The worst problem with satellite imagery is that it produces massive amounts of high-quality data, but intelligence experts can’t keep up. For example, Google-Earth hobbyists have found secret Chinese submarine pens, and entire mocked-up US airbases so the Chinese military can practice attacking them. With Google-Earth the Syrian nuclear site that Israel bombed in 2007 was clearly evident in detail, and it sure looked like it needed to be bombed. This paradox has led to the UAV revolution, because ground troops can finally bypass the sluggish intelligence officers. A sergeant can launch a 2-kilogram mini-UAV and find out immediately if there is someone on the other side of the hill.

After the USA (or even above the USA), Israel has the most technological army in the world...