Virtual reality simulators are playing larger roles in training programs because of their realistic scenarios. Unfortunately for Australia's armed forces, the reuse of object-oriented codes is causing tactical headaches.
At the request of Australia's head of the Defense Science and Technology Organization's Land Operations/Simulations, programmers for a helicopter training course went to great lengths to increase the realism of the program by including detailed landscapes and a herd of kangaroos (spooked animals can give away a helicopter's position). The programmers modeled the animals' movements and reactions to helicopters by reappropriating the codes originally used to model infantry reactions under similar stimuli, changing the icons from soldiers to kangaroos, and increasing the animal's speed of movement.
Hotshot Australian pilots, eager
to impress visiting American pilots with their skills, buzzed the kangaroos
in low flight. As predicted, the animals scattered. The proud Australian
pilots were soon "shot down" when the kangaroos reappeared from behind
a hill and launched a barrage of Stinger missiles at the helicopter. Seems
the programmers forgot to remove that part of the infantry coding.
-- as published in Machine Design Magazine 3/9/2000 issue