“Stealth” Drones. How can a drone be “stealthy” if it must be constantly transmitting data in order to be remotely operated? Isn’t radio silence a requirement for stealth in the modern battlefield?
In: Technology
Stealth doesn’t mean being invisible all of them time. It means being hard to detect in the right ways at the right times. If you expect the no one can do anything about your transmissions then broadcast away.
If someone can take advantage of detecting the transmission there are a number of things you can do. Maintaining stable flight is a well understood problem, the drone can do that on its own. So the operator doesn’t need constant feedback in order to control it.
Whatever you do need to send can be sent in a directional broadcast rather than in every direction. That means the listener must be in the right area (or have extremely powerful equipment) to even have a chance. Having those be quick bursts of data rather than a sustained thing makes them harder to pickup and locate. You can also switch frequencies constantly, making ot likely that anyone listening will miss some of them. The drone is also constantly moving so even if the listener gets the information they need it might be out of date. Encrypting the data also helps since encrypted radio should sound similar to static, making it harder for a listener to be sure they’ve found a real signal.
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