USS Zumwalt — a Guided Missile Destroyer Running On Linux 229
New submitter SanDogWeps writes "Sean Gallagher over at Ars Technica reports that when the U.S.S. Zumwalt (DDG 1000) puts to sea later this year, it will be different from any other ship in the Navy's fleet in many ways. The $3.5 billion ship is designed for stealth, survivability, and firepower, and it's packed with advanced technology. And at the heart of its operations is a virtual data center powered by off-the-shelf server hardware, various flavors of Linux, and over 6 million lines of software code. From the article: 'Called the Common Display System, or CDS (pronounced as "keds" by those who work with it), the three-screen workstations in the operations center are powered by a collection of quad-processor Intel motherboards in an armored case, which gives new meaning to the nautical phrase "toe buster." Even the commanding officer's and executive officer's chairs on the bridge have CDS workstations built-in. Each CDS system runs multiple LynxOS-based Linux virtual machines, which can run on various networks partitioned by security level and purpose. '"
Left out the best part (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Left out the best part (Score:5, Informative)
Citation [navy.mil] no longer needed.
That's pretty awesome.
Not linux (Score:4, Informative)
LynxOS is a proprietary Unix, compatible with Linux binaries.
It does not contain the Linux kernel and is closed source.
Re:Weapons purposes in license (Score:5, Informative)
Isn't there a provision in the license stating the software cannot be used for weapons purposes or something of the like?
No, and if there were then it would not be considered Open Source (clause 6 of the OSD, 'No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor').
Re:Resistant to anti-ship missles? (Score:2, Informative)
The arms race changes day-to-day, but AFAIK, the CIWS system, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS [wikipedia.org], when armed, is quite capable of handling current airborne missiles.
Re:And? (Score:4, Informative)
Hey, when you signed on to open source you agreed you had no control over what it ended up being used for.
Indeed, and for good reason. There are almost limitless ways in which a software author might want to discriminate against fields of use, and no prospect of achieving global consensus on what should or should not be allowed. One of the key benefits of Open Source is that you don't have to read the licence of every single package you install to find out whether it is safe to use. The most practicable way to achieve this is to prohibit restrictions on what you can use the software for.
Re:Not linux (Score:5, Informative)
LynxOS is a proprietary Unix, compatible with Linux binaries.
It does not contain the Linux kernel and is closed source.
And I didn't see anywhere in the summary or article that said runs Linux exclusively. The component they refer to as running LynxOS is only one part of the whole.
FTA:
mostly IBM blade servers running Red Hat Linux—and putting it in a ruggedized server room. Those ruggedized server rooms are called Electronic Modular Enclosures (EMEs), sixteen self-contained, mini data centers built by Raytheon.
I'm pretty sure anything called Red Hat Linux is going to contain the Linux kernel.
Re:Resistant to anti-ship missles? (Score:4, Informative)
It's primarily fire support for marine assaults. During the Gulf War, the last battleships left in service, the Iowa class, served in a fire support and artillery role for shore based forces. This proved to be very effective, as the Mark 7 16" guns delivered a lot of firepower faster and cheaper than missiles and could do it pretty quickly, and redirect said fire more quickly than it took to program a firing solution into the cruise missiles.
However, we retired the battleships as they were ancient relics. In addition, they had limited range; the Mark 7s could fire about 38 kms. Current naval fire support is done through the 5" Mark 45 guns on the DDG51s, but those have even less range (about 20 or so kms) and deliver smaller payloads.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Gun_System
The Zumwalt is designed around this weapon system. It fires 10 rounds per minute, using a 155mm shell which is the same shell used by land based artillery. It has a range of 100+ kms and is accurate to 50 meters. This would significantly extend the capabilities of shore based operations. The stealth isn't so much for defense as for offense; if the enemy is aware of the ship they'll move out of the area. So effectively this destroyer is a stealthy highly mobile long range artillery platform.