DevOps from above! US Air Force says upcoming B-21 stealth bomber will run Kubernetes
- Reference: 1591169349
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/06/03/kubernetes_b_21_bomber/
- Source link:
The B-21 is expected to fly in 2025, and is expected to have intercontinental range and nuke capability, making it a significant strike weapon. It's touted as a likely replacement for America's heavy bomber fleet.
Dr Will Roper, assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, [1]took to LinkedIn with the following short post:
USAF innovation hasn't missed a beat during COVID-19. Our B-21 team just ran containerized software with Kubernetes on flight-ready hardware! Another step towards "DevStar": our initiative to bring radical autonomy to software development, partnering with Northrop Grumman.
Owning the digital OODA loop or bust!
DevStar is a [2]programme that aims to get DevOps flying in the USAF, giving it the capability to "enable rapid, continual delivery of cyber-resilient systems". OODA stands for "observe–orient–decide–act" and is a rapid decision-making framework developed for use in combat but also widely used in business.
Dr Roper's post is brief, though the mention of Kubernetes – which controls the lifecycle of containers within an installation – suggests some part of the B-21 will isolate workloads, perhaps chain them into microservices, or even spawn workloads when needed for different aspects of a mission.
Or the whole post could be misdirection, a notion The Register suggests given that once you tell the world your shiny new bomber programme runs Kubernetes, your adversaries know where to focus their security research.
A final consideration: Kubernetes started life at Google and staff there have previously protested against efforts like the [3]Project Maven image-recognition AI for the military. Google eventually binned that system. As the internet giant is still big on Kubernetes, might Chocolate Factory staff – or the wider Kubernetes community now that it is open source – make their displeasure known? ®
Bootnote
This sort of social media post can sometimes disappear so we've captured a screenshot you can view [4]here . The missive's URL is, or was, [5]this if you wish to verify its existence.
[1] https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6672104843798216704/
[2] https://software.af.mil/dsop/dsop-devstar/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2018/06/02/ai_roundup/
[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/06/03/b21_kubernetes_linkedin_post.jpg
[5] https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6672104843798216704/
Or we can discuss the fact their whole business is built on an ARPA/DARPA project.... even computers were first a military tool. And how many of the universities they attended got funded as well? "Gimme the money, just don't tell me where they are from"?
But we are talking about people who believe that profiling users and exploiting them is ethical... at least when you design and build a bomber you know it is designed to kill people - you could just hope it will be used when there's no other way to defend you.
I wonder
... what will that bomber do when a bunch of critical processes get evicted due to too much disk space taken up by logs. And the logs immediately deleted, as the pods are being destroyed. Don't get me wrong, Kubernetes is very useful for lots of different cases, but critical software that can result in people dying when gone wrong is probably not one of them.
Re: I wonder
>>>software that can result in people dying when gone wrong <<<
And when the software works perfectly in an intercontinental nuclear bomber?
Re: I wonder
If you're doing things in k8s and writing logs to PVs (disk) in your pods, you've not quite got to grips with k8s yet.
"the whole post could be misdirection"
I hope so. As you say, declaring that a top secret national security weapons platform has its flight software running in the Cloud is an open invitation for state actors to find it. I cannot believe they actually did that.
Either that or they have a local Kubernetes installation that is not connected to the Internet in any way. That might be possible.
Re: "the whole post could be misdirection"
> its flight software running in the Cloud
Nobody said that. Running Kubernetes isn't the same as putting it into the cloud.
Re: "the whole post could be misdirection"
It's a bomber aircraft...it'll be a bit limited if it doesn't get put into (the) cloud(s).
Sorry.
It's the one with 'The Observers book of aircraft' in the pocket...
I wouldn't read too much into this. The management speak that the military adopt is a great way of obscuring what you're actually talking about. The reference to 'flight-ready hardware' could simply mean that they've got the computer systems working, and to prove it they've run some workloads on it using Kubernetes.
And the B52s?
The B52s were designed 72 years ago. 1948 to be exact. They work. Reliably. I wouldn't be in a rush to replace them with something dependent on modern software. Arthur Clarke was making a serious point when he wrote "Superiority". http://www.mayofamily.com/RLM/txt_Clarke_Superiority.html
OTOH, maybe a world without functioning strategic bombers would be a better place.
Re: And the B52s?
They're getting new engines:
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/05/20/the-air-force-launches-a-contest-to-replace-the-b-52s-engine/
There's nothing like a quick war to distract attention from problems back home. It'll be over by Christmas, remember!
Re: And the B52s?
Their bodies will eventually become too old to fly, and to keep them airworthy becomes more expensive and flight hours will need to be reduced. Moreover, B-52 can fly only when there's no real threat from the sky or ground.
B-2 an their successors are designed to attack when threats exist, and at larger distances. Otherwise you can just throw missiles, but those are less controllable than a bomber.
"maybe a world without functioning strategic bombers would be a better place."
You should also tell Putin and Xi, both working hard to design and deploy new weapons...
Open-source nuclear warplanes
How long until we just need a big 3D printer?
> As the internet giant is still big on Kubernetes, might Chocolate Factory staff – or the wider Kubernetes community now that it is open source – make their displeasure known?
Why? Linux or Android runs a lot of military stuff, how is this different? Have a look at ATAK, the Android Tactical Assault Kit.