Siege Update

[Admiral Yi]

Sometimes a sincgar is just a sincgar.

[Razgovory]

It is not that big of a deal.
I guarantee you that there more than one Raptor in the US Army.

If your exact call sign is known, and the call sign of others in your platoon also become known, then the combination of that information could be used to help track the deployment of your platoon.

Just b/c a single piece of information is not that useful on its own doesn't mean that it can't become useful in combination with other pieces of information.  Why not err on the safe side?

Just curious how.  Because if he is Raptor what ever, his whole platoon is Raptor (X).   So feasibly you can track his whole platoon already then....But I don't know how you can, or how you'll hack a sincgars to listen in/track him during deployment.

Well, he gave other information about his unit.  Still I read news articles where in Iraq they had Iraqi translators steal quite a bit from military bases and selling it on the street.  It's not inconceivable they could act as spies as well.

[Norgy]

Well, it is official. I am in the 101st Airborne Division, The Screaming Eagles.

I fear the war in Afghanistan might be over before I get an oportunity to deploy and wage war on Islam once again. A diferent war, a diferent country, the same old smelly enemy.

Congratulations. Although I rarely see eye to eye with you on anything at all, that is really good.

I sincerely doubt the war in Afghanistan will be over anytime soon, but NATO involvement, possibly. Good luck and remember "Taliban" just means they can recite the Koran.

[crazy canuck]

countless enemy killed or captured, countless enemy weapon caches found

Too bad they were not counted.  Its a shame you never got any credit.

[The Minsky Moment]

Just curious how.  Because if he is Raptor what ever, his whole platoon is Raptor (X).   So feasibly you can track his whole platoon already then....But I don't know how you can, or how you'll hack a sincgars to listen in/track him during deployment.

Sincgar is just a gussied-up portable radio, no? 

[Alcibiades]

It's a portable radio that can swap across over a hundred channels per second.  Apparently it's exceptionally hard to crack, and you generally change the algorithm/channels it goes across very often.

[Caliga]

We have those installed in Red Cross ECRV vehicles (or some similar system, if not exactly the same thing).

[Alcibiades]

We have those installed in Red Cross ECRV vehicles (or some similar system, if not exactly the same thing).

Probably, it is one of the only real ways to communicate with the military.

[Caliga]

I couldn't tell you by looking at that pic if it's the same--the back of the vehicle is an entire panel of radio and satellite equipment and the various knobs/keypads all kind of blend together in my mind.

The other cool thing you can do with an ECRV is interfere with the signals of some communications satellites, or so I've heard.  We share bandwidth with: Showtime.

[Slargos]

Break a Taliban's leg. 

[The Minsky Moment]

It's a portable radio that can swap across over a hundred channels per second.  Apparently it's exceptionally hard to crack, and you generally change the algorithm/channels it goes across very often.

Frequency hopping can be cracked.  Police and security domestically use that kind of security for their radio transmissions and you can find $200 scanners that crack it.  No doubt the military version is much more capable but I doubt that breaking it is beyond the capacity of Chinese or Russian engineers.

[Caliga]

He didn't say it couldn't be done.

[Alcibiades]

It's a portable radio that can swap across over a hundred channels per second.  Apparently it's exceptionally hard to crack, and you generally change the algorithm/channels it goes across very often.

Frequency hopping can be cracked.  Police and security domestically use that kind of security for their radio transmissions and you can find $200 scanners that crack it.  No doubt the military version is much more capable but I doubt that breaking it is beyond the capacity of Chinese or Russian engineers.

Yeah, they way they mitigate the risk of it just being frequency hopping, is changing the frequencies and keys that are used very frequently.


Shrug, I'm no crypto-analyst, and I'd rather not say more on how we use these things properly.   

[crazy canuck]

In the good old days you just needed to say "loose lips sink ships" and everyone would nod their head in agreement.

[The Minsky Moment]

I think Siege's posting is terrific and all that and I enjoy his war stories but better to err on the side of caution.