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The intelligence community was hunting RF emissions with trucks during WWII. Three quarters of a century of top-dollar aerospace and electronic warfare R&D late
by closeparen 8y ago
The intelligence community was hunting RF emissions with trucks during WWII. Three quarters of a century of top-dollar aerospace and electronic warfare R&D later... I’d be surprised if they didn’t have this capability by the 70s. What do you think the National Reconaissance Office is?
- jhayward 8y agoYou probably mean the National Reconaissance Office [1] [1] http://www.nro.gov/ http://www.nro.gov/
- closeparen 8y agoThanks, updated.
- daviddumenil 8y agoRF tracking was even more sophisticated in WWII. The Gestapo developed a man-portable set worn under a trenchcoat: https://www.cryptomuseum.com/df/gurtelpeiler/index.htm https://www.cryptomuseum.com/df/gurtelpeiler/index.htm
- greglindahl 8y agoI don't think the NRO puts much effort into finding illegal fishing, or other kinds of activity that don't impact US national security.
- ggm 8y agoHaving a capability and chosing what you use it for are different things. I also believe that the life of RF detection by third parties, and radio between parties has been entirely parallel. For every signal, there is a device hunting that signal in amongst the noise.
- ImprovedSilence 8y agoI think the point here is that the satellites are not owned by the gov, but by a contractor, hence the quote about capital expense to operational expense. Everyone wants to be a service these days, you don't own it, you borrow it, etc...