💾 Archived View for sdf.org › stug › phlog › 2021 › 20210528.txt captured on 2023-01-29 at 05:10:34.
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28 May 2021 It can be odd working with some defence companies. I sat through a presentation from a company who make missile actuation systems. It is terrible in what it will be used for and yet thoroughly interesting with the technical challenge. I have often found myself conflicted with such notions. The Phalanx system is positively mad. It is a self defence system for the final mile or so around a ship and designed to take out missiles. It fires a stupid amount of rounds while tracking 8 cricket ball sized objects at a time. It is a mad feat of engineering capability but for destruction only. This system has fascinated me for a long time. It is modular and so can be 'dropped in' to a platform. The intelligence to identify objects, track them and predict where to aim is crazy really. Yet... it should not be so interesting really. It is there to destroy. This is the inherent difficulty of defence work really. You cannot forget what the purpose is. The meeting was also interesting comparing the design approach to fundamentally the same aerospace environment between something designed to work perfectly once and the sort of things I work on where it has to last 20 odd years. We had a monthly team meeting where the team can share successes and we have a bit of fun. I ran a quiz about German 60s, 70s and 80s band names with a few fake ones in there. It was nice and silly. However, I could not beat the bingo. It is a little surreal having 30 engineers playing bingo together over the internet but it is deadly serious. The moaning from people who have not had a number called out! The silly side of it all is important and it seems to be helping us all feel like a team. Even if it is to suffer my dodgy quizes as a group!