As I posted on the other thread about this article...
The thing I find curious is what is the Suter system. I can only find 3 references to it on the web. One is in this article. The second is from an article written by the same David Fulghum mentioned in the article on 25 Jan 06. And the 3rd is on a Hungarian blog on 30 Jan 06 which is almost word for word from the 25 Jan article (so it’s probably sourced from the earlier article).
I’m hoping that this is not a case where an “Air Force source” gave out some info to a reporter that he darn well should not have.
The danger in clearing the Suter program for release is that you tip off your opponents to begin researching their own such attack programs (eventually).
In the short term, once opponents figure out that the U.S. and Israel are doing RDP in the field, they pretty well have to choose to forego the use of computers (including inside smart weapons) in the military and banking sectors.
The longer that they leave them turned on, the longer that their own machines are spying on them.
Of course, turning them off sends their military programs back to pre-1960 levels of high-tech. As if a Korean-War-era Warsaw Pact military (sans nukes!) would be a meaningful threat to NATO today.
So leaking such programs would change the geopolitical playing field. The military option would be *out* for our foes if they learn that we can do RDP.
Frankly, I’m unsure that we can. There are significant technical hurdles to remote data placement...and the Israeli aircraft *were* spotted by the Syrian AD system (remember the drop tanks were tracked).