It is a state-of-the-art nuclear submarine of US military that controllers for Xbox are adopted for cost reduction and ease of use

The US Navy has been commissioned since 2004Virginia-class nuclear submarineThere is no rotating periscope that can be seen in the ship while staying in the ship, instead two "photonic masts" rotating 360 degrees and a large screen / high resolution monitor are adopted. The operation uses a joystick similar to that used for helicopter piloting, but as a cost reduction measure, the controller for Xbox is to be used in the future.

Experiments in a Digital Age: The Navy's Version of Area 51 · Lockheed Martin
http://lockheedmartin.com/us/innovations/011116-webt-navy-area-51.html


The U.S. Navy's most advanced submarines will soon be using Xbox controllers | Local Military News | pilotonline.com
https://pilotonline.com/news/military/local/the-u-s-navy-s-most-advanced-submarines-will-soon/article_5c24eefc-8e70-5c4a-9d82-00d29e052b76.html

In comparison with "Area 51" in Nevada State where the secret air force project is underway, Lockheed Martin has "Naval Edition Area 51" in Manassas laboratory near Washington, DC, and is carrying out various projects. One of them is to operate the photonics mast with the Xbox controller, but the results were good.

According to Lockheed Martin, the crews who participated in the test needed several hours to become accustomed to the operation of the joystick, whereas the controller was able to operate intuitively if it was several minutes .

In terms of cost, joysticks and imaging control panels will cost $ 38,000 (about 4.27 million yen) in one set, whereas if you replace them with a controller you can save less than $ 30 (about 3400 yen).

submarineJohn Warner (SSN - 785)Mark Eihenlaubu explained about the price of the joystick "It is designed for Virginia class, so it is not necessarily expensive" and explained "If you are an Xbox controller you can go to a store dealing with game machines anywhere in the world You can buy it, you can easily change it. " Although The Virginian-Pilot writes "for Xbox 360", the Navy and Lockheed Martin only write "Xbox". Judging from the published pictures, the color of A, B, X, Y key is brighter than that of controller of Xbox One, so it seems to be for MUX Xbox or Xbox 360.

Currently, 13 vessels are commissioned at the Virginia level, and three vessels have continued their launches and they are waiting for service. According to the Navy, it is said that the controller will be adopted from Colorado (SSN - 788) scheduled to be commissioned in November 2017 in one of these vessels.

Although it is supposed to be a state-of-the-art submarine, it is a "secret chunk", but there are quite a lot of confidence, the video which is close to the inside of YouTube is released.

Confidential chunk Innovation Nuclear submarine internal Virginia class attack submarine - YouTube