Gears of War: When Mechanical Analog Computers Ruled the Waves
21st March 2014
The USS Zumwalt, the latest destroyer now undergoing acceptance trials, comes with a new type of naval artillery: the Advanced Gun System (AGS). The automated AGS can fire 10 rocket-assisted, precision-guided projectiles per minute at targets over 100 miles away.
Those projectiles use GPS and inertial guidance to improve the gun’s accuracy to a 50 meter (164 feet) circle of probable error—meaning that half of its GPS-guided shells will fall within that distance from the target. But take away the fancy GPS shells, and the AGS and its digital fire control system are no more accurate than mechanical analog technology that is nearly a century old.
Sometimes the old ways are best.
March 22nd, 2014 at 15:03
Would you trust your ship’s defenses to Windows 8?
March 23rd, 2014 at 05:33
Of course not. But NTDS, sure.