Why do the Avengers have bad radio discipline?

Question

I have been thinking about the communication between team members in the Avengers movies, primarily when they talk over their team radio net. It seems like they have very little radio discipline in the fact that it always seems like they are using each others names. This seems dangerous as there might be people or groups trying to snoop on their radio chatter.

Some of this is fine, for example using "Tony" or "Stark" for Ironman, since his identity is known. Thor is the same, as well as Steve Rogers and War Machine as Colonel Rhodes.

But everyone is always calling Hawkeye "Clint", Black Widow "Nat", or "Romanov", Falcon was called both "Sam" and "Wilson" in Civil War. Again, some of these could be fine, maybe everyone knows who Falcon is, but wouldn't Agents like Black Widow and Hawkeye have better radio discipline drilled into them as super secret agents that sometimes need to go undercover? Isn't that why they have alias names in the first place?

We know they aren't completely careless, since Spiderman is never referred to as "Peter Parker" in Civil War, but Ant Man is called "Lang", which seems bad since his identity is not known very well.

Is there an in-universe explanation for why no one seems to have good radio discipline, or is it just something to make watching the movies easier since the names lead to more natural dialogue?

Answer 1

Yes, as you provide evidence of, they have terrible radio discipline. Trigger discipline too. Obviously this is due to the medium, movies and comics are verbal and the film makers need you to relate to human (ish) characters in a short amount of time. Sticking to radio silence and code names would make them too stiff to like.

That said, only Cap, Wilson and maybe Barton fail in this respect. They are the only traditional soldier types and would have radio discipline drilled into them. Then again. It's only really Wilson, as the rank and file soldier. Rogers spent most of his military career as a mascot capsicle, and the other half ignoring orders as a special agent. Nat is a spy, Thor is a loud boasting rage drunk, Lang a thief, Stark an egomaniac, etc.

Notice that SHIELD agents do not have the same lack of discipline or screen time that would cinematically necessitate this informal kidding over comms.

But to expand, there is more to it. The Avengers have the typical comic banter type of group dynamics. Contrast Cap in the serious missions during The First Avenger. Quick action scenes, and then his solo mission at the end. Widow uses talking as a weapon, to distract and throw off guard both foe and friend. It's part of her whole M.O., unassuming power house. Contrast Fury who tries to keep them on target.

Interestingly enough, the most disciplined is Hulk.

Answer 2

Mentioning Civil War, all of the Heros are asked to disclose their identity, by signing the Accords (read about the civil war comics). That being said, there is no reason, to disclose their Identity.

Romanoff does this even after (Captain America: Winter Soldier).

Secondly, they are not traditionlly using radio communication, where only one at the time is able to speak. They have more like a group conversation eg. skype, where all are able to talk to each other. This is probably encrypted by a mechanism developed by Tony, Vision and/or Jarvis, that would probably take more time to break, than the current mission.

Answer 3

This seems dangerous as there might be people or groups trying to snoop on their radio chatter.

This assumes they aren't using a secure system, which is a strange assumption as secure systems exist in the real world and have since WWII. With the advanced tech in the MCU movies, it's completely reasonable to assume that something even more advanced than the currently existing systems is available to them.

With a secure system, eavesdropping is virtually eliminated as a possibility; these systems are typically "closed," in that all devices in the system need to be programmed to recognize a new device being added to it. You can't just tune in to a frequency; the encryption will prevent an outside radio from picking up any chatter. Additionally, because the systems are not using "open" frequencies, no FCC or similar broadcasting licenses are required, and FCC regulations in the US (where the Avengers are based) do not apply.

I have used both secure and open systems in the past, and always assumed the Avengers were using a secure system; using an open system doesn't make any sense in-universe.

Answer 4

An in-universe explanation would be that they don't need it. Their communication is full-duplex, like chatting in Skype. It is also encrypted, probably to the point that they do not worry about enemy ever decrypting it. Finally, they don't have a leader micromanaging every action they take on field.