Retro Stuff is New Again
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-mco.s3.amazonaws.com/public/KQCD6JE5P5FNXNEKGTSLY65C3U.jpg?resize=455%2C303&ssl=1)
Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) 2nd Class Bradley Peterson from Mora, Minnesota, assigned to amphibious assault ship Boxer (LHD 4) runs to a beanbag dropped on the flight deck during an exercise to communicate with Boxer from an MH-60S Sea Hawk assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 21. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Brian P. Caracci/Navy)
The Navy and Marines are returning to an old-fashioned means of moving info from one ship to another, in view of the advances of all kinds in the field of electronics, particularly the spying and hacking sort of thing by the Russians and Chinese. It’s called a beanbag drop. This is particularly aimed at aircraft carriers and amphibious ships.
From the article: Despite ballyhoo about the need for military cyber, electronic warfare and more tech-adept forces for future war, the Navy and Marines are testing war tactics more common nearly 100 years ago.
No longer can Marines and sailors take for granted uninterrupted electronic communications at sea or on the battlefield.
Tech-capable forces from Russia to China are packing capabilities that can jam U.S. systems or hone in on radio communications to find U.S. forces and ships at sea.
That’s why Marines and sailors aboard the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship Boxer tested in early August an old silent communications tactic used during World War II, according to a command release. – article
Any bets on the Army going retro and using carrier pigeons and the World War I codebooks?
All silly jokes aside, this is a good idea that the Good Idea Fairy probably missed, because there is no such thing as a secure system any more. With Microsoft working on AI and Google taking a similar route, nothing is private unless you ignore their sales pitches and use a dial phone instead of a keypad… and even then, well…. And “smart” TV screens? Eeeeeewwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Marines, Navy
Correct, nothing is secure like a twisted pair tied down to a terminal. Unless, of course, somebody physically taps into the line between point A and B. Anything transmitted can be intercepted, or squelched. I’m sure the wire dogs and comm rats can chime in on this.
Keyboards and monitors leak enough signal to snoop, although this concern may be a tempest in a teapot.
I see what you did there…
Heck, yeah!! Time for the old One Time Pad to come back into vogue!!
http://users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/en/onetimepad.htm?iframe=true&width=100%25&height=100%25
As a communications officer on a MEU, I desperately wanted to see if I could make continuous wave (CW – an HF wave used for Morse Code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_wave) to work in conditions where normally HF, VHF, and SATCOM were problematic. I was on the 31st MEU, however, and we had to rotate 50% of my comm det every 6 months. This meant that taking the time to teach folks Morse didn’t make a whole lot of sense when there were some many other things to do.
Very sad!
Ham radio operators still use Morse code. No reason to not use it. Ditto mirror signaling.
You want code talkers again? Get the military to start training people in a spoken language like the WWII code talkers – no written language, can’t be broken by anyone who doesn’t understand it. Whistling languages and click languages still exist.
Does the Navy still use signal flags, lights and semaphores?
IIRC the only units in the Army still using morse code are SF and I’m not even sure about that.
“Does the Navy still use signal flags, lights and semaphores?”
I know that the Navy did away with the Signalman rate a while back, so I don’t believe that they’re using any of those methods of communication any longer.
Perhaps one of our Team TAH Surface Warfare Sailors can pitch in here and clarify.
Semaphore and flashing lights are rarely used. Pennants, yes. The quartermasters don’t use semaphore enough to be proficient or quick. Usually when ships are close enough to use it the radio comms are good. Sad as the old signalmen are gone away and no one really cares to learn it. Still use signal paddles during RAS though.
No more Skivvy Wavers? A sad day for the Navy.
Anyone out there remember the Navy August lamps??? Oldie but a goodie and I forgot to mention it on my other comments.
I don’t think IMC (international morse code) is taught in the Q course anymore. Not copying 20 GPM (groups per minute) sent more than one aspiring SF Commo man to the Weapons or Engineer course.
Once you’ve learned IMC its with you for life and you’ll find yourself tapping your thigh where your leg key used to be to every sign you pass on the highway.
The old hand operated Navy shipboard CW lights are now going digital. The Coast Guard no longer uses CW for maritime emergencies. DSC. Digital Selective Calling are being used which is basically the same as Sitor B (50 baud, 100 shift) but the bits are arranged differntly I believe. I worked with someone who was a Navy Skivvy Waver (signalman) and he taught me CW and Semaphore while at work so he had me doing Manila Milkman with my hands and the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs back with CW and semaphore. The rule of thumb is, never send code faster than you can receive it.
Read the story the other day in Navy Times online but stayed away from copying it due to the last comment I put in violating copyright laws which Admin. straightened out. Spent the night half asleep waiting for the copy right police whom were standing behind the Don’t remove the mattress tag Police ready to break down the front door with a rubber Halligan tool and rubber flat head axe so as to keep the noise level down.
Jeff, you keep that stuff up, and they will execute red flag computer confiscation on you.
Too late, the Black Helos are on the way. They found out about your BBQ sauce stash.
Awhile back on a carrier somewhere they showed us where they track the airplanes location on the ship. I expected a cosmic electronic display. Nope, wood ship model with small model airplanes being moved around by a sailor wearing a headset.
That would be the ‘Ouija Board’ that the Handler uses in order to keep track of the precise location and status of each aircraft on deck aboard an aircraft carrier.
And one of the great things about the ‘Ouija Board’ is that it keeps on working even when the power goes out and/or the computers fail.
Yet another example of “simpler is better”.
I heard that they stopped using the aircraft locator nuts, bolts and other objects on the Ouija board. Now modernized. Caught that on a TV show about Carriers.
Navy back to teaching the sextant again due to GPS jamming.
The Naval Academy stopped teaching sextant use a number of years ago but since the two major Tin Can collisions, it’s back in action. The Coast Guard Academy teaches it’s use also and it’s being used in the fleet now aboard ships. I had a pick of a Sailor using a sextant on the bridge of a ship getting her celestial navigational bearings from this weeks Navy Times snail mail hard copy or this months USNI hard copy magazine but alas as I have read both of them, they went into the circular re cycle file (shit can)
Heck, GPS and cellphones mean nobody knows what a compass and protractor are (let alone what they’re for) any more.