F-16s still use PCMCIA cards to load targeting data. They have enough space, they work fine, they're not too big, and they're not too small. You really don't want to be trying to insert an SD card while wearing gloves in cold weather.
This was back before ubiquitous open WiFi and encryption.
The heyday of wardriving (IMHO) was before the industry got its shit together with WPA.
Because before WPA, there was WEP. Which it turns out had multiple vulnerabilities, given enough traffic.
https://www.dummies.com/programming/networking/understanding...
Ergo, there was a period from ~1999-2004 whereby one could aim a Pringles cantenna at a neighbor's AP and crack their WEP password in order-of-an-evening (depending on how much traffic they were generating).
Not that I ever did such a thing, mind you.
[1] It actually implements three protocols that it can switch between based on endpoint negotiation - PCIe, DisplayPort, and in its latest version USB 3.1.