Lieutenant Commander David Winters, an American naval officer in London and code master during the final years of the Cold War,[8] was first to recognize the necessity and security potential of OTAR.
Now that OTAR applications have been adapted for civilian emergency service providers and other users requiring enhanced communications security, extensive parallel technology conversion and development have produced commercially viable systems that include end-to-end key generation, distribution, management, and control.
Further, in the unlikely event that a unit, station, or node is stolen, mimicked, or otherwise compromised, a network controller may: Telecommunications protected by encryption require proprietary or classified keys to lock and unlock them.
The security of their production, transport, storage, distribution, accounting, employment, and finally destruction required thousands of trusted agents, world-wide.
Vulnerability of so many physical keys to theft or loss became a statistical reality that was exploited for two decades by the infamous "Johnny Walker" spy ring.
Introduction of OTAR technology into practical application precipitated NSA creation of the Electronic Key Management System (EKMS) which permanently altered the power balance in communications security and espionage.
[19] Vulnerabilities due to accidental, unencrypted “In the clear” transmissions have been demonstrated with systems incorporating OTAR as implemented in Project 25 Digital Mobile Radio Communications Standards.