Posted on 10/19/2006 4:52:14 PM PDT by SandRat
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2006 – U.S. servicemembers can use the SINCGARS radio system with confidence, officials with the Army’s Communications-Electronics Command at Fort Monmouth, N.J., said today.
James Bowden, project leader for the single-channel ground and airborne radio system, said recent media articles claim that Hezbollah used advanced technology to crack Israeli communications during the fighting in Lebanon.
The articles allege that the group used technology from Iran to thwart Israeli tank attacks, Bowden said, adding that some servicemembers have expressed the fear that Hezbollah or Iran has shared this technology with extremists in Iraq.
But the articles are wrong, Bowden asserted. The Israelis do not use the U.S. SINCGARS system, but rather they use another frequency-hopping technology, he said.
Frequency hopping means messages switch among dozens of frequencies per second to evade being jammed or intercepted, Bowden said.
“We are concerned, because these articles lead people to think that SINCGARS is vulnerable, and that this technology is available to bad guys,” Bowden said. “This is not the case. The Israelis do not have SINCGARS radios. They have another frequency-hopping radio that does not have the U.S. frequency-hopping algorithm, does not use the U.S. communications security devices and does not use the U.S. transmission security devices. All three provide robust protection for U.S. SINCGARS.”
Those three pieces of the SINCGARS provide servicemembers with assured communications security when they follow proper communications procedures, Bowden said. Servicemembers deploying to Iraq should take all normal precautions, but they do not need to distrust their communications, he said.
He said some soldiers have called the office with concerns about communications security in light of these articles. “We want to make it clear that they do not have a problem,” he said. “SINCGARS is the robust type of communications they need to protect against these kinds of threats.”
His office has sent messages to the field with this same information. Servicemembers with questions or concerns should e-mail Bowden at James.Bowden@us.army.mil. He noted that he has been working on SINCGARS since the 1980s and can answer any questions about it.
A lot of good a secure radio system does when washington traitors leak like sieves and Chicom operatives work freely all over our country.
Ah, progress.
heck even when you have the proper access the sincgars don't communicate.
ping
I'd take the SINCGARS over the prick any day. It's algorithm is unbreakable, at least for another several hundred years.
Ebigyt kuir sa nov schmoz ka pop etaoin shrdlu notary sojac!
Hey, get your numbers set properly and you'll understand me, HEHE.
For more fun do a search with the keywords
direct sequence, spread spectrum, pseudorandom, frequency hopping radio.
Some pretty amazing rigs out there today and very secure.
The problem is not the content of Israeli communications, which remains secure.
Instead, the problem is that the electromagnetic radio energy emitted by Israeli vehicular traffic can be detected by common civilian spectrum analyzers, giving a bearing and heading (if moving) with primitive radio Direction Finding (DF) techniques.
HARM missiles use your radio emissions to home in and destroy your own radars. Likewise, your radio communications can give away your physical location, even if your enemy doesn't know what you are saying.
AFCEA Member and I was a SIGO with the 5M ASI my entire active career.
And that, not the different frequency hopping algorithm, is what makes SINGARS secure. Although I would have though the Israelis would have something similar and probably about as good. Unless they were too cheap to buy it for all their radios prior to the Lebanon battles, which wouldn't surprise me. I read where the USAF is swapping radios from A-10s belonging to units rotating out of theater to those deploying, because due to budget cuts, they only bought 51 radios, for the 356 A-10s.
Wait til you see the new JTRS radio (pronounced "jitters").
Your statement on the A-10 radio swap is correct.
Ha! Now I remember that any weight and space savings were always taken up with more ammo and batteries, so who am I kidding?
= )
But being secure is not the same as being stealthy. SINCGARS isn't stealthy. Its radio emissions can be detected with century-old radio Direction Finding (DF) techniques combined with modern spectrum analyzers.
Thus, while an enemy might not know what you are saying (your communications are secure, after all), it doesn't take too much for him to know where you are transmitting.
Wait till you see the MBITRS JEM radio. It's the handheld JTRS radio. Slick piece of gear, but expensive as hell.
When you combine freq hop and comsec fills and change them every week, I don't see how we have anything to worry about, other than limited range in cities.
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