Advanced

Navy to focus only on open systems

Posted by Sander_Marechal on · 6 comments
FCW.com; By Peter Buxbaum 		Mail this story
Print this story

The Navy will acquire only systems based on open technologies and standards. Vice Adm. Mark Edwards, deputy chief of naval operations for communications, broke the news March 5 to a Navy IT Day audience in Vienna, Va., sponsored by AFCEA International. “The days of proprietary technology must come to an end,” he said. “We will no longer accept systems that couple hardware, software and data.”

Full Story

  Nav
» Read more about: Story Type: News Story

» Get new stories by e-mail: nightly or as they are published

« Return to the newswire homepage

  Related stories
» More like this

Comments (6)

gus3 ·
http://www.gcn.com/print/17_17/33727-1.html

Quoting:Navy brass have called the Yorktown Smart Ship pilot a success in reducing manpower, maintenance and costs. The Navy began running shipboard applications under Microsoft Windows NT so that fewer sailors would be needed to control key ship functions.

But the Navy last fall learned a difficult lesson about automation: The very information technology on which the ships depend also makes them vulnerable. The Yorktown last September suffered a systems failure when bad data was fed into its computers during maneuvers off the coast of Cape Charles, Va.

The ship had to be towed into the Naval base at Norfolk, Va., because a database overflow caused its propulsion system to fail, according to Anthony DiGiorgio, a civilian engineer with the Atlantic Fleet Technical Support Center in Norfolk.

“We are putting equipment in the engine room that we cannot maintain and, when it fails, results in a critical failure,” DiGiorgio said. It took two days of pierside maintenance to fix the problem.
(N.B.: It wasn't Windows NT that crashed, but rather a database service. Still, there's a point to be made for source access and fast fixes.)
jezuch ·
It's time to put computer specialists as part of crews. It's a great hope for me, because when it gets extended to space ships, I might be able to go "out there" and be paid for it! ;)
Scott_Ruecker ·
That's what happens when you run a warship on Windows.
ColonelPanik ·
Not the OS that is at fault, it is the "warship" concept.
SamShazaam ·
Open source has been finding its way into DOD networks for years now. This is the first effort at standardization with open source that I have heard of. It is definitely good news.
gus3 ·
Quoting:That's what happens when you run a warship on Windows.
Or worship at the altar of Windows.

Post a comment

A free account is needed to post. Write your comment here first: your text is kept in this browser while you sign up or log in, and is waiting for you when you come back.

Your message:
|||||
10
Markdown: **bold**, *italic*, [text](https://link), - lists, > quotes, $x^2$ for math. Formatting help

Sign up and post (it is free)  or  Log in and post