Software glitch investigated as possible cause of deadly robot cannon incident
By Donald Melanson 
posted October 18th 2007 4:13PM
posted October 18th 2007 4:13PM
According to ITWeb, the South African National Defense Force is now investigating the possibility that a software glitch may have been the cause of deadly anti-aircraft cannon "malfunction" that left nine soldiers dead and 14 seriously wounding during an exercise last Friday. The robot cannon in question is an Oerlikon GDF-005 which, as ITWeb points out, was apparently "not designed for fully automatic control," yet that is just how it was operating in this case, although Oerlikon itself reportedly played no role in the upgrades. While Defense Force spokesman Kwena Mangope apparently isn't going any further than to describe the incident as a "mechanical problem," both the police and a Board of Inquiry are now looking to get to the bottom of the matter, although there's no word as to when they expect to report their findings.[Via Danger Room, thanks David D]
I'm from South Africa and everyone here knows that weapons don't get properly maintained. A Former soldier wrote a article about how it important it is to maintain the Oerlikon GDF-005 and its obvious that the South African Army didn't do their job to maintain it.
Thats the story most of the South African newspapers.
Reminds me of Blue Screen of Death before terminator.
Hahaha, I have to state I have absolutely no problem to laugh about the death of soldiers that are working on a new weapon to kill others and then turn out to be the first of undoubtedly many being killed by it. More of this I say.
Bender understands philip J. Fry
I am from South Africa and as far as I know "human error" is still considered to be the cause of the incident. The SA national defence force is most likely doing this investigation on the possibility that a "software error" caused the incident just to save their own @sses.
Here's a better look! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Anti-aircraft_gun_35mm_Oerlikon_Twin_Gun_GDF.JPG
To the people bitching about SA and claiming irony in this incident...
The Oerlikon is manufactured in Switzerland, not South Africa...so there's nothing ironic or really funny(outside of laughing at careless people who get themselves killed somehow) about this incident(really) because the soldiers from SA weren't killed by their "own" weapons(the same ones sold to other countries) but something from Switzerland. So your schadenfreude is probably a bit misplaced.
Not only that, but it wasn't a software error at all, but most likely improper maintenance and loading. Human error in it's purest. So there go your robocop and terminator jokes which were never gonna get you laid anyway.
Now SA does make and sell a hell of a lot of weaponry, and have had a horrible record of social justice and personal safety(highest murder rates in the world). So let's a one of South Africa's peers directly involved with the incident...Switzerland. They sell all sorts of weaponry to horrible people across the globe, yet remain "pacifist"(while keeping an army) and women weren't allowed to vote in some Cantons as recently as the late 70s. And they have always been a wonderful place to take care of all sorts of illegal transactions that either distribute weapons directly or support the countries that buy the weapons they're manufacturing.
But all the while you complain about SA and their policies and overlook Switzerland, nobody has mentioned the fact that United States is in many ways just as "guilty" as SA and Switz combined. We still make and sell land mines and cluster bombs which are just about as offensive as conventional weaponry can get in this day and age. Looking at the numbers our weapons have probably killed and maimed just as many people as any other country's conventional weaponry in recent history(with the exception of the russians). Not only that, but we refuse to sign treaties banning the production, sale and deployment of land mines since we'd love to still have them around for the future(just in case, you know?). Don't even get me started on those lovely DU shells...