Army: Working to encrypt UAV video feeds

[unhappycamper]

Army: Working to encrypt UAV video feeds
By Michael Hoffman, John Reed and Joe Gould - Staff writers
Posted : Sunday Dec 20, 2009 10:31:25 EST

The Army is scrambling to protect the live video feeds from its unmanned aerial vehicles from being intercepted by the enemy. Raven drones will be retrofitted with encryption technology as early as this month.

Defense officials confirmed Dec. 17 that Iraqi insurgents have been capturing the nonsecure, line-of-sight communications signals from Army and Air Force drones since mid-2008.

Army officials acknowledged that the service has fielded hundreds of drones without the ability to encrypt the signals that ground forces rely upon for intelligence and surveillance of insurgent hideouts or roadside-bomb hot spots.

However, the Army will retrofit the handheld Raven and other UAVs over “at least two years,” targeting currently deployed systems first, said Col. Gregory Gonzalez, the Army’s project manager for unmanned aerial vehicles.

For the Shadow, Hunter, Warrior Alpha and the Extended-Range Multipurpose UAV, the Army will retrofit all systems with encryption, as funding permits, said Gonzalez.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/army_uav_hack_122009w/