aegis system run on NT 4.0 kernels with Java. The thing is bloated, crappy, and incredibly slow but it does exactly what it is supposed to and does so reliably. The US military was also using DOS and Kermit (if you even remember what that was) up through the Windows 98 days.
I do agree, XP is smart in terms of tried and true due to its age.
Of course the real villain pulling their strings will be revealed to be none other than (wait for it ...) Bill Gates himself. It's the classic story of a bajillionaire megalomaniac seeking to destroy every city on the globe with a current or planned Apple Store who simply couldn't afford the time necessary to construct his own fleet of submarines and acquire nuclear missiles. Instead, he hijacks what he needs from an unsuspecting British Government after convincing them to install a modified version of XP which allows him to control their fleet from his brown Zune. Gates is ultimately foiled when Bond allows himself to be captured by Gates so he can squirt missile tracking coordinates into Gates' Zune, turning Gates into the first target.
Imagine a bluescreen of death during a practice session, or at the wrong time when they are trying to cancel an attack command.
Also doesn't the UK have disagreements with M$ being a monopoly and some other stuff. I mean now they are allowing the monopoly to start controlling their subs. I bet some high ranking admirals are making some pretty good cash from this transaction.
As to the reason why windows XP was chosen over Vista, its because Vista is not that great and it is still relatively new. I laugh when you say that anything in windows is better than an open source distro. Yes you can screw things up in an open source solution, but windows has flaws that are unrecoverable from unless you pay M$ a bunch of money instead of hiring your own staff that are subjugated to confidentiality agreements.
Just think about this why would you install software in government systems that are made from a company that isn't native to your soil and on your side in a potential conflict. Heck to make matters worse you just gave access of all your subs to a company so they can nuke their competition or did u not read the fine printing in the license agreement.
'Unrecoverable' in this case means having to do a complete reinstall just to get it running. I'm one of the lucky ones. I used XP for years and never saw a bsod. However, I have had viruses, I have had trojans, I have to run antivirus, antimalware and system cleaner software just to keep it running smoothly. The danger isn't so much in the viruses, it's in how quickly the system needs a defrag. Imagine someone makes a single mistake, clicks the wrong box or the wrong button, arming a nuclear warhead and launching it, but luckily there's a countdown. You think there's enough time to stop the launch by running the failsafe program, so you double click. Now it just has to load up in time to stop the launch and you're done. What you don't know is that nobody has run a defrag in the past year and now the system is so messed up it takes twice as long to load the program. Two seconds after the nukes are launched, the program loads, but there's no way to turn them off remotely because that would be a backdoor for hackers. Millions of people just died because Windows needed a defrag.
If I had to trust my life to an operating system, Windows (in any form) would be far down the list.
Or did the comment "all hack-prone elements of Windows were tended to during the modification" mean they redesigned the OS from the ground up, removing the plethora of security issues woven into the fabric of the OS?
Now, let's see how soon "THE CONCORDE" flies COMMERCIALLY - again!
"And, You Can Have Whatever You Like"!
Ironic that a ship where you avoid leaving holes open will run on Windows. Lordy I hope they don't have any nukes being handled with it! :)
Cheaper to maintain since when?
the resulting renewed interest in Bomb shelters.
It's scary enough trusting Windows with my files, but nuclear submarines?
Thats bloody scary old chap.
the resulting renewed interest in Bomb shelters.
It's scary enough trusting Windows with my files, but nuclear submarines?
Thats bloody scary old chap....". Better this, it is time for Commander_Spock and Crew and the makers of "THE CONCORDE" to restart the commercial business operations for getting "rich" interested persons as "fast"; and, as "far" away as possible if they feel that unsafe. The simple question: "Money" or "'Fly Away On The Concorde For For Your Life"? Ah Ha! (Smile)!
"Though originally most traffic drove on the left worldwide, today about 34% of the world's people live in left-traffic countries and 66% in right-traffic countries. About 28% of the world's total road distance carries traffic on the left, and 72% on the right."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_on_the_left_or_right
- by AppleSuxLeo December 30, 2008 12:35 AM PST
- Windows XP...is there anything it CAN`T do ?
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