Patriot Missile Defense System Fatal Software Failure

Testing Habits

I am covering the software-related failure of the Patriot Missile Defense System during the Gulf War in 1991. Tragically, the missile hit an Army barracks, killing 28 and injuring 97. The root cause of the failure can be traced to several fundamental software aspects. This is a new series about historical software failures, errors and bugs and what we can learn from them from a software engineering and testing perspective. Music credit: freesound.org/s/539303/ Photo credit: www.nato.int/multi/photos/2003/m030306a.htm References: https://www.gao.gov/products/imtec-92-26 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4085640