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Pentagon: F-35 Software Remains Seriously Flawed
defenseone.com ^ | January 30, 2014 | Bob Brewin

Posted on 02/14/2014 4:28:52 PM PST by ilovesarah2012

The $397 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program suffers from such severe software problems that aircraft could not conduct operational missions today, the Pentagon’s chief tester said in his annual report to Congress, which was released to the public yesterday.

Contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. develops the F-35 software in three blocks. The first is designed to support training, followed by a second block for initial combat operations. The final block for full combat operations is expected in 2019, 23 years after the Pentagon signed the contract to acquire just under 2,500 of the aircraft for all four services.

The report from J. Michael Gilmore, director of operational test and evaluation for Defense, said Lockheed Martin delivered an incremental version of the Block 2 F-35 software for installation on the Air Force F-35A variant and the Marine Corps F-35B vertical takeoff aircraft in early 2013, but that software was far from complete.

(Excerpt) Read more at defenseone.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: aerospace
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To: Arlis

Thats video game footage....


21 posted on 02/14/2014 6:02:14 PM PST by panzerkamphwageneinz
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To: Arlis

That’s not real. It’s a video capture from Battlefield 2.


22 posted on 02/14/2014 6:33:57 PM PST by scramjet (I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.)
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To: miliantnutcase

We should stop throwing more and more money down this bottomless pit.

Kill it. Kill it now, kill it good and hard, and be done with it.

I’m on the record here at FR as having promised you all that the costs of this white elephant would go through the roof. It was inevitable merely as an engineering project - never mind the issue of being a fighter, or being a defense project for allied nations, etc. The engineering aspects of this project make it 100% certain that it will be an expensive failure.


23 posted on 02/14/2014 7:21:19 PM PST by NVDave
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To: OneWingedShark
The F-22 would’ve been a better investment.

And the F-23.

24 posted on 02/14/2014 7:23:30 PM PST by Sirius Lee (All that is required for evil to advance is for government to do "something")
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To: panzerkamphwageneinz

Sure fooled me and my friend that sent it to me - thanks......


25 posted on 02/14/2014 7:52:10 PM PST by Arlis
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To: ilovesarah2012
somewhere, PukinDog is laughing...
26 posted on 02/14/2014 8:54:27 PM PST by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: ilovesarah2012

We are so scr**ed.


27 posted on 02/14/2014 8:57:43 PM PST by Eagles6 (Valley Forge Redux)
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To: OneWingedShark
As a C/C++ weenie, I agree entirely. Mission critical code that involves lives need to be in Ada or MISRA C or something safer than C/C++. Barring that, a *whole* lot more testing and review need to be done than what appears to have been done so far on this codebase.

FRegards,
PrairieDawg
28 posted on 02/14/2014 9:09:00 PM PST by PrairieDawg (This space for rent.)
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To: PrairieDawg
As a C/C++ weenie, I agree entirely. Mission critical code that involves lives need to be in Ada or MISRA C or something safer than C/C++. Barring that, a *whole* lot more testing and review need to be done than what appears to have been done so far on this codebase.

I hear what you're saying; from my POV though it seems that design is what's skimped on in "the industry" -- granted, I've never been involved in a safety-critical codebase such as aviation, but there seems to be a lot of we don't have time to do it right, we need to do it quick mentality that seems to discourage up-front planning. (Indeed, it seems to discourage using the right-tool-for-the-job and encouraging a "sledgehammer"/continuous-debugging method of development and discourage training.)

I'm very impressed/excited about the new Ada 2012 standard which lets you do something like this:

    -- SSN format: ###-##-####
    Subtype Social_Security_Number is String(1..11)
      with Dynamic_Predicate =>
        (for all Index in Social_Security_Number'Range =>
          (case Index is
           when 4|7 => Social_Security_Number(Index) = '-',
           when others => Social_Security_Number(Index) in '0'..'9'
          )
         );
Which ensures a SSN is properly formatted on parameters and return-values of the Social_Security_Number subtype (you can also check with String_Var in Social_Security_Number); there's also pre-/post-conditions, type-invariants and other nice design-by-contract stuff that (unlike annotated comments) won't go stale.
29 posted on 02/14/2014 9:36:49 PM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: OneWingedShark
Maybe the availability of the GNAT toolchain will get people to play more with Ada. The 2012 version has some OO constructs AND all the safety (Ravenscar profile, etc) stuff that is needed. Plus, in my experience (limited though it is) I've seen that if you can *compile* an Ada program, it'll almost always do what you thought it would (less debug due to more stringent compiler). Hmm. Maybe I'll go download the latest and do some playing...

Fregards,
PrairieDawg
30 posted on 02/14/2014 9:58:25 PM PST by PrairieDawg (This space for rent.)
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To: PrairieDawg

Nobody wanted the P-51 when if first (A model) came out . The D model finally achieved what we wanted


31 posted on 02/14/2014 11:59:47 PM PST by Eaglefixer
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To: ilovesarah2012

I wonder how many new requirements were made while the software was being developed. I’ve seen government jobs go really bad because some idiots decided to stay abreast of the cutting edge far after the fact. The only way to really do it is to start anew each time, but the same idiots don’t understand that so they aid and abet the company in taking lots of money for a crappy product.


32 posted on 02/15/2014 4:22:14 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: trebb

It’s one thing to have a crappy healthcare website, it’s another to have a crappy F-35.


33 posted on 02/15/2014 5:37:49 AM PST by ilovesarah2012
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To: Eaglefixer

for every P-51 there is an XF-85


34 posted on 02/15/2014 7:05:49 AM PST by class8601_nuke (don't just be critical, be prompt critical.)
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To: PrairieDawg

You’ll want to make sure you use assertions enabled; the new design-by-contract aspects use the assertion mechanism.
I typically use “-O3 -gnat12 -gnato -fstack-check -gnatE -gnata” as my switches.


35 posted on 02/15/2014 7:26:07 AM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: OneWingedShark
Thanks - I copied them down and will give them a go. I'll probably restart with John Barnes 2005 book and then go look at the 2012 updates to see what's going on. Thanks again!

FRegards,
PrairieDawg
36 posted on 02/15/2014 9:19:40 AM PST by PrairieDawg (This space for rent.)
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