The latest model of drone jammer system

Duke is an outgrowth of a U.S. Army development effort to defeat remote-controlled improvised explosive devices that began in 2005, known as Counter Radio Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare, or CREW. The initial versions of the AN/VLQ-12 went into Humvees, MRAPs, and other Army armored and unarmored vehicles, to provide short-range jamming to prevent terrorists and insurgents from setting off those bombs with cell phones and other remote triggers.

The system lacks any electronic intelligence capabilities, so if a drone gets away it’s impossible to determine what kind of information it may have given an adversary before it was intercepted. The effect of a GPS signal jammer is determined by the software on the drone that the system intercepts, which could result in unpredictable behavior such as a drone-borne IED dropping out of the sky over a friendly position when it was expected to make a soft landing.

The system with its narrow jamming cones has some capability to handle swarms by moving the jammer in a circular pattern, but this is not a robust capability. Using advanced radio transmitters such as those found in AESAs, which can shape the beam into distinct shapes, could aid with this.

If a drone is determined to be hostile and needs to be neutralized, the next phase is activated. Coaxial to the electro-optical sensors, powerful jammers are mounted that can jam the radio signals headed to the drone. Depending on the software, the drone might attempt to return to the operator (the path of which can be tracked on radar), land, or simply fly out of control. The ability for the drone’s operator to control it is expected to be completely degraded by most 4G jammer systems if they are used within effective range.

The Miniature air-launched decoy jammer (MALD-J) seen here loaded to a B-52 bomber, is a powered aerial vehicle that mimics real aircraft, luring enemy surface to air missiles to spend their interceptors on false targets while exposing their radars and command nodes to attack. Photo: US Air Force

This man-portable jammer provides a non-kinetic drone inhibitor. Utilizing multi-band jammer to defeat small UAS from a relatively short range, it can also be used to disrupt mobile phone communications, for example, securing a suspected IED from remote-controlled activation. REX-1 was developed by Kalashnikov subsidiary, Zala Aero Group.

The device is supplied with interchangeable jamming modules covering the 800 MHZ, 1.8, 2.1, 2.4 and 5.8 GHz frequency bands. A strap-on stroboscope, laser sight and audio and video recorders are also availailable.