WASHINGTON — It will take at least until 2014 to encrypt video feeds from the U.S. military’s Predator and Reaper drones to prevent enemy forces from intercepting the information, Air Force officials said Friday.
Reports last week said U.S. forces had discovered that insurgents in Iraq, using inexpensive, off-the-shelf software, had been able to hack into video feeds from the drones, which are used for surveillance and launching missiles in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Some Pentagon officials initially dismissed the reports, saying this was an old problem that had been addressed. But the Air Force Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan acknowledges concern.
Work on encryption began this year on the Air Force’s fleet, but the report said it will not be finished until 2014 and even then will not “account for the retrofit of the existing fleet.” The Army also operates unmanned aircraft and has acknowledged the need to protect the feeds sent from its fleet.
