As of January 2014, more than 88 percent of the required F-35 software is currently flying. Approximately 97 percent of the required software has been coded and less than 250,000 lines of code remain to be written.
In 2013, the F-35 program flight tested the first four iterations of Block 2B, the software configuration the Marines will use to declare Initial Operating Capability. Pilots conducted sensor fusion operations, executed night landings on the USS Wasp and dropped both air-to-air and air-to-ground ordnance. The software is proving to be stable and performing well.
Report: Software Issues May Delay F-35 for US Marine Corps | Defense News | defensenews.com
Is the F-35's Computer R2-D2 or HAL? | Defense Tech
Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Schmidle said, “We need to have the ability to override the algorithms that are built into that system to determine whether an aircraft is safe to fly or not,” he said during the interview. “I didn’t design ALIS. I didn’t develop ALIS. I’m trying to do everything I can to make ALIS work for us.”
The rigidity of the system invited comparisons not to the friendly robot R2 of Star Wars, but to the more menacing machine HAL 9000 of the science-fiction flick, “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
In addition, the plane’s reliance on software and information technology makes it a target for hackers, Schmidle said. “It’s kind of like you using your smart phone to do banking,” he told Martin. “You are taking a greater risk than if you walk down to the teller at the bank and say, ‘Hey, this is what I wanted to do.”
While Schmidle said he’s “confident” that the military will be able to protect the aircraft’s data networks, he also acknowledged that “it’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to happen overnight.”
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