National-security secrecy and intelligence struggles could explain some of the strange delays early in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. If so, how do we fix this?
The first tip-off that something peculiar was going on was China’s delay in releasing satellite surveillance photographs. It was days after 370’s loss before Beijing published a picture, even though China surely had first-rate satellite coverage of this part of its strategic backyard.
This is not to dismiss the challenge of identifying details within space photographs. But there was something about the Chinese pictures’ poor resolution – their fuzziness – which raised intelligence specialists’ eyebrows.
Hi-tech spy-satellite optics can see fairly small objects on the ground, although tales of reading licence plate numbers from space seem exaggerated. So, even allowing for China’s delay in coughing up imagery, an issue arises about the low quality of Chinese-released Flight 370 pictures.
Some suspect that this is explained by governments’ – and not just totalitarian China’s – penchant for hiding aerospace photo-reconnaissance capabilities, even to the extent of “fuzzifying” aerial shots prior to public release. No surprise: if your adversaries know what you can see, they could know how to anticipate, dupe, outmanoeuvre and overwhelm you militarily.
05/04/14 David B Harris/Toronto Sun
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The first tip-off that something peculiar was going on was China’s delay in releasing satellite surveillance photographs. It was days after 370’s loss before Beijing published a picture, even though China surely had first-rate satellite coverage of this part of its strategic backyard.
This is not to dismiss the challenge of identifying details within space photographs. But there was something about the Chinese pictures’ poor resolution – their fuzziness – which raised intelligence specialists’ eyebrows.
Hi-tech spy-satellite optics can see fairly small objects on the ground, although tales of reading licence plate numbers from space seem exaggerated. So, even allowing for China’s delay in coughing up imagery, an issue arises about the low quality of Chinese-released Flight 370 pictures.
Some suspect that this is explained by governments’ – and not just totalitarian China’s – penchant for hiding aerospace photo-reconnaissance capabilities, even to the extent of “fuzzifying” aerial shots prior to public release. No surprise: if your adversaries know what you can see, they could know how to anticipate, dupe, outmanoeuvre and overwhelm you militarily.
05/04/14 David B Harris/Toronto Sun
