In the Iraqi case, I'm guessing the bandwidth of the signal would be prohibitive to send out on anything other than satellite.
Also, if you send it out again you will still have a key management problem if the data is encrypted.
I do agree with the premise that if there is crypto it doesn't have to be strong as the enemy do not have a proper analytic capacity. While I also know that the current US defence chief wants gear to fight the war on his hands right now and down the track, but you'd think that they might have considered that crypto would be a good idea at some point and at least had some plans on how to incorporate it. At the moment it just looks like the US military were caught with their pants down.
In the Iraqi case, I'm guessing the bandwidth of the signal would be prohibitive to send out on anything other than satellite.
So, by obfuscating with a "new compression algorithm" you can also actually do compression and save yourself a little bandwidth. This also gets you over bureaucratic hurdles. "By introducing this algorithm, we are save X gigabytes per whatever."
Also, if you send it out again you will still have a key management problem if the data is encrypted.
I do agree with the premise that if there is crypto it doesn't have to be strong as the enemy do not have a proper analytic capacity. While I also know that the current US defence chief wants gear to fight the war on his hands right now and down the track, but you'd think that they might have considered that crypto would be a good idea at some point and at least had some plans on how to incorporate it. At the moment it just looks like the US military were caught with their pants down.