Posted on 03/15/2007 4:35:28 PM PDT by IonImplantGuru
Recently, American F-22 fighters were sent, for the first time, across the Pacific, to Japan, for a training exercise. This would be the first time the aircraft would cross the International Date line, where it is tomorrow, and the aircraft's GPS and navigation software would handle the date change.
There were problems.
All off a sudden the software that ran the navigation and communications systems wasn't working too well. Being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this was a problem. Some of the pilots were able to reboot their software and make the problem go away, but this did not always work, so all the aircraft turned around and returned to Hawaii. Those aircraft that still had malfunctioning navigation software, followed other aircraft back.
The contractor quickly found and fixed the problem (the routines for crossing the International Date Line, and changing the date, were not well thought out and tested.)
To quote Murphy's Law; "Whatever can go wrong, will, and at the worst possible time."
That worries me, big time. They've already practiced this whole routine.
I have always thought that the Chicoms were behind the sudden malfunction and disappearance of the Galaxy IV satellite. Mysterious "malfunctions" was the excuse given to the public, but no real explanation.
Ever since Clinton sold them the technology via a convoluted route for them to contribute to his campaign, I have been waiting for the "other shoe to drop".
Ping!
The inertial navigation does not need outside help after it is initialized for position. (you only have to give it a starting point, and it figures out the rest.
Dumb question here. Why do military aircraft care what the local time is? I thought they operated on Greenwich Mean (Zulu?) time.
The F-22 was their "golden project", funny to see how LM management wins again.
Cheers,
CSG
Scotty: "Aye, sir. The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."
I swear to God, who the hell released this type of information?????
You're wrong; they keep a sextant in their flight bags.
"Mistakes were made..." Hey, shit happens at any price. Question is, what to do about it. Apparently, this was an easy fix and all planes returned safely. I doubt, in a dogfight, pilots would be wondering where they were as much as they want to know where the other guy is.
I am aware of the satellites we have. We can turn them off to everybody and the Military can still use them.
We have work-arounds as well.
LM: Ring, Ring - Lockheed Martin, Help Desk.
F22: Yeah, my systems are down!
LM: Sure, sorry about that. I'll need to get your name, call sign and extension to log your problem. All of our support people are tied up on other calls at this time. CLICK!
Yep -- over 240-0 during Red Flag exercises, and the Opfors were allowed to "re-spawn" or regenerate after being shot down, AND the Raptors functioned as AWACs for their team mates once they had fired all their weapons. OPFOR pilots reported that even when they COULD see the Raptors, they COULD NOT put a weapon system on them. Period.
No Raptor has yet to be a kill in ANY exercise against America's best - even with lopsided ROEs.
It's worth EVERY penny as an air superiority weapon system.
"... Had they gotten separated from their tankers or had the weather been bad, they had no attitude reference. They had no communications or navigation..."
That's what's called 'flying by the seat of your pants' - like they did in WWI bi-planes (except at mach 2, heheh).
"Initial plans called for 750, but only 183 are now slated to be built under the proposed 2007 fiscal defense budget."
That's so sad - we need those 750 - and even twice that would be better. From the reviews I've read, the F-22 is an awesome bird.
That'll teach 'em to be early Vista adopters! :D
Honestly, I think the article was based in part to a USAF press release.
"LM: Ring, Ring - Lockheed Martin, Help Desk."
I hope the pilot has no problem understanding the Indian accent.
Our sub's INS once had us scorching across the Shara at 60 knots during one med run Needless to say, we were quite impressed with ourselves.
If it can't be flown via needle, ball and airspeed, it is a platform, not an airplane.
Two slapped together with 30 year old spare parts F-14s and a dozen 40 year old F-4s hardly constitute an Air Force ;-)
You have a point there. Probably the best solution is for Zulu time to catch up with actual geophysical time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.