K8s on a plane! US Air Force slaps Googly container tech on yet another war machine to 'run advanced ML algorithms'

The US Air Force (USAF) is deploying Kubernetes containerisation tech aboard some of its spyplanes – as UK-based Britten-Norman teams up to make one of its flagship aircraft semi-autonomous. Technology and aviation have, to a greater or lesser extent, always moved hand in hand. Yet this week's two most standout aviation tech …

[SkippyBing]

To be honest I'm surprised it's taken B-N so long to come up with the idea of making an unmanned Islander, the Italians did it with the Piaggio P-180 back in 2013. It's really just putting a decent auto-pilot into an otherwise serviceable aircraft. It's not like Watchkeeper...

[druck]

It's one thing making a plane that can fly without human input in good to moderate conditions, it's quite another handling all conditions its ever likely to encounter. Even the most decent auto-pilot will occasionally throw its hands in the air and say over to you human. If the human aint there, it's going to coming looking for one on the ground.

[SkippyBing]

But that's the advantage of unmanned, if it crashes you don't kill anyone, so you it doesn't matter if you can't handle edge cases.

Jesting aside, and that was a throw away comment about the auto-pilot, B-N have exactly one product and mostly survive on servicing and doing things to the ones MoD own. Making it into a UAV is such an obvious way of extending their cash cows life I'm embarrassed for them that they didn't think of it earlier.

Disclaimer I turned down a job with B-N four years ago because they didn't seem to have any plans for, or interest, in the future.

[druck]

You either forgot the joke icon for that first paragraph, or are happy to live underground once failed drones start raining down from the sky.

But on to your other point, adapting a manned airframe for use as a drone, negates many advantages of dispensing with the human. You don't need a load of glass sticking up in to the airflow for a human to look out of, you don't need to bring mechanical flying controls in reach of arms and legs. Any unmanned vehicle with the same mission payload and range will be a fraction of the size the equivalent manned aircraft - which means less flaming mass to come down on your head.

[SkippyBing]

Failed drones already are raining down from the sky, that's why they banished Watchkeeper to Ascension Island for a while and it's only allowed to operate in restricted airspace.

The advantage of using a proven design however, is they tend to have solved most of the problems that cause aircraft to fall on your head in flames. You also get an increase in payload and range by removing the bits needed to accommodate a puny human operator. For instance the Bell 407 has an endurance of 4 hours, the MQ-8C Firescout which is a Bell 407 based UAV has an endurance of 15 hours. Which raises a lot of questions about where they're stuffing the fuel because they were using the passenger seats to start with.

[SkippyBing]

Meanwhile Azerbaijan are doing what B-N only talk about https://defence-blog.com/news/azerbaijani-military-turns-soviet-biplane-aircraft-into-drones.html

[John Smith 19]

"It's not like Watchkeeper..."

Thank $deity

What an utter PoS that is.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "It's not like Watchkeeper..."

Stop talking Britain down. We are the envy of the world. [gibber]

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

A year from now . . .

"I have had enough of these motherfuckin' containers on this motherfuckin' plane!"

[M. Poolman]

"We look to unleash the power of digital engineering and agile software yada yada

Don't much about U2s or K8s for that matter, but I still score pretty high when it comes to bullshit bingo!

[big_D]

Agile...

We look to unleash the power of digital engineering and agile software development to seize the opportunity for rapid evolution of the technical stack;

If the Internet has proven one thing, it is that agile development and security aren't very compatible. The move to get the next iteration out, without missing the deadline means that things like thorough testing and looking at security are often get left by the wayside "for the next iteration".

Surely the last thing you want from a flying weapon is software that hasn't been fully tested? Using fully separate computers to control the cameras with an agile software stack? OK. Using computers that are connected to the flight systems to host the containers? No.

[fidodogbreath]

Re: Agile...

The move to get the next iteration out, without missing the deadline means that things like thorough testing and looking at security are often get left by the wayside "for the next iteration".

Not just security; sometimes core functionality, too. I'm guessing MCAS.doNotCrashAirplane() got pushed back to the next 737SMAX sprint.

Surely the last thing you want from a flying weapon is software that hasn't been fully tested?

Hey, it's working great for the F-35 program. What? Oh....never mind.

[Bck]

Re: Agile...

Did the product owner request that, and was this in a user story? Oh no, it was an NFR.

[Anonymous Coward]

How long until the Kubernetes developers throw their hands up in horror at it being used for wartech, and threaten to walk out? Popcorn, anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

They dont get a say in the matter - its OSS

If the hippies start bitching the military can just fork it and tell them to fork off.

To be fair, if you work on any generalist IT system you have to accept the fact that an organisation you dont like may end up using it that's just life. Anyone who has a problem with that should stick to writing software for the Vatican or similar.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: They dont get a say in the matter - its OSS

Writing software for the military seems much more wholesome than writing it for the Vatican.

[Korev]

Shame they’re not navy aeroplanes or else we could have had an article on Docker...