Re: Expensive test equipment
Oh, if it's the equipment I'm thinking of (and it's really a Mk 41 VLS), it's much more expensive. During testing, instead of using real missiles, there are these boxes that connect via the same system, which completely simulate the responses to commands sent by the launch hardware and software. They're so completely simulated, the system has no way of knowing it isn't talking to a real missile. They're smallish, heavy, and very very expensive. If they were doing the final integration tests, no actual missiles would be loaded yet. Each is in its own disposable canister, loaded by crane.
Source: I used to develop software for $current+2 generation of the Mk 41 VLS back in the late 1990s. We used the same boxes to verify that the software behaved exactly like it would in a combat situation, at sub-millisecond tolerances. After some time, you could tell just listening to relays clicking if everything was working properly on our side.
Fun story: some of the first demonstrations (on land), someone loaded a canister rotated 180 degrees, so when they launched, instead of going up and away from the stands of Big Brass, the missile headed straight towards the spectators.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
