Earlier quoted context omitted.
I solved it by cryptographically signing each packet. The signature was checked before decrypting the packet. Some customers (e.g. DOD) sent in clear, unsigned. They trusted their networks.
not true, although i'm sure there are one-off instances where there's no encryption. but in general there's lots of encryption on each of the different levels of secure government networks.
So they started using Aspera to send video from the UAVs over Iraq etc. to the Pentagon. Before that, they were literally flying boxes of videotapes (or CDs? Tapes seem hard to believe, except this was govt.) to a warehouse, where analysts could check them out, like from your neighborhood library.
Probably now it's all realtime. But they have to stream it, somehow, so it is likely still going via Aspera to Nevada or wherever they work the remote pilots.