Jane’s Defence Weekly (subscription only) is an entertaining source of information. Sandwiched between news of Peruvian plans to upgrade their MIG 29 fighter force and adverts for body armour, you can find surprising amounts of detail relevant to information assurance issues.

We’ve posted before on UAV (robotic airplane) activity and the staggering bandwidth requirements they generate and the need for secure communications. Jane’s tells us more–that there are 157 types of UAV in development in 17 European nations, and that, according to the United States Air Force, co-ordination problems between the USAF and other services in Iraq, Afghanistan and other combat areas is currently a pressing issue.

The USAF (the organisation that brought us Curtis LeMay, advocate of bombing enemies until the rubble jumps), inevitably thinks that they should have executive authority over high and medium altitude unmanned aircraft. Well, they would.

Another story in the same issue talks of NATO planners demanding full interoperability for equipment and weapons, and specifically mentions UAVs. “The appetite of our field commanders for UAVs is unlimited, for example. But we cannot have a Dutch UAV flying over southern Afghanistan that is unable to send data to a UK or Canadian commander.”

Later, the article notes “A US-led project involving 10 nations and allied capability planners called MAJIIC aims to do just that by defining a common architecture for sharing data.”

As a former member of the US Navy, I have an inherent prejudice regarding the USAF, which may colour my thinking. Nonetheless, I would suggest that EU and NATO technical planners get a secure system for sharing information in place soon, and offer to share with the Yanks rather than cede control.