How can the United States win in future jamming operations?

There are several ways GPS signal jammer can interfere with normal operations of a system. If remote access to the control center can be achieved, steering a dish, for example, to a null point can effectively silence a link. This problem is becoming increasingly important as more of our critical infrastructure is placed online and transmitted to the cloud, providing vulnerability for those who seek to cut power, redirect a link, or even shut it down.

GPS jamming has really evolved over the last five or six years, and the laser really gives you a great capability to go GPS independent.

The bombs are the biggest cause of casualties for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. It is not difficult to understand why jamming devices are now routinely deployed where soldiers are conducting operations. Many of these troops have suffered serious injuries from IEDs, and also significant auditory deficits from their service.

Over half of the Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans who are eligible for VA care have sought it. Of those who have sought care more than 1,600 have lost limbs, fingers or toes; 156 are blind and thousands more have impaired vision. And as a result of the noise and the acoustic trauma resulting from IEDs, 177,000have hearing loss and 350,000 report tinnitus. These figures, of course, help make the case for the use of jamming to prevent the detonation of IEDs and thereby reduce these sorts of casualties. Jamming definitely reduces the injuries to soldiers!

However, some states are proposing legislation, like in California, that would allow firefighters and authorities to take down drones if they are interfering with an emergency situation like a wildfire. Blocking approach paths to airports, hovering over fires, and flying over freeways could be considered instances where those drones can be shot down.

The U.S. strategy was defined in six words: “Put them back on the wire.” By neutralizing radio-controlled bombs, the cell phone signal jammer would force insurgent bombmakers to use more rudimentary triggers, such as command wire. Those triggers would be simpler to detect, in theory, and would bring the triggermen closer to their bombs, where U.S. troops could capture or kill them.