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 ...
Could burn a F-18 hornet tire at the end of the carrier deck to make smoke signals.
Bean bags because of treasonous self absorbed folks like Hillary Clinton, Sid Blumenthal, JOHN Brennan, James Clapper, Peter Sztrok, and most of the FIB.
Often careless or incompetent, but never cooperative.
Perhaps the word was ‘secure’. I”m glad your father made it home and you, the 130 crew and the F-102 pilot as well.
“I can MANUALLY give you a bearing in under 30 secs if I have the freq already dialed in.”
But you don’t on a rotating Frequency schedule. A Change every 4 hours whether it’s used or not.
And Morse Code over HF only emits when the key is depressed, the only for fractions of a second at a time.
Can you get a reliable bearing on that? One that you would bet your life on?
IIRC, read somewhere that backwards countries would be more likely to survive nuclear armageddon, because their technology would still work.
Hand water pumps, e.g.
“The US Navy still can use Morse Code in emergency situations.”
That is good to hear. Thank you for the information.
“It ALWAYS gives a bearing to the *source*.
Skywave UHF doesn’t.
L
Impressive!
I, too, hope they still have such capability.
Last I heard they are still using signal lights, semaphore, and signal flags as well. Still have to be able to communicate in Emission Controls or if the radio goes out.
A narrow-beam signal to another asset can be rebroadcast, only giving away the bearing of the secondary asset.
Think optical uplink to a satellite, downlink to a wide area.
What’s the beanbag message say?
“Attack...repeat...Attack”.
They’re kidding, right?
“VIA MORSE CODE”
Fists are almost like fingerprints.
By the mid 70’s the good US military CW ops were Coast Guard. Globally, probably the Soviets.
Do You mean Navajo Code Talkers ?
yes
SEND MORE CORN, FLOUR TORTILLAS AND HOT SAUCE PLEASE.
re: “Skywave UHF doesn’t.”
A contradiction in terms; UHF yields a line-of-sight terrestrial comms, there is no “skywave”.
Maybe you mean SW (shortwave) using ionospheric prop?
re: “But you don’t on a rotating Frequency schedule. “
I SPECIFIED “IF I HAD THE FREQUENCY ALREADY DIALED IN”.
Please pay attention, I hate repeating myself needlessly.
re: “Think optical uplink to a satellite,”
We’re talking radio here ...
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