<story><title>U.S. Navy to use Xbox 360 controllers to operate periscopes aboard submarines</title><url>https://pilotonline.com/news/military/local/the-u-s-navy-s-most-advanced-submarines-will-soon/article_5c24eefc-8e70-5c4a-9d82-00d29e052b76.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jedc</author><text>Former submariner here.  My thoughts echo those of a ex-submariner group I&amp;#x27;m a part of -- it makes sense across the board.  It&amp;#x27;s 1) a cost saving measure, 2) WAY easier to get replacements, and 3) WAAAYY easier to train new people to use it safely and efficiently.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cstross</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d have two big reservations about this.&lt;p&gt;1. The Virginia class was first commissioned in 2004, with a 33 year design life. The XBox 360 was first shown in public in 2005, with a design life of ...? Yup, it&amp;#x27;s consumer electronics, with a design life of &lt;i&gt;much&lt;/i&gt; less than 33 years. Even though there are on the order of 80-100M of them in the wild, by and by XBox 360s and replacement parts will be getting scarce.&lt;p&gt;(If you think this is an exaggeration, consider the availability of spare parts today for a computer system commissioned 33 years ago, in 1984 — an original IBM PC XT, perhaps, or an original Macintosh, both of which were manufactured in — for the time — high volume. Things like 5.25&amp;quot; floppy disks, or a replacement M-series IBM keyboard with the original DIN plug, were once ubiquitous, but today they&amp;#x27;re rarities.)&lt;p&gt;2. A second concern is that these days &lt;i&gt;everything&lt;/i&gt; comes with an embedded processor and an enterprising hostile entity might try to sneak malware on board a fast attack submarine via the periscope controller handset. (I&amp;#x27;ve no idea what form such malware might take, or what it might accomplish, but that&amp;#x27;s not the point: it&amp;#x27;s that using cheap commercial handsets widens the threat surface of the submarine&amp;#x27;s sensor suite arbitrarily.)</text></comment>
<story><title>U.S. Navy to use Xbox 360 controllers to operate periscopes aboard submarines</title><url>https://pilotonline.com/news/military/local/the-u-s-navy-s-most-advanced-submarines-will-soon/article_5c24eefc-8e70-5c4a-9d82-00d29e052b76.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jedc</author><text>Former submariner here.  My thoughts echo those of a ex-submariner group I&amp;#x27;m a part of -- it makes sense across the board.  It&amp;#x27;s 1) a cost saving measure, 2) WAY easier to get replacements, and 3) WAAAYY easier to train new people to use it safely and efficiently.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kobeya</author><text>Former defense contractor here. I trust Microsoft to have put more time and money into making that controller maximally usable and useful than whatever subcontractor would have made the thing otherwise.</text></comment>