Nuclear Subs to Have Catastrophic Blue Screen of Death?

The Royal Navy's submarine command system is now powered by Microsoft Windows. According to a press release by the company behind the new system, BAE Systems, the installation programme has been completed six months ahead of schedule. Captain Pat ONeill, leader of the Ministry of Defences Submarine Combat System Group, said, This is a fantastic achievement. From speaking to operators and maintainers, I know how much they like SMCS NG. BAE Systems work is proof that we can get commercial off the shelf technology to sea quickly and support it affordably.

A significant benefit from the use of commercial off the shelf technology is that over its life SMCS NG will cost 25% less to support than its predecessor, saving 22 million in the first 10 years. SMCS NG is designed to handle the growing volume of information available in modern nuclear submarines and to control the sophisticated underwater weapons carried now and in the future. Its core capability is the assimilation of sensor data and the compilation and display of a real time tactical picture to the Submarine Command Team.

So what happens when there is a blue screen of death? Is there a catastrophic result? The sensor and weapon control applications now run on Windows XP and Windows 2000 of all versions. This sounds like a break-in waiting to happen. However, according to the UK parliament the Windows-based systems are isolated which means there is very little chance of someone from the outside reaching them.