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360navy

Each one of the The states Navy's Virginia-class submarines costs nigh $2.6 billion. So, it should come equally no surprise that it contains a lot of custom, high-end electronics and military hardware. The Navy is looking to save a piddling money on future submarines, and make them a fleck easier to operate, by ditching some of that fancy custom technology in favor of a game console controller. Co-ordinate to Lockheed-Martin, the Us authorities is in the process of outfitting Virginia-class submarines with Xbox 360 controllers to control the periscope.

Unlike older subs, the Virginia-class vessels have a "photonic mast," which is a fancy fashion of saying there'south a digital photographic camera instead of a single-viewer rotating periscope. Operators tin use the digital photographic camera to bank check out what's going on above water on multiple displays. However, the command mechanism, a complicated joystick called the "photonic mast handgrip and imaging control panel," was considered clunky and unpleasant by Naval officers. Information technology took several hours of training just to learn how to use the device, and each 1 cost the Navy well-nigh $38,000. The Xbox 360 controller, still, costs $40.

The Xbox 360 controller, which Microsoft unveiled in 2005, has dual analog sticks, a D-pad, four forepart buttons, two shoulder buttons, 2 triggers, and a start/select/Xbox button cluster in the eye. Apparently, that's all you need to control a multi-one thousand thousand dollar digital periscope on a multi-billion dollar nuclear-powered submarine. Based on the images provided past Lockheed, it looks similar the Navy is sticking with the wired USB version of the controller, which makes sense given the awarding.

Lockheed's "Area 51" lab.

The idea to switch to gaming peripherals comes from Lockheed-Martin's classified research lab in Manassas, Virginia, which is lovingly referred to as "Area 51." Engineers and officers work together at this facility to find new uses for commercial hardware in the military. That could include hardware like the 360 controllers, Kinect, or a touch-screen tablet, but likewise consumer software like Google World. The cost of the Xbox controller was function of the reason for the switch, only it'southward also easy to use. No one liked the clunky joystick, and many new sailors already know how to use an Xbox 360 controller when they go far. They just need to larn the button mappings, so to speak.

The Navy currently has 13 Virginia-grade nuclear submarines to outfit with gamepads. Six new subs are already in various stages of production, and as many equally 29 more might be congenital before a new vessel is set up for production in well-nigh xx years.