Sweden's air force 'can't send secret messages'

[tigershark]

Sweden's air force 'can't send secret messages'
A prominent Riksdag member has expressed outrage upon learning that Sweden's new Jas Gripen fighter jets can’t receive encrypted communications.
   
As a consequence, an enemy would be able to hear any orders Swedish commanders sent to pilots in a time of war.

“This is extremely serious,” said Allan Widman, a Liberal Party member of the Riksdag’s defence committee, to Sveriges Radio (SR).

An earlier version of the Gripen used by Sweden, set to be taken out of service in 2011, has the capability to receive messages on Sweden's own encryption system.

In 2007, the Riksdag authorized the military to purchase a newer version of the Swedish-made fighter jet outfitted with new technology to facilitate communication with Nato aircraft.

As a result of the upgrade, however, the new Gripens aren’t equipped to receive communications from Sweden’s encryption system, leaving open communications as the only way for Swedish commanders on the ground to give orders to pilots in the air.

“It’s obviously a very sad situation we find ourselves in when we can no longer securely and secretly command our combat aircraft,” said Widman.

“The big problem is that any future combatant would know in part what we’re thinking of doing and its also obviously much easier for him to disrupt our communications.”

According to Torgny Fälthammar, head of development for the Swedish Air Force, the military won’t be able to upgrade the new Gripen's communications capability until 2015 because of cutbacks on defence spending.

Widman is especially upset that no one in the military informed the Riksdag of the new aircraft’s diminished capability at the time of the purchase.

“I’m saying we must demand responsibility from the people who managed this process without making it clear the costs involved with transitioning to only the latest version of the Gripen,” he told SR, adding that the generals involved ought to consider resigning.

“This this happened in any other country, that is exactly what the consequence would be,” he said.

Widman is now proposing that the earlier version of the Gripen be kept in service until the newer versions can be upgraded.

Source
http://www.thelocal.se/17724/20090220/

[F-111 C/C]

Somebody's gonna lose their jobs over that one!

[Cheetah C]

Yip... That is extemely surprising!

[tigershark]

In 2009 how does something like that get over looked? 

[alyster]

Simply speaking swedish on radio is encryption enough? 
Probably just a small upgrade coming up...

[shawn a]

Is there a Swedish version of Pig Latin?

[Viggen]

Simply speaking swedish on radio is encryption enough? 
Probably just a small upgrade coming up...

Another comedian..hehe. That was a good one Alyster. 

My countrys defence is breaking down from the inside.  Like F111 said, someone is going to loose his/her job over this. Not to mention the person who leaked the information to the public.

[Cobra2]

Yes. Broadcasting this everywhere isn't a good idea. That made me mad about what the main stream media did to Israel. Why would we tell everybody about the Israeli spies and black operations in Iran and even broadcast it on the news? Are we trying to start World War III here?!

Anyway, back to topic.

If the people were smart enough to build the avionics in modules, an avionics upgrade package would be sufficient. However, that would basically mean a recall would be ordered to save money, and the programmers to reprogram the avionics to receive, decrypt and encrypt these messages. And a recall is not in the options of the Swedish defense. 

[alyster]

I think there's little chance anyone keeping an eye on Sweden didn't know that already. You know finns are quite worried about their communication systems. They think all of their radios have been catalouged by the Russian forces and when someone goes on air enemy knows from the unique signal which every radio has that which unit is on the air, either a brigade learship or just some platoon. And ofcourse they also know the location. So little chance that media stired anything up here. Electronic warfare is taken seriously in alot of places.

If anything it is a good kick in the air force's ass to get things moving. However it is plain stupid that such weapons systems lack encryption possibility. Thinking of it, my inf. platoon's communication is probably more safe then a flight of Gripen's