Wi-Fi Hack Aids Boarding Parties

Kage-Yojimbo writes with a link to the site Strategy Page. There, they're reporting on a military adaptation of civilian wi-fi equipment to use in boarding operations on the high seas. Modifications to normal off-the-shelf gear can result in a range of over 700 meters, allowing information to be passed through on-shore internet connections. "The main reason for all this was to speed up the transmission of passport photos and other personal data back to the ship, so that it could be run through databases to check for terrorists or criminals. This wi-fi hack cut several hours off the time required to check documents. The Expanded Maritime Interception Operations (EIMO) wireless system was developed last year, to provide several kilometers of range to the original wi-fi gear (which has been in use for over three years). Each pair of wi-fi units costs about $1400 to construct, using common parts to add more powerful antennae to standard 802.11g wi-fi equipment."

Comments

Re:$1400?

[xSauronx]

Or basic WISP equipment. Tranzeo has 4.9ghz systems that start at $433 per radio, and can do a good 5 miles or so. Each unit can act as a client, a bridge, or an AP (they sell directional units, and units with n-connectors so you can attach a direction or omni antenna) Ive installed their 2.4ghz radios as far as 5 miles from an AP. $1400 bucks for a pair of radios seems a bit much, IMO. Not that the article was heavy on details anyway.

The Canadian Military Uses This Too...

[VE3OGG]

Except theirs is modified with a high-powered, ultra-top secret Pringles can...

Re:The Canadian Military Uses This Too...

[mobby_6kl]

Canadian navy has ships that can take the additional weight of a pringles can?

Re:The Canadian Military Uses This Too...

[Runefox]

We just a couple of years ago bought (lease-to-own) a few state of the art diesel submarines from Great Britain circa 1990, with very few leaks. Due to their leak-free nature, Pringles cans are allowed on board to replace the excess water normally stored in the crew cabins, and the high-powered, top-secret nature of the new cans allow for internet connectivity at depths as low as two inches, nearing the maximum dive depth.

Re:This has been common for a long time

[ScrewMaster]

This was never the case for military grade equipment in the past.

Not so. The military has long found that it is sometimes more efficient to simply discard malfunctioning equipment. Remember, cost is not so much an issue as availability. A radio that's out for repairs is unavailable, and the cost of that unavailability can be higher than the price tag of a brand new unit. Trained service technicians are not always on hand either, particularly under battlefield conditions.

My father was in the military a long time ago, and the techs he know would often just tag a piece of electronic equipment as "unrepairable" when the only thing wrong was something like a busted knob. That's because new equipment was readily available, tech time was expensive and limited and it just wasn't worth their time to try and fix it. They had more important things to do.