Techrights
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) Do Not Run Windows
Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Oct 04, 2024
The projects that deal with ICBMs are extremely unlikely to involve Microsoft
Yesterday we published "Wikileaks Revelations About the History of IBM and Its Role in the Cold War" just to remind people of IBM's role in ICBM contracts. There's a reason we often call IBM "ICBM" instead.
Earlier on today, worldwide conflicts were mentioned (there are about two dozen; Ukraine is only one). It was noted in passing that China is dumping Windows and a conflict near Taiwan seems imminent (maybe Japan too will get dragged into it, at least judging by recent tensions in the strait and some intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests* on the eastern side).
I've attempted to find out what operating systems run on ICBMs, knowing that their development tends to be secretive. As they use navigation systems one can be sure there is some complex onboard system. Years ago it was reported in the mainstream press that due to American drones using Windows Iran managed to crack some of them and take them down (crash them). Then, the US moved to Linux and American drones have run Linux since. As for Iran, Stuxnet taught the autocracy what it means to use Windows in production of weapons.
Perhaps it will remain a mystery what China, India, Russia, the US, Iran and North Korea (among others) use in their long-range cruise missiles and ICBMs. I spent some time searching the Web for answers, to no avail. Pretty much as expected right from the start.
Windows is unfit for purpose. It kills people. An associate has just reminded us: "There are no longer any mainstream articles tying networks of compromised Windows units to DDoS and DDoS-as-a-Service attacks. The articles which do address DDoS seem to treat them as just forming out of the air rather than having an actual cause: the presence of Windows on the network."
Budgets allocated to military projects and especially nukes/ICBMs are enormous, so it seems highly unlikely that Microsoft is used in any of these operations in any country in the world. But we're mostly guessing here. These projects tend to be highly classified for understandable reasons and fast-moving weapons typically use some RTOS, which Linux isn't. █
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- Charts show that since 2017 China has had Mach 25 weapons, whose kinetic energy alone (not explosion) is immense; those can travel almost 10 kilometers per second or 500 kilometers per minute.
