The DOD and Y2K
Re: c4i-pro 2000: what's the point?
MR HUGH V BLANCHARD (VTPE95A@prodigy.com)
Tue, 25 Jun 1996 19:14:01, -0500Dear Mr. Cramer,
Although the experiment on your computer may not have done anything, it is a considerable understatement to say that there willl be big problems with DOD systems and the year 2000 time change.
Mitre Corp. just finished an evaluation of a sampling of DOD systems. I believe that it was a sample of seven Command and Control (C2) systems and two Logistics systems, totalling about 54 million lines of code. Mitre's conclusion was that it would cost between $0.75-$8.50 per line of code to correct the year 2000 problem.
The Asst Sec Def for C3I, Em,mitt Paige, Jr. (LTG, USA, Ret), has established year 2000 working groups within the federal government, but time is growing short.
In a UNIX environment, the epoch began at midnight, 31 December 1969. The first second of the year 1970 was th efirst second measured as a time standard for the UNIX O/S. The year 2000 will not have much meaning for UNIX, since it measures time as seconds elapsed since midnight 31 December 1969.
But the year 2000 WILL present problems for many DOD weapons systems, many of which are written in poorly documented code in obscure languages such as Jovial or assembly code, per Anthony Cordella, one of Mr. Paige's principal deputies at ASD C3I.
I also wonder if the GPS system is set up to handle this millenial change, since it is used as both a differential and an absolute time standard. If GPS is not already built to accomodate this change, there will be really big ripple effects on every aspect of C4I, POS/NAV, and RSTA.
Best regards,
Hugh Blanchard
Found at http://www.stl.nps.navy.mil/lists/c4i-pro/5206.html
Index Home Page