On board the new British aircraft carrier running Windows XP

The aircraft carrier "Queen Elizabeth"

After the whole world followed the adventures of the only Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov with sympathy, the British fleet also gave reason for criticism. On the new aircraft carrier "Queen Elizabeth" (HMS Queen Elizabeth), which cost the treasury as much as 3.5 billion pounds ($ 4.48 billion at the current rate), journalists noticed computers running the outdated Windows XP operating system.

June 26, 2017 the most modern British aircraft carrier first went to the open sea. It is the largest and most powerful ship ever built for the Royal Navy of Great Britain. The construction of the aircraft carrier involved 10,000 people. Its sections were made at six shipyards in the UK - and delivered to Rosyth, where the largest shipyard in the country is located.

Before going to the ship, journalists were invited on a tour. Despite all the secrecy, they were allowed even to the control room. And here, journalists from The Times and The Guardian managed to photograph the old OS, for which even security updates are no longer available, since it was removed from Microsoft support (although some public sector clients paid Microsoft large sums for extended support for a system for which official support is over).
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The fact is that the construction of the ship was delayed for almost two decades. Probably, computer equipment and software installation were performed in the early 2000s. At that time, Windows XP was the latest operating system. Well, after equipping the ship decided to leave everything as is.

A source in the UK Department of Defense told The Times that the software is being updated too quickly and what seemed new in 2004 now seems outdated: “Just think about the difference between desktop computers of 2000 and modern machines,” he said, and added that the computer retooling of the “Queen Elizabeth” is likely to take place simultaneously with the equipment of its “twin”, the aircraft carrier “Prince of Wales” (HMS Prince of Wales), which is planned to be launched in 2026.

Windows XP for several years as removed from the support of Microsoft. Although security updates are not released for it, recently, during the WannaCry epidemic, Microsoft, as an exception, released a patch covering the vulnerability in SMB, through which the crypto-worm spread (although later it turned out that Windows XP computers are invulnerable to infection. that fall into the "blue screen of death" ).

Nevertheless, experts believe that installing Windows XP on a warship is a very risky event: “If XP is intended for operational use, then it is extremely risky,” said Alan Woodward, a professor of computer science at the University of Surrey. “Why put an outdated system on a new ship that has a service life of decades?”

However, the ship’s captain Mark Deller sees no cause for concern. He says that the ship has very strict procedures that nullify the risk of cyber attacks: “If the Chinese want to flood the market with specific things and they invest 30 million in this matter, then one of the devices can eventually penetrate our defense system supply. We have people who constantly monitor this. "

Mark Deller made it clear that the isolation of computers on a ship can be compared to the isolation of NASA computers. “As for those who want to drown out our radio frequencies, we will have an escort and destroyers nearby, who will drive away anyone who tries to influence us. This is a normal routine at sea, ”said the captain.


Captain of the ship Mark Deller

Captain-Lieutenant Nick Leeson (Nick Leeson) added that the ship will be able to defend against hacker attacks, for this a group of programmers will work on the ship.

Secretary of Defense Michael Fallon also does not consider using Windows XP on a warship a vulnerability: “It’s not the system itself that matters, but security measures around it,” he said on the Today ’s BBC television program, and the system is protected. and we have no vulnerabilities to this effect. ”

The 65,000-ton aircraft carrier left the docks at noon on June 26, 2017 and anchored a couple of hundred meters nearby. Leaving the docks in itself was a difficult maneuver for this giant: at the time of leaving the docks, the depth under the bottom of the aircraft carrier was 50 cm, and the distance to the dock walls was about 10-20 cm.

At night, from 26 to 27 June, he went on a six-week test flight to the North Sea. The aircraft wing will include up to 24 F-35B Lightning II fighter-bomber aircraft and Merlin helicopters. Helicopter flights from the deck of an aircraft carrier will begin in 2017, and F-35B flights will begin at the end of 2018. Full combat readiness of the ship is expected in 2020. Representatives of the Royal Navy promised that by 2020, Windows XP must be upgraded.

Journalists say it's not so bad. In the end, on an aircraft carrier could stand Windows 3.1, as in the Paris International Airport .



Probably, modern viruses are not terrible for Windows 3.1, and no WannaCry will take it.