14 DAY TRIAL // When it comes to stability and performance, nothing can really beat Linux. This is why the U.S. Marine Corps leaders have decided to ask Northrop Grumman Corp. Electronic Systems to change the operating system of the newly delivered Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) from Windows XP to Linux.
The Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) system has been in the works for many years and it's very likely that when the project was started, Windows XP could have been considered the logical choice. In the mean time, things changed. Microsoft has pulled the support for Windows XP and very few entities still use it. The operating system is either upgraded or replaced. In this case, Linux is the logical choice, especially since the replacement costs are probably much smaller than a possible upgrade.
It's interesting to note that the Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) was just delivered to the U.S. Marine Corps, but the company that built it chose to keep that aging operating system. Someone must have noticed the fact that it was a poor decision and the chain of command was informed on the problems that might have appeared.
G/ATOR radar software will be Linux-based
Unix systems, like BSD-based or Linux-based OSes, are usually found in critical areas and technologies that can't fail, under any circumstances. That's why most of the servers out there are running Linux servers, for example. Having a radar system with an operating system that is very unlikely to crash seems to fit the bill perfectly.
"Officials of the Marine Corps Systems Command at Quantico Marine Base, Va., announced a $10.2 million contract modification Wednesday to the Northrop Grumman Corp. Electronic Systems segment in Linthicum Heights, Md., to convert the Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) operator command and control computer from Windows XP to Linux. The contract modification will incorporate a change order to switch the G/ATOR control computer from the Microsoft Windows XP operating system to a Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)-compliant Linux operating system."
"G/ATOR is an expeditionary, three-dimensional, short-to-medium-range multi-role radar system designed to detect low-observable targets with low radar cross sections such as rockets, artillery, mortars, cruise missiles, and UAVs," reads the entry on militaryaerospace.com.
This piece of military technology, the Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR), was first contracted from the Northrop Grumman Corp. back in 2005, so it's easy to understand why the US Marines might want to hurry this up. No time frame has been proposed for the switch.
