January 23, 2008: The Israeli air raid
on a Syrian research center late last year, which blew past the extensive
Russian built air defenses, has caused a lot of nations to look at alternatives
to the old Russian Cold War model. The Russians used a special commo network
for the air defense network, that included landline as well as wireless
communications. These have been shown to be very vulnerable to a skilled and
resourceful foe (like the U.S. or Israel), several times over the last few
decades.
China, for example, went in a different
direction for their air defense commo needs. They use very little wireless
stuff, and basically depend on Internet type technology. This includes
encryption stuff available on the net, and VOIP (like Skype) for voice
communications. Skype is encrypted, and not quickly decrypted (although the NSA
may have a solution here, but they would never admit it.) China does this
mainly because they cannot afford a Cold War type system, so they improvise.
The Chinese are very good at improvising.
The Internet was originally designed
for the Department of Defense, as a communications system that could survive a
nuclear attack. The Internet is robust, and could take a lot of abuse from
smart bombs and electronic weapons, and keep working. The U.S. Air Force is now
looking into how to take out an air defense system that bases its
communications on Internet technology.
