Some days ago Wall Street Journal published an article saying that not only that video and metadata downlink from UAVs is unencrypted but it is also routinely breached by a variety of hostiles with minimum equipment in HW/SW.

US forces have found laptops and hard discs with many hours of footage and info downloaded from the video feed of various UAVs by using a simple satellite dish, a laptop and cheap commercial software like skygrabber.

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The new Hermes 900 UAV by Elbit made today its maiden flight. The 900 is a medium size UAV, similar in role and size to teh MQ-1 Predator. It has a modular design where payloads can be reconfigured easily for different missions and a 300kg maximum payload. Its wingspan is 15m and MTOW is 970kg. The 900 is powered by a gasoline 115hp Rotax 914 engine (like the Predator A) and has an expected endurance of 40h.

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