Re:Boeing 747s receive software updates over floppy disks
by vosper on Monday August 10, 2020 @05:00PM
(#24113927)
If I've understood Wikipedia correctly, what it's calling "Phase 2" of the Hawk missile program [0] is when some vacuum tubes were replaced.
There are 12 countries (including some rich ones) listed as using the Phase 1 upgrade of the missile, which is presumably still full of vacuum tubes [1]. This is the 30 year old upgrade to a missile developed 60 years ago.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIM-23_Hawk#Development [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIM-23_Hawk#Phase_I
Re:Boeing 747s receive software updates over floppy disks
by echelon on Monday August 10, 2020 @04:34PM
(#24113674)
> each with an NSN price tag of $170,000 per
This is why we don't have decent public health care. That's obscene.
Re:Boeing 747s receive software updates over floppy disks
by crispyporkbites on Monday August 10, 2020 @04:38PM
(#24113714)
not really - how many software and hardware engineers do you think you need for this? probably minimum 10, maybe 20-30 realistically. At SV salaries (you need the best engineers, right?) that's $9m USD/annum.
You need to ship at least 50 of these devices to break even. To get a proper margin and cover all the other costs (manufacturing, sales, marketing, compliance, accounting, yada), you're probably going to need to create and sell a couple hundred, every year.
Re:Boeing 747s receive software updates over floppy disks
by sheepybloke on Tuesday August 11, 2020 @09:06AM
(#24119870)
One other thing is that launchers and other boxes that control weapons are DAL-A equivalent, so you have to be rigorous about your requirements and testing to ensure that a missile never accidentally fires. This drives up development costs as well, since you have to do a lot more work to verify and validate the system.
Re:Boeing 747s receive software updates over floppy disks
by pc86 on Monday August 10, 2020 @05:53PM
(#24114448)
It depends what you mean by "SV salaries" but defense contractor developers can make a lot of money, especially compared to other software jobs in the NOVA/Maryland area (which are not paid nearly as well as SV).
Re:Boeing 747s receive software updates over floppy disks
by snypher on Monday August 10, 2020 @05:54PM
(#24114462)
They produced approx 40,000 between '59 and '94, so around 1,000 a year. So I would assume they broke even.
Re:Boeing 747s receive software updates over floppy disks
by ChrisLomont on Monday August 10, 2020 @06:32PM
(#24114862)
That's not the device in question.
Then, in 1995, Raytheon came out with Block III updates, which replaced the entire trunk filled with hardware (about as crowded as a standard engine bay of a modern car) with about 3 PC graphics cards-sized modules, each with an NSN price tag of $170,000 per (don’t worry, you’re paying for the IP, not the physical cards themselves, which iirc were MIL-spec versions of your standed PCI card from back then).
Made my job as a tech so easy, since the launchers never really broke down much after that, save for a hydraulic leak or two out in Dugway or White Sands during a shoot or Red Flag exercises at Nellis AFB. Didn’t see aliens out there but quite a lot of Soviet gear, which we acquired shortly after the USSR’s downfall. MiGs are really cool and reliable, though pilot/user comfort/convenience was not on their MVP list.