Not good sign in term of nuclear weapons
 

Britain's Nuclear Submarine will be running on MS Windows.

Link to the Article

Do you really want to launch theronuclear device?

(Okay) (Cancel)

How long before some sailor surfing for porn downloads a virus, which screws up the launch system resulting in the accidental nuking of England? Or someplace important.

Re: Not good sign in term of nuclear weapons
 

This is not good at all. I say that the US asks for the missiles back (they're owned by the US) until they start running the computers on a more reliable OS like Unix.

I just hope that Pete Townsend is not currently a submariner with the Royal Navy.

Imagine a system crash during a nuclear exercise. Or the "blue screen."

Not to mention how vulnerable Windows can be to viruses. That is really scary.

You know every hackers in the world will be trying to hack into the system.

[WOPR (robotic voice)]"Do you want to play a game?"[/WOPR]

One hopes that will never happen.

US ICBM launch control centers have a similar setup called REACT (Rapid Execution And Combat Targeting), sometimes derisively called "Windows for Warheads". The actual release of nukes does not rely on a computer. (REACT does not use Windoze.)

More information on REACT: http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/c3i/react.htm

REACT makes it easier to monitor the status of and re-target ICBMs in minutes

BTW, Britain does own and control the nukes and the missiles aboard their SSBNs. It was back in the 1960s that the US owned and controlled the nukes and Britain owned the land-based Thor IRBM missiles.

More information on the British nukes:
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/uk/slbm/index.html

Practically EVERY aspect of nuclear command and control requires a minimum "two-person concept" - no one person can be present in an area where nukes are present, nor arm or launch nukes. The movie Crimson Tide shows (if you remove the Hollywood dramatics and implausible scenario that could never happen in real life) how a nuclear control order is received, authenticated and executed.

And now you know.......and knowing's half the battle!!

J/K Chuck :D

Kitso
KS 361 times the idea of the Brits having nukes run on Windows scares me a lot less than Saddam maybe-possibly having the capabilities to have them

giving a new definition to the blue screen fo death.

Oh crap. If they're using Windows, we're totally screwed.