I disagree on the point that digital video is required for scrambling the feed. Commercial feeds such as HBO have been scrambled since 1986, albeit with analog

I disagree on the point that digital video is required for scrambling the feed. Commercial feeds such as HBO have been scrambled since 1986, albeit with analog schemes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videocipher http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videocipher DVB-S came out in 1993 and was one of the first digital standards. It uses DES-based encryption. http://www.dvb.org/about_dvb/history/ http://www.dvb.org/about_dvb/history/ While it may have been difficult to fully-encrypt the video with airborne hardware in the early 1990's, they certainly could have made some effort to scramble it. And by now, it should have been updated to 2002-era webcam technology. Most of the surprise is people confusing the NSA with the military. While the NSA may have the latest and greatest tech, the military is always much farther behind.