Students Use Targeting Computers to Cheat On Piloting Examinations
X-wing pilot Robert Onatha aims his guns at the airborne test drone in front of him and fires. Direct hit! He's successfully destroyed all 10 of the targets in less than three minutes – plenty of time to pass the final test and be awarded the opportunity to fly an X-Wing in a real combat mission. But Onatha didn't have to use the Force to manage such an impressive achievement – back at base, he proudly displays the not-so-secret weapon he used to ensure his success. It's the Tatooine Instruments Model 83 Targeting Computer, also known as the TI-83 – the most advanced targeting computer ever developed.
Modern targeting computers are a far cry from the crude instruments of decades ago. The first targeting computers were referred to as "four-function" targeting computers, because they only performed four functions – generating large amounts of text that flashed by way too fast to read, displaying large quantities of unnecessary graphics, showing wireframe images of enemy craft (why this is useful was never explained), and malfunctioning after being hit by lightning or enemy weapons fire. But the TI-83 has many more capabilities, such as an advanced artificial intelligence, built-in radar system, and the ability to identify, acquire, and track hostile spacecraft – all within a device small enough to be easily smuggled into a spacecraft. It's not surprising, then, that many students bring TI-83s onto their spacecraft during field exercises in order to give them an edge.
Students who use TI-83s defend the practice, saying that as they will have access to targeting computers during real-life combat missions, it makes no sense to deny them access during the exercises. "I don't understand why I should have to spend this much time learning how to hit a 2-meter-wide target with a proton torpedo when I have a targeting computer that can do it for me," says Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. "They should spend more time teaching us stuff that's actually useful, like what we're supposed to do once the bad guys realize that putting blatantly obvious vulnerable weak points in their designs isn't such a good idea." However, many instructors disagree. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, well-known for telling students to "turn off their targeting computers" at the beginning of each examination, says that "You have to be able to use the Force to aim your weapons, because the targeting computer might not work. I'm sure in a few years the Empire's engineers will come up with a way to jam the targeting computers. But if you have the Force on your side, there's no way you can be jammed." When asked about the incident in which four Force-using Jedi were killed when trying to capture Emperor Palpatine when a single starfighter equipped with a targeting computer could easily have shot through the window and killed Palpatine, Kenobi had no comment.
Nevertheless, some of the TI-83's capabilities have made possible the use of techniques that go far beyond mere electronic assistance into outright, blatant cheating. The TI-83 has advanced command-and-control protocols that enable it to transfer targeting data in real time between two TI-83 equipped ships. Therefore, some pilots recruit a friend to scout out the course in front of them and transfer the coordinates and velocity of the targets directly into their own targeting computer, allowing them to easily complete the mission without having to scout out the enemy like they are supposed to. "I do this all the time," says Onatha. "I'll have a friend up in front of me, and I'll say, 'here's my frequency, here's the encryption code, send me the data.'" Academy instructors have attempted to combat this practice by placing signal jammers on the course to prevent pilots from communicating with each other. However, many pilots are skeptical of instructors' ability to prevent cheating, saying that their lack of technical sophistication precludes them from understanding modern high-tech cheating methods. "The most advanced computing system your typical instructor has seen probably doesn't even have human-level sentient intelligence," says Onatha. He also says that the jammers don't work. "It's not like you can't just powercycle your ship's secondary generator and run the resulting waveform through the multiphasic filter to create a counter-frequency harmonic that disables their so-called signal jammer. And by the way, they usually leave the on-off switch on those jammers unguarded."