The Wall Street Journal reports that insurgents in Iraq were able to “intercept live video feeds” from US reconnaissance drones. According to WSJ, “senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents” acquired the feed via an “unprotected communications link” in some remotely piloted aircraft. That does not mean, noted the officials, that they could control the RPVs, but they could see what US forces were seeing. Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance head on the Air Staff, told defense reporters in Washington Wednesday that there’s always the potential for eavesdropping or attempts to disrupt signals when using wireless communication links. He added, “One of the ways we deal with that is by encrypting signals.”
The six-week government shutdown did not affect the hours flown by Air Force pilots, a service spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine—avoiding what could have been a major blow at a time when flying hours are already lower than they have been in decades.
