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posted by janrinok on Monday August 19 2019, @04:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the jam-this! dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Why the Navy Is Relying on WWII-Era Communications

The U.S. Navy, anticipating a future when a high-tech enemy could read its electronic communications, is going back to a hack-proof means of sending messages between ships: bean bags. Weighted bags with messages inside are passed among ships at sea by helicopters.

In a future conflict with a tech-savvy opponent, the U.S. military could discover even its most advanced, secure communications penetrated by the enemy. Secure digital messaging, voice communications, video conferencing, and even chats could be intercepted and decrypted for its intelligence value. This could give enemy forces an unimaginable advantage, seemingly predicting the moves and actions of the fleets at sea with uncanny accuracy.

Last week, a MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter delivered a message from the commander of an amphibious squadron to the captain of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer. The helicopter didn’t even land to deliver it, dropping it from a hovering position before flying away. The message was contained in a bean bag dropped on the Boxer’s flight deck.

The bean bag system, as Military.com explains it, is nearly eight decades old. The system dates back to April 1942, when a SBD Dauntless dive bomber assigned to the USS Enterprise was flying a scouting mission ahead of the USS Hornet. Hornet, about to launch sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers on a raid against Japan, was traveling in extreme secrecy to preserve the element of surprise. The Dauntless pilot encountered a Japanese civilian ship and, fearing he had been spotted, dropped a message in a bean bag on the deck of Hornet.

[...] Bean bags aren’t the only old tech the Navy is bringing back. In 2016, NPR reported that the service was reintroducing sextants as a navigational tool for officers. The U.S. armed services are heavily reliant on the satellite-based Global Positioning System for navigation, making jamming or spoofing GPS signals a major priority for adversaries. If they’re successful, the military must be able to navigate from Point A to Point B the old fashioned way—by sextant if necessary.


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  • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Monday August 19 2019, @05:16PM (7 children)

    by stretch611 (6199) on Monday August 19 2019, @05:16PM (#882222)

    To err is human... To really fsck things up requires a computer.

    This is a good idea, Not only does it give them a backup in case of computer failure (or compromised computers) It gives them a way to think outside the box on how to get things done.

    It similar to why people learn how to do math without a calculator... so that you can do it when you do not have a calculator.

    Without learning other ways, how many people would give up even trying to communicate if a transmitter was broken/destroyed?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @06:02PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @06:02PM (#882241)

    What's the bandwidth of signal flags?

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday August 19 2019, @06:25PM (4 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 19 2019, @06:25PM (#882251) Journal

      What about using hand held point to point laser communicators. They never are and never were connected to a net. While "high tech", there isn't much of anything on one to hack. Unless you make it digital and add encryption.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @06:30PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @06:30PM (#882253)

        High end surveillance might still intercept laser comms, people have made some crazy tech to extract data. Also line of sight can be tricky especially on water.

        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday August 19 2019, @07:23PM

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 19 2019, @07:23PM (#882282) Journal

          Would they also be able to observe signal flags?

          --
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        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 19 2019, @09:15PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 19 2019, @09:15PM (#882330) Journal

          High end surveillance might still intercept laser comms

          High end surveillance will have no trouble intercepting semaphores. Hell, they might be able to automate reading it in real time by satellite soon.

      • (Score: 2) by sjames on Monday August 19 2019, @07:28PM

        by sjames (2882) on Monday August 19 2019, @07:28PM (#882284) Journal

        Signal lights. Communicate in code (not cipher, code).

    • (Score: 1) by Sally_G on Tuesday August 20 2019, @05:34AM

      by Sally_G (8170) on Tuesday August 20 2019, @05:34AM (#882498)

      Signal lights have more bandwidth than flags do, and they work at night as well.

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