[Gllug] Reboots of safety-critical gear. Was: Mandrakes mad p enguin

[Jackson, Harry]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Hearns [mailto:john.hearns at framestore-cfc.com]
> > 
> 
> Harry,
> one of the recent documentaries about the Falklands dealt with the
> sinking of the Sheffield.
> If I remember the program, the Sheffield was accompanied by the
> Broadsword (?).
> The missile hit the Sheffield during a downtime, when the
> Broadsword's computer was being rebooted.
> They showed a shot of this computer - it looked like a real beefy
> piece of kit.
> Can you tell us more?
> 
> (Starting thread

If you want to read about it go here

http://www.books-for-free.co.uk/books/west/west.htm

and search for ADAWS this will land you in the paragraph that has the bits
about what happened to the Sheffield. This type of computer is still in
operation today which is scary. Its basically two massive real time
computers running in tandem. Most of the input is taken from synchros from
the radar's and gyros. This then gets processed against a floating point in
space (ships datum) to find targets firing lines ranges etc.

The king of accuracy that you can get from this is about 2mins from a 25 ton
gun turret which is the one used on our tanks today I think its a Vickers
mark 8. This equates to a target spot with a radius of 50 metres from
22000yards while on anything below sea state eight.

When people ask why is military gear so expensive this is the sort of stuff
that makes you realise that everything as far as equipment is concerned has
to be exact with no room for error. Everyone knows that most of our gear is
old but it works. The entire set up above was designed from the sixties and
is still seeing operation. I would have loved some of the yank gear though.

If you want to know anything particular about the gear mentioned on the page
let me know as I worked on quite a bit of it. I cannot tell you the ins and
outs or I would have to kill you and we all know that after the recent posts
I am not adverse to using torture or detonating large nuclear devices in my
back yard.

Harry Nukum First

Nukum First Nukum Fast that's my name and that's my moto


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