Lockheed's F-22 Raptor Gets Zapped by International Date Line

DailyTech LLC ^ | February 26, 2007 | Brandon Hill

[SubGeniusX]

Six Lockheed F-22 Raptors have Y2K-esque glitch of their own over the Pacific

Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor is the most advanced fighter in the world with its stealth capabilities, advanced radar, state of the art weapons systems and ultra-efficient turbofans which allow the F-22 to "supercruise" at supersonic speeds without an afterburner. The Raptor has gone up against the best that the US Air Force and Navy has to offer taking out F-15s, F-16s and F/A-18 Super Hornets during simulated war games in Alaska. The Raptor-led "Blue Air" team was able to rack up an impressive 241-to-2 kill ratio during the exercise against the "Red Air" threat -- the two kills on the blue team were from the 30-year old F-15 teammates and not the new Raptors.

But while the simulated war games were a somewhat easy feat for the Raptor, something more mundane was able to cripple six aircraft on a 12 to 15 hours flight from Hawaii to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. The U.S. Air Force's mighty Raptor was felled by the International Date Line (IDL).

When the group of Raptors crossed over the IDL, multiple computer systems crashed on the planes. Everything from fuel subsystems, to navigation and partial communications were completely taken offline. Numerous attempts were made to "reboot" the systems to no avail.

Luckily for the Raptors, there were no weather issues that day so visibility was not a problem. Also, the Raptors had their refueling tankers as guide dogs to "carry" them back to safety. "They needed help. Had they gotten separated from their tankers or had the weather been bad, they had no attitude reference. They had no communications or navigation," said Retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd. "They would have turned around and probably could have found the Hawaiian Islands. But if the weather had been bad on approach, there could have been real trouble.”

"The tankers brought them back to Hawaii. This could have been real serious. It certainly could have been real serious if the weather had been bad," Shepperd continued. "It turned out OK. It was fixed in 48 hours. It was a computer glitch in the millions of lines of code, somebody made an error in a couple lines of the code and everything goes."

Luckily for the pilots behind the controls of the Raptors, they were not involved in a combat situation. Had they been, it could have been a disastrous folly by the U.S. Air Force to have to admit that their aircraft which cost $125+ million USD apiece were knocked out of the sky due to a few lines of computer code. "And luckily this time we found out about it before combat. We got it fixed with tiger teams in about 48 hours and the airplanes were flying again, completed their deployment. But this could have been real serious in combat," said Shepperd.

[SubGeniusX]

scary .....

[driftdiver]

And that is why they test the things. Its simple but mulitply simple by a million and things get pretty darn hairy.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

ping.

[Nathan Zachary]

Stupid

It's simple things that are ALWAYS the curse that brings down an otherwise suppurb accumulation of engineering.
Someone didn't start the KISS program

[justshutupandtakeit]

wow. Another reminder that the most complicated war machines can be brought down by dumbassed errors.

[JRios1968]

[Anti-Bubba182]

Every new system has glitches. It is the same, although with less disaster potential, with new car models or anything else.

[BenLurkin]

Good grief!

Well, "The fancier they make the plumbing..."

[llevrok]

what's next? The new daylight saving time zapping them?

[adorno]

I haven't seen any of those blue screens since 1998.

Regarding the F22..

Seems like something somebody at the programming and systems level should've caught long ago, even before construction of the first F-22.

[fremont_steve]

heck - possibly not the first time. There is a story about the F16 flipping to inverted flight after crossing the date line from years back. Don't the varsity of the story, but it's certainly been told a number of times.

[SubGeniusX]

ROFLMAO....

That sir was beautiful

[SubGeniusX]

I haven't seen any of those blue screens since 1998.

You switched to a MAC in '98 then?

[Jorge]

This is so stupid it's almost funny.

[Zeroisanumber]

"Who would have though that a state-of-the-art stealth jet could be so complicated?"

[JB in Whitefish]

Bill Gates will be releasing the NEW & IMPROVED RAPTOR F-22.1b pretty soon.

[comes with a free Zune, from what I understand...]

[Greystoke]

I haven't seen any of those blue screens since 1998

You don't have Vista yet do you?

[bpjam]

For me personally, I am religiously unable to 'Don't The Varsity' on this story. But I remain stuned that it is even possible.

But I'm sure you will under....

[Tallguy]

Wait till they cross the equator the first time & they transition from polywogs to shellbacks...

[brooklin]

Do these planes really have nothing"analog" on them for back-up at least?

This seems too stupid.

[Ramius]

Uh... this sounds like an urban legend to me. The dateline appears on maps, not in the air.

I can't see how it would have any effect whatsoever.

[staytrue]

U.S. Air Force to have to admit that their aircraft which cost $125+ million USD apiece were knocked out of the sky due to a few lines of computer code.

Cylons infiltrated the US defense dept.

[driftdiver]

"There is a story about the F16 flipping to inverted flight after crossing the date line from years back."

I remember reading one notice on the bulletin board of an fighter doing an uncommanded loop shortly before final approach.

Whats more concerning is that this info was released. Shouldn't this be a secret?

[Candor7]

Sorry, I do not believe this quite.

[Desron13]

Remember that bridge in California that looked like it would last for the next two hundred years but came down disastrously in the first severe wind storm due to unforeseen harmonics built into it's most basic structure?

[darkangel82]

LOL!
The blue screen of death strikes again.

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

Cool!

I love errors like this ... that get resolved by eyesite and VFR tactics.....

Sobering. Very, very sobering.

But remember, had this been a even more difficult mission (in space, trying to take out a colliding asteroid (remember the multiple errors that have wiped out several Martian and Venusian unmanned flights), or an uncomplicated military like stopping a plain merchant ship from mining LA harbor (oops - the China own that one, and THEY won't let it be mined) or Panama (nope, Chinese own that one too) or .....

People's flexibility, if they're properly trained - Armstrong flew the lunar lander away from boulders at the pre-programmed site! - can make up for many computer errors.

[RightWhale]

Got to hate it when this happens. Some low level programmer may have sent a memo on this problem five years ago and got his ears pinned back for thanks.

[adorno]

You switched to a MAC in '98 then?

Nope!

Just pure old reliable Windows, then Win2000 Pro and XP-Pro.

What's a MAC, by the way?

[sevenbak]

By Your Command...

[b4its2late]

And we thought Y2K was nonsense.......

[BillM]

I have always carried a handheld GPS when I flew since they were made available.

It's awfully nice to have something that the aircraft and avionics designer don't know about!

Having said that, I hope they at least had a standby horizon!

[Ramius]

It's amazing how people will believe anything they read, even if it is just on some blog.

[Tallguy]

Sorry, I do not believe this quite.

Now that you mention it, isn't this what "Zulu Time" is for? Once in flight it seems that the only time that is relevant is GMT (Zulu). Am I right?

[buckalfa]

Does Russia still produce MIGs with vacumn tubes in the circuitry? The idea was to keep the fighters airborne in case of EMP.

[adorno]

You don't have Vista yet do you?

Not yet! But I'm pretty sure that both you and I will have it on our computers within 1 or 2 years.

[sevenbak]

My Mac? My mac is the the fastest windows machine I've ever tried!

[theFIRMbss]

>When the group of Raptors crossed over the IDL, multiple computer systems crashed on the planes. Everything from fuel subsystems, to navigation and partial communications were completely taken offline. Numerous attempts were made to "reboot" the systems to no avail

I could have told them
Google's net avionics
didn't come complete

with all the bells and
whistles as the Microsoft
real stand-alone apps!

[Paleo Conservative]

I thought issues like this were supposed to be discovered on the test bed. Someone's got some splainin' to do.

If you want on or off my aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail.

[Zeroisanumber]

Does Russia still produce MIGs with vacumn tubes in the circuitry? The idea was to keep the fighters airborne in case of EMP.

You know, I have no idea. I can sometimes identify a jet on sight, but when it comes to how they're built I'm about as helpless as poor Homer.

[RightWhale]

Sure, but there is still the International Date Line.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

There is a story about the F16 flipping to inverted flight after crossing the date line from years back.

Early versions of the F-16's software would have caused it to invert when it crossed the equator. The problem was discovered during simulations.

Considering it this was once a pretty famous "bug" - it was cited in a lot of presentations about software quality assurance - one can only conclude that a new generation of software engineers had never heard of it.

-------

The F-16 was also supposed to have been the aircraft with the almost-as-famous in the software industry "wheels up" programing error:

http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/3.44.html#subj1

[Cogadh na Sith]

I do not believe this quite

It's true as written.

I work for the Air Force. I am a Software Safety Engineer (on a different program I hasten to add!).

We are now trusting SW produced by industry by 'Extreme Programming', or 'Scrum' techniques to perform safety critical functions. This is what happens.

The FAA has lots of SW design and test stipulations to prevent this on commericial planes, but the military went to a 'best industry practices', vice tight SW design/test regs under 'Acquisition Reform'.

This kinda thing happens occasionally and will get more frequent....

[Tribune7]

My bet is that it's BS.

[KarlInOhio]

what's next? The new daylight saving time zapping them?

[geopyg]

Back when Amelia Earhart was flying around the world, the island she was trying to land on (Howland Island) was on a 1/2 hour shifted clock. The Navy ship a few miles off Howland was using a clock referenced to Hawaii time and was on an hour shift. (Ship time was 1100, island time 1130 or something). I forget what clock Earhart was using, but it was an hour shifted - perhaps referenced to Papau New Gueani (sp) Time

The ship had higher freq. communications and would attempt to contact Earhart at 15 min. and 45 min. past the hour, while the island had low freq. communications and would try contacts at the hour and half hour.

Earhart had to switch between the frequencies at the proper times, plus trying to use a tracking beacon frequency..

They figure the miscommunication of the time was one of the numerous problems that led to Earhart missing Howland Island. Based on the investigation of the Earhart disappearance everything military and shipping, etc. went over to GMT.

[LasVegasMac]

now that was good!

[BurbankKarl]

uh....I dont believe this story at all.

[USNBandit]

There is some coating on the canopy of newer tactical aircraft that doesn't allow the use of hand held GPS units.

I used to use one all the time flying F-14A's because our INS was so bad.