Слайд 1Patriot Missile Failure
1991: The American Patriot Missile Battery in Dhahran
Слайд 3The Patriot Missile
Phased Array TRacking Intercept Of Target
Unproven in 1991
Results after
Gulf War: controversial
Слайд 4February 25, 1991
8:40pm (12:40pm EST)
An Army barracks was struck by a
Scud in Dhahran
28 American soldiers were killed
97 people injured in the strike
The Alpha Patriot Battery did not track and intercept the Scud
Слайд 5What Happened?
The system was unable to identify the Scud
The range gate
was inaccurate
Слайд 6The Design Flaw
Old software
Time stored in 1/10 of a second, in
integer format
0.110 = 0.00011001100110011…2
24 bit registers
Operation outside the range of expected use: 100 hours vs 14 hours
Слайд 7How We Almost Avoided It
Data recorders: the US did not use
them, but Israel did
February 11, 1991: Israeli forces reported the Patriot errors back to US
Слайд 8Lessons Learned
When you adapt an older software system to a new
use, make sure you also analyze the likely behavior of the users.
Take the results of testing seriously! If user A could find the error, user B can too.
You can’t be too accurate when lives are at stake. Military software must be robust.
Don’t rely on assumptions; if it’s a usage standard, include it in the operating instructions.
Protect against error, not against error discovery.
Слайд 9References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIM-104_Patriot
http://plichta-travels.blogspot.com/2007/03/patriot-missile.html
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/gao/im92026.htm
http://www.1stfighter.com/F15s/desertstorm.html
http://www.ima.umn.edu/~arnold/455.f96/disasters.html
http://shelley.toich.net/projects/CS201/patriot.html