U.S. military wants to dominate electronic warfare with GPS signal jammer

A small direct-inject jammer tested recently at the National Training Center in California can be programmed to simulate jamming of radio signals that are used for electronic detection during training scenarios, the Army said in a release. These small devices require less power than earlier direct-inject jammers, which makes for a perfect fit for training centers where approval for such electronically denied environments previously was difficult.

The U.S. Army wants drone jammer now to dominate future electronic warfare and is switching to a little-understood and lightly regulated contracting method to get them.

If the Army suspects who might be responsible, it's not saying. Equally, it's not clear if the bandits were after the Duke equipment specifically, or if the Land Cruisers were the sole target and the jammers were simply bonuses.

Best case scenario: the thieves have no ties to insurgents and no appreciation of the jammers' value ... and the high-tech devices wind up in a scrap heap somewhere.

Worst case: the jammers wind up in the hands of insurgents who then reverse-engineer them to create some kind of counter-counter-measure, thus making already-deadly IEDs even more dangerous.

A U.S. Defense Department official, describing the finding, said: “China has deployed military jamming equipment to its Spratly Island outposts.”

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GPS wifi signal jammer threat from China

The U.S. assessment is supported by a photo taken last month by the commercial satellite company DigitalGlobe and provided to The Wall Street Journal. It shows a suspected cell phone signal jammer system with its antenna extended on Mischief Reef, one of seven Spratly outcrops where China has built fortified artificial islands since 2014, moving sand onto rocks and reefs and paving them over with concrete.

"We have not had to worry about being jammed or being intercepted, that sort of thing," Hodges said. "The Russians definitely have that capability to do that. If we are not disciplined, if we're not trained and if we don't use our communications equipment correctly, then we'll be intercepted. And if you can be intercepted, then you can be hit."

The Army has revamped its primary infantry European training facility in Hohenfels, Germany, so that troops now face a hypothetical enemy armed with precision-guided munitions, rocket launchers and advanced electronic jammers &mdash; "all the things that the Ukrainians are encountering," Hodges said.