The source cods, the jet and the Control!

[Aslan]

In computer science, source code is any collection of statements or declarations written in some human-readable computer programming language. Source code is the means most often used by programmers to specify the actions to be performed by a computer.
The source code which constitutes a program is usually held in one or more text files, sometimes stored in databases as stored procedures and may also appear as code snippets printed in books or other media. A large collection of source code files may be organized into a directory tree, in which case it may also be known as a source tree.
A computer program's source code is the collection of files needed to convert from human-readable form to some kind of computer-executable form. The source code may be converted into an executable file by a compiler, or executed on the fly from the human readable form with the aid of an interpreter.
The code base of a programming project is the larger collection of all the source code of all the computer programs which make up the project.

The above is the definition of source codes what I have found from the Wiki. What I have gathered from it is that it is a program that helps lessens the load of of a human, and at the same time increases the work load on the computer. Now if we take that in the context of a jet, the source codes are the main artery of all the functions that the jet will be performing.(please correct me if I am wrong)
Now what I have as questions is the following:
1- If in case of Pakistan's f-16 or any other countries f-16(for examples sake) source codes are held by the US and the owner country. If the owner country decides can they rewrite the whole set of codes again.
2- I have ready in an online discussion some where that these codes be as complex as 5 million codes for one jet. How hard are they to crack or rewrite.
3- If the producer country gets into bad terms with the owner country can they give the codes to the owners enemies.
4- Another example that comes to mind is the Egyptian f-16's allot of people here say that the Israelis might have their codes in hand already (Lets assume that that is correct for arguments sake). How harmful can that be to Egypt, or can the Israelis just by the use of these codes render the Egyptian jets useless, or hack into them.
5- Also I understand that the codes have to be there when a new weapon system is to be integrated in the jet.
6- And again the same question again, can another country if they have the source codes of a different countries jets in hand effect the jet in anyway.

I would greatly appreciate any helpful comments. Please refrain from making it a vs thread.

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Mostly it used in context of set of instructions ,commands and procedures in a computer programming language like C,C++,C#,Dot-Net,Java,Pascal,MY-SQL,PHP,VHDL,Verilog etc

The most shocking news of this last 10 months was that Bilgates made Windows-95 source code as open-source which everybody even me and you can access for the purpose of learning.
That OS earned Microsoft Billions of $$

 

[Aslan]

Mostly it used in context of set of instructions ,commands and procedures in a computer programming language like C,C++,C#,Dot-Net,Java,Pascal,MY-SQL,PHP,VHDL,Verilog etc

The most shocking news of this last 10 months was that Bilgates made Windows-95 source code as open-source which everybody even me and you can access for the purpose of learning.
That OS earned Microsoft Billions of $$

But how would that effect the codes that are being written on the jets.

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

If in case of Pakistan's f-16 or any other countries f-16(for examples sake) source codes are held by the US and the owner country. If the owner country decides can they rewrite the whole set of codes again.

in that case the source code would probably mean the overall code which is needed to develop and drive its integrated weaponry system that code is mostly written in VHDL(intially developed by the cooperation of US DOD and Various Arms industeries and Reasearch Organisations like Bell labs with a purpose to develope lighter,More Efficient and Cheaper Weapons way back in the 80s)
The source code(From Mechanical perspective of the aircraft) also includes the defination of various mechanical parts and there interconnection and you need a software like Lab-view or Auto-cad or 3ds-max to study and simulate the behaviour of the mechanical components in different scenarios, Practically the softwares used are held only by these industries(LM in this case) and never ever reach market as they are the major factor of determining Quality Assurance.

If Pakistan is able to have these codes then i guess Reverse Engineering of an F-16 will be like a walk in a park, however i dough that US would ever let these codes or even if it did they wont give the codes which are needed to program and manipulate Integrated Weapons system..!!!

Anybody can make an airframe ,the mechanical components but for a quality Weapons System you need extraterrestrial knowledge and know-how which i am sure the US would be very critical in giving off.

5 million codes for one jet...

Initially the code is written once but later on its manipulated to meet various requirements. Its quite normal as a code for an ordinary software like MS word consists of Billions of instructions, The pain is to understand the code and be able to manipulate it and that thing takes months and years .....

 

[pak-yes]

Ok.But exactly what does a source code means for Jets.I mean are they codes like our normal Programming language or are they assembly or even directly machine code.Exactly what is it?

And are the source code only soft or are they also hard?

And can you give an example that how does if the source code falls into enemy hands can it harm Jets in owners Possession.I mean what possibly can enemy do with source codes?

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

3- If the producer country gets into bad terms with the owner country can they give the codes to the owners enemies.
4- Another example that comes to mind is the Egyptian f-16's allot of people here say that the Israelis might have their codes in hand already (Lets assume that that is correct for arguments sake). How harmful can that be to Egypt, or can the Israelis just by the use of these codes render the Egyptian jets useless, or hack into them.

So i gues US has devised a code which can be tranmitted into the jet electronically through the jet's communication link and that code could render the jet harmless as it could halt block all the electronic activity within its weapons system...Yup its quite possible but very rare will be the case that those comm link which could interpret encoded digital signal, are left open during an aerial assault or within an enemy territory. Only Radio Comm is used, in exceptional cases.

 

[Aslan]

So i gues US has devised a code which can be tranmitted into the jet electronically through the jet's communication link and that code could render the jet harmless as it could halt block all the electronic activity within its weapons system...Yup its quite possible but very rare will be the case that those comm link which could interpret encoded digital signal, are left open during an aerial assault or within an enemy territory. Only Radio Comm is used, in exceptional cases.

But can we look at it while comparing it to a common cellphone. There was news a while ago that the is new technology that even if you are not talking on your phone the agencies can still listen to your conversation that is taking place by hacking into your cell. (I am not sure how true it is)
Now when you say that only radio comm is used and that also in exceptional cases, but the Jet is still connected to some radar. So that means that it is still sending out some sort of radio waves or signals. What are the possibilities then, or can there be a system where the system is turned on by the use of these coders just like the cell phone example that I had quoted.

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Ok.But exactly what does a source code means for Jets.I mean are they codes like our normal Programming language or are they assembly or even directly machine code.Exactly what is it?

And are the source code only soft or are they also hard?

And can you give an example that how does if the source code falls into enemy hands can it harm Jets in owners Possession.I mean what possibly can enemy do with source codes?

By source codes for jet we mean the Codes needed to programe the whole working and behaviour of a jet, Mostly they are written in programming languages like "C" Interpreted by on board computers .
There are multiple computers(Embedded Systems based on MicroControllers) performing multiple tasks. Like there will be a separate computer for selecting weapons and there fire control, There will be a separate computer for identifying Friend/Foe ,computing range of an enemy aircraft,ground target,its heading,speed + There will be a separate computer for mission planning and Defensive Counter measures + There will be a separate computer for carrying out landing and Take Off operations. All of these systems are FAULT TOLERANT so there will be a computer which will moniter any Fault and apply the Redundant countermeasure for that Fault. Overall its more like a System of Systems.

Refer to my previous post for your last Query.

 

[Taha Samad]

Well firstly no one will give a soft copy of codes to a customer.

The codes are most probably burned onto aircrafts memory chips from where they run.

In India-Pakistan scenerio

By transferring codes(High Level Language codes or assembly codes) to India certain benefits can be achieved for example by transferring the code that encrypts the data to be transmitted can be understood and hence any such codes can be broken to gain access to data being transmitted by F-16(no more secure link sort of thing). i hope you can further map this scenerio onto other situations.

But no one can actually make a F-16 useless by just having the codes.Yes effectiveness of various system can be minimized another example will be:if someone has access to the signal processing code of the F-16 radar, a more effective jamming technique can be devised.

But all of his requires a lot of time(may be upto 2-3 years min).Firstly understanding a code is not an easy job.even understanding a code as long as 100-200 lines is hell of a task let alone the task of understanding codes that may have thousands of lines.

Secondly source codes use a lot of libraries(general purpose codes already written).now to understand a code it is essential to actually have limited access to these libraries.So this practically means if USA is transfferring such codes to India,this means they are practically giving away all the hardwork for free.

Thirdly knowing these codes won't allow anyone to hack the f-16 or diasble(kill switch sort of thing) it cause these codes are burned into system. Sometime back i tried to explain on some other thread why kill switch theory is not realistic.

i will be more than willing to correct myself.

regards

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

But can we look at it while comparing it to a common cellphone. There was news a while ago that the is new technology that even if you are not talking on your phone the agencies can still listen to your conversation that is taking place by hacking into your cell. (I am not sure how true it is)

Anything which goes off in air through EM Waves can be tracked.

Now when you say that only radio comm is used and that also in exceptional cases, but the Jet is still connected to some radar. So that means that it is still sending out some sort of radio waves or signals. What are the possibilities then, or can there be a system where the system is turned on by the use of these coders just like the cell phone example that I had quoted.

Radars can only be bloked not hacked..Yup there can can be a system like that this is the reason why they turn off Radars and fly low in enemy airspace. Plus the waves generated by a radar can also be used to reverse engineer that Radar, This was the reason why Indian Air force didnt turned on the Radar of its Su-30MKI Flanker while having Aerial Maneuvers with USAF.

 

[jagjitnatt]

1- If in case of Pakistan's f-16 or any other countries f-16(for examples sake) source codes are held by the US and the owner country. If the owner country decides can they rewrite the whole set of codes again.

If both, the seller as well as the customer have the source code, they can easily revise the code or even learn from it and rewrite the code to implement newer features and improve performance.

2- I have ready in an online discussion some where that these codes be as complex as 5 million codes for one jet. How hard are they to crack or rewrite.

If you don't have the source code, then it is almost impossible to reverse code the software to get the source code again.
That applies to every program, 5 lines or 5 million lines. What can be done is that the programmer can understand the working of the program and try to develop a code of his/her own.

3- If the producer country gets into bad terms with the owner country can they give the codes to the owners enemies.

Yes they can. The customer pays for the end-product, not the blue prints.

4- Another example that comes to mind is the Egyptian f-16's allot of people here say that the Israelis might have their codes in hand already (Lets assume that that is correct for arguments sake). How harmful can that be to Egypt, or can the Israelis just by the use of these codes render the Egyptian jets useless, or hack into them.

Israeli's already have the source codes, and have developed their own improved code to better the performance of the radar and EW suite.
Israeli's can render the planes useless. Although since they know how things work on their plane, they can build jammers that will block Egyptian F16's radar, or even jam the missiles.

5- Also I understand that the codes have to be there when a new weapon system is to be integrated in the jet.

Yes. The missile and the radar have to be programmed to be able to communicate with each other. For that source codes are necessary.

6- And again the same question again, can another country if they have the source codes of a different countries jets in hand effect the jet in anyway.

Not exactly the jet, but yes the performance of the avionics and missiles. For eg: the jammers on the Mig-21 bisons are capable of jamming most passive APG radars, the same on PAF F-16s.

Basically for any change to the jet or its avionics, source codes are the prime requirement. Even if you want the missile to work with a radar, you need the source codes for the radar as well as the missile.

Someone here said that source codes are installed on the aircraft. I would want to correct him. Source codes are not present anywhere on the aircraft. Source codes are compiled to create the final software application. Only the final application is hard coded into the aircraft. And you can not derive the source code out of the final application. Compiling is an irreversible process.

The source codes are only present with the owner and safely stored at some of their super computer. And source codes are sold also. India is being offered source codes in the MRCA competition.

I hope you have your doubts cleared now. Just ask if any question arises.

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Thirdly knowing these codes won't allow anyone to hack the f-16 or diasble(kill switch sort of thing) it cause these codes are burned into system. Sometime back i tried to explain on some other thread why kill switch theory is not realistic.

i will be more than willing to correct myself.

regards

Theres always a loop hole through which one can sneak in. Nothing is secure. Practically US selling F-16s to Pakistan and then giving the antidope(Electronic Warefare benifit to India) will practically make our F-16s useless against IAF.
Futher i think these codes are held very very close and Knowing the history of Indo-Russian ties US would never ever giveaway these codes to India as there will be a scenario that Indians would trade it off with the Russians so that they could have a more killer Weapon than US. Hell this the main reason Why US is not willing to give Pakistan Armed Prdator Drones as China is ambitiously engaged to possess such a technology.

 

[Patriot]

No need to worry about this.US would never give these codes to India because US knows if Pakistan goes down conventionally it'll nuke the entire India.So US will ensure there is a credible deterrence of Pakistan against India so as to avoid nuclear war.

 

[asq]

Most if not all good propgrameers are pakistanis or Indians and not to foget chines, than can they not heck the codes and or change the programs and put in new codes.

Like i can on my PC wipe clean the whole thing and reprogram it the way i would like to see it function.

 

[Mogambo]

US may or may not provide but Israel can surely provide the codes to India.

Also, India has access to F-16s of the Royal Singapore Air Force, we have exercised and evaluated F-16s strengths and weaknesses.