Re: F-22 Raptor software problem

["Alex R. Mosteo" <devnull@mailinator.com>]

Hyman Rosen wrote:

> It's being reported (Slashdot, via CNN) that twelve of these
> planes had their navigation and communications completely shut
> down as they crossed the international date line while flying
> from Hawaii to Japan. I believe much of the plane's software
> is in Ada, but I have no details as to what caused the error.

Linky to slashdot:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/25/2038217

"The new US stealth fighter, the F-22 Raptor, was deployed for the first time
to Asia earlier this month. On Feb. 11, twelve Raptors flying from Hawaii to
Japan were forced to turn back when a software glitch crashed all of the
F-22s' on-board computers as they crossed the international date line. The
delay in arrival in Japan was previously reported, with rumors of problems
with the software. CNN television, however, this morning reported that every
fighter completely lost all navigation and communications when they crossed
the international date line. They reportedly had to turn around and follow
their tankers by visual contact back to Hawaii. According to the CNN story, if
they had not been with their tankers, or the weather had been bad, this would
have been serious. CNN has not put up anything on their website yet."

The summary is, they say in the comments, incorrect, since the F22 relies in
computers for control so a crash of "all on-board computers" would have been
quite a bigger problem.