51–60 of 141 posts
"said people familiar with the matter" WSJ is really going down in journalistic quality, it seems. But seriously, problem known for a decade, "they're dumber than us so they can't use it" attitudes, in a device at that price point, you'd expect they'd think about these things. Reminds me of the Boeing report on Columbia. ( http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0... )
I have a thought. How about next time the military just flies one of these things down to Defcon and lets people have a go. The hackers get a cool toy to play with a for a day and the military gets a free fairly sophisticated penetration test. I'm sure the flaw would have been found; instructions on how to intercept satellite data with about $100 worth of hardware have been floating around for years. I'll edit this p…
The question is, what do our defence contractors care more about: making their weapons actually work? Or merely selling them?
Part of the problem is that the military awards contracts that are sometimes decades long. What was "good enough" security in 1990 is not looking so hot 20 years on. The US military machine may not perform as well as it has in the past in the new era of betas, hotfixes and patches. I will not be at all surprised when insurgent "rc-plane" drones start showing up with cell phones, arduinos, grenades and duct-tape.
http://diydrones.com/ :)
[With some kick ass AI doing the find-kill, soldiers shouting "f* NPCs"]
[Note: I know emp guns weight ~50kg]
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http://diydrones.com/ :)
The gas jet propelled ones have max speed of 200mph, while predators have 135mph. Can't wait for some sort of anti-predator with EMP gun or something making the 5M investment look stupid :) [With some kick ass AI doing the find-kill, soldiers shouting "f * NPCs"] [Note: I know emp guns weight ~50kg]
BattleBots in Space.
That's a pirated video I'd watch.
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http://diydrones.com/ :)
The gas jet propelled ones have max speed of 200mph, while predators have 135mph. Can't wait for some sort of anti-predator with EMP gun or something making the 5M investment look stupid :) [With some kick ass AI doing the find-kill, soldiers shouting "f * NPCs"] [Note: I know emp guns weight ~50kg]
I wonder how costly some kind of satellite link would be?
(Im getting a new Arduino for Xmas and this has been the intended project for a while - my own UAV :D)
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Oldest mistake in the book: since the adversaries dress differently, speak a different language, and are a different race, assume they must be idiots. The WSJ reporter fell into the same trap: Iraqis and Afghans couldn't have figured out how to tap a video feed on their own; they must have had Iranian help.
This is the mistake that allowed the Serbs to shoot down a Stealth bomber; aircrews communicating on open channels. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-10-26-serb-stealth_x... "At times, they acted like amateurs," Dani said, listing some ways the Serbs managed to breach NATO communications security, including eavesdropping on pilots' conversations with AWACS surveillance planes.
the U.S. military found pirated drone video feeds on other militant laptops What is the meaning of "pirated" here? Are they going to sue militants for copyright infringement?
The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink between the unmanned craft and ground control. What about the uplink?
Honestly, from a classic military standpoint encrypted video does little for you. If you can intercept the transmission then you know where the drone is. The only advantage is knowing what it is looking at, but a traditional army is large enough knowing something is in the area is enough. It's only gorilla style fighting when it becomes particularly useful.
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This is the mistake that allowed the Serbs to shoot down a Stealth bomber; aircrews communicating on open channels. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-10-26-serb-stealth_x... "At times, they acted like amateurs," Dani said, listing some ways the Serbs managed to breach NATO communications security, including eavesdropping on pilots' conversations with AWACS surveillance planes.
A bit of a nitpick, but no stealth bomber has ever been shot down. That was a stealth fighter.