Chinese UAV & UCAV development
- Thread starter AssassinsMace
- Start date
My father had a company that was making IR and Spectral photography from a light plane (Piper Cherokee ) and had tested that in Kuwait after the first Gulf war to remove Iraqi mines. It's possible to find mines with IR imaging but big metallic one (anti-tank) are way easier to find than light composite ones...
The MC-12 used by the US in a nutshell puts EO-IR sensors on a King Air (twin-engine turboprop) to detect land mines and more importantly IEDs. MC-12s have been used extensively throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, they just don't get that much publicity because the mission isn't as "sexy" as dropping bombs and providing close air support.
So yes the technology definitely is out there, and I definitely think it makes sense to use UAVs as a host for such technology to support troops on the ground.
System checks at the factory...
Microsoft Windows? I wouldn't use that in any safety critical environment.
by78
Brigadier
China has had access to Windows' source code for almost 20 years. I'm sure it's been thoroughly audited before being put to use. Fundamentally, for limited applications such as this, Windows can be very reliable because it's not loaded down with general purpose software. The Swedes use windows on their Visby class. Granted, it's not the most ideal, but it's more than sufficient, for now. A Chinese high-security OS is coming very soon (a linux distro) in a matter of months. The military will have to adopt it for internal use, but export customers might continue to get Windows.
t2contra
Major
Would it be safe if stripped of its internet connectivity but retaining its intranet one?
It is still dangerous. Read the essay "Reflections on Trusting Trust". Let's say the Chinese have the Windows source code and that they compile it themselves. But do they also have the source code for the compiler they use to compile Windows and do they know if the compiler they used to compile that compiler wasn't tainted? It could be the compiler is adding backdoors even if the code itself seems to be clean.
windows is complied by C++, VC despite is Microsoft owned, but C++ compiler is open-sourced...
by78
Brigadier
Like I said, it's not ideal. As far as I know, these mission critical systems aren't connected to the world wide web, which helps... a lot. Anyway, the secure OS is coming. All government agencies, branches, and non-private sector entities are to ditch Windows within two years. It's a done deal.
*Heavily* modified windows. + All these systems are "off-grid".