Posted on 08/16/2019 5:09:25 PM PDT by Mariner
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
We would have a present code book, rotating daily, with the decode of character groups.
Then we would establish a single HF frequency for the battle group and keep all silent until there was a flash message to be delivered.
Then, the ship with the flash traffic would send the small set of character codes VIA MORSE CODE to the battle group with a transmission lasting no more than 30 seconds. There would be no acknowledgement.
Emcon. Hack proof. Effective.
There are all sorts of contingencies worked out in Naval communications. Lots of them.
This article talks of one that made the news because it's so cute.
There’s just nothing dumb about this, cause anything digital can be hacked or monitored.
American Indians?
>>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.
Especially with disloyal Islamists, homofascists, Marxists, and Chinese agents all embedded within the ranks.
A thirty aircraft recovery at night w/no radio comms, no electronic navaid emissions from the carrier were commonplace thirty years ago. I hope they still train that way.
Digital messages sent via low powerlaser would work. Very narrow beam, undetectable more than a few hundred meters.
They could go back to Spartan message rods.
“Especially with disloyal Islamists, homofascists, Marxists, and Chinese agents all embedded within the ranks.”
The Crypto is the CROWN JEWEL of every military, and every civilization.
Especially with disloyal Islamists, homofascists, Marxists, and Chinese agents all embedded within the ranks.
= = =
Bean bag?
That is Mexican cultural appropriation.
Shut it down faster than those touch screens.
“I hope they still train that way.”
If they’re not, I want my money back!
Relying on WWII-Era Communications...
Yelling out the tenement window??
“Norton! NORTON! WILL YOU GET DOWN HERE ALREADY???”
About five years ago, some agency of the German government started using typewriters so the NSA (and others) couldn’t hack them.
They think it’s cute only because they won’t have any way to hack in.
“Yelling out the tenement window??”
They train for every contingency. A battle group must have comms, even at the most basic level.
No matter what.
They still use semaphore too. And practice it.
An asset is considered dead if there are no comms with it as scheduled.
Will our Navy go back to semaphores, with the vulnerability being that they have to remain in visual range of each other?
-PJ
Cool history, thank you!
Yep, better yet. They make laser microphones with the same range. They detect vibrations on a solid object. They could literally talk to each other with two of these.
“Will our Navy go back to semaphores, with the vulnerability being that they have to remain in visual range of each other? “
See my #15.
Noting, that if the US Battle Group.fleet loses all form of electronic communications their only hope is to retreat and run for home.
But that will not happen, even though they train for it.
Remember, they shoot back and they are very, very, very good at that.
The US navy could defeat all the world’s navies, combined.
In the same month.
Sure, they’d need a little help from the US Air Force, but what are buddies for?
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