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Deadly Round-Off Error: Failure of the Patriot System in Dhahran 1991

Sağlam, Timur ORCID iD icon 1
1 Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

Abstract (englisch):

On February 25, 1991, a Patriot missile defence system operating in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, failed to engage an incoming Scud missile. The missile struck U.S. Army barracks, killing 28 soldiers and injuring 98. The reason for the failure of the Patriot was a fixed-point round-off error in the range-gate algorithm of the Patriot radar unit’s tracking system. This paper reconstructs the events and explains how the patriot system works. Then it illustrates in detail how the round-off error developed and how it amplified to a critical inaccuracy. Possible approaches for the prevention of these issues are discussed. These approaches, divided in solutions on the technical and on the organisational side of software engineering, will demonstrate that the incident at Dhahran could have been prevented.


Volltext §
DOI: 10.5445/IR/1000181916
Veröffentlicht am 27.05.2025
Cover der Publikation
Zugehörige Institution(en) am KIT Institut für Programmstrukturen und Datenorganisation (IPD)
Publikationstyp Hochschulschrift
Publikationsjahr 2016
Sprache Englisch
Identifikator KITopen-ID: 1000181916
Verlag Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)
Umfang 16 S.
Serie Prämierte Proseminar- und Seminar-Ausarbeitungen am Lehrstuhl Software-Design und -Qualität ; 1
Art der Arbeit Studienarbeit
Referent/Betreuer Hinkel, Georg
KIT – Die Universität in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft
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