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Each one of the US Navy's Virginia-class submarines costs about $2.6 billion. So, it should come as no surprise that it contains a lot of custom, high-end electronics and military hardware. The Navy is looking to save a little money on future submarines, and make them a bit easier to operate, by ditching some of that fancy custom technology in favor of a game console controller. According to Lockheed-Martin, the US government is in the process of outfitting Virginia-class submarines with Xbox 360 controllers to control the periscope.
[...] The idea to switch to gaming peripherals comes from Lockheed-Martin's classified research lab in Manassas, Virginia, which is lovingly referred to as "Area 51." Engineers and officers work together at this facility to find new uses for commercial hardware in the military. That could include hardware like the 360 controllers, Kinect, or a touch-screen tablet, but also consumer software like Google Earth.
[...] The Navy currently has 13 Virginia-class nuclear submarines to outfit with gamepads. Six new subs are already in various stages of production, and as many as 29 more might be built before a new vessel is ready for production in about 20 years.
Source: https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/256049-us-navy-use-xbox-360-controllers-submarine-periscopes
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Wednesday September 20 2017, @11:11PM (7 children)
So they are going to install controllers from the XBox360 in, train for, etc. on a weapon system that will be in production for twenty years and probably still in service in 2050.... but the XBox360 is already out of production and only a custom order will be able to produce a new controller in five years. Genius. Bet they end up paying $100 ea over the life of the sub.
Why not a standardized Bluetooth HID device?
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday September 20 2017, @11:16PM (3 children)
You don't think they'll just buy a whole crate of these things and keep them stored?
You can't use Bluetooth on a submarine; it has to be wired, for security.
And the Xbox controllers use a simple API; there's already a bunch of compatible controllers out there. They really standardized on the interface, not the controller.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 20 2017, @11:56PM (2 children)
You mean somewhere in close vicinity to the slots for the armageddon keys, there's now a USB port connected to a general purpose computer running DirectX componets... on Windows maybe? Sound good, what could go wrong?
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday September 21 2017, @12:56AM (1 child)
Most likely, it's a system running INTEGRITY from Green Hills. It could also be a Linux system. Interfacing with an Xbox360 controller isn't exactly difficult. Do we really not have any software engineers on this site?
(Score: 1) by WillR on Thursday September 21 2017, @08:11PM
*adjusts foil lined pith helmet*
(Score: 3, Interesting) by requerdanos on Wednesday September 20 2017, @11:30PM (2 children)
1. I bought replacement controllers for my N64 [ebay.com] earlier this year. They cost less than the original controllers by a wide margin (whether you adjust for inflation or not).
2. Instead of paying a factory to re-tool and make me a custom run of two N64 controllers, I just bought them off ebay.
3. Yes, system released in the 1990s, controllers cheap commodity hardware in 2017.
4. Controllers for the original xbox [ebay.com] from 2001 are going for about $11 on ebay right this minute, despite the "out of production" thing.
4. Therefore, "xbox not in production a long time" is not "the problem here." It's not even likely to be "a problem here."
5. Note that this does not mean that this is a good idea; it probably isn't.
6. But spending $100 on a $6.7 bazillion dollar submarine is probably not in the top 100 reasons why this is a bad idea.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fishybell on Wednesday September 20 2017, @11:55PM (1 child)
Better than that, moving to a Xbox 360 controller is effectively as equivalent to moving to any generic USB HID device. In case of supply issues, they will have to remap new controller buttons, and probably need a new wireless receiver, but Microsoft didn't reinvent the wheel on this one.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday September 21 2017, @01:00AM
FINALLY!! An intelligent post on this subject here!
You're exactly right; these controllers are not ultra-proprietary, like the game consoles from the 80s and 90s. There's already compatible 3rd-party controllers out there (and have been for a while), and the protocol is dead-simple from what I've read about it. If the MS controllers turn out to be too crappy, it'll be trivial for them to just switch to another supplier.
And these controllers aren't wireless BTW. They're just simple wired devices; you can even see this in the first photo in TFA.