United States will vigorously develop electronic jammers

Different GPS signal jammer worked by different means. Active jammers screamed constantly, disrupting radio-controlled bombs with a barrage of radio waves on pre-selected frequencies that drowned out the triggering signal. Reactive jammers “scanned and jammed” by monitoring the electromagnetic spectrum — like a human ear in a crowded restaurant listening for a voice that whispered “detonate, detonate, detonate” — and then blocked the frequencies they were programmed to block.

The U.S. strategy was defined in six words: “Put them back on the wire.” By neutralizing radio-controlled bombs, the jammers 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.

Prior to this test, the BOP had conducted a limited cellphone jamming demonstration with NTIA in 2010, at the same field site in Cumberland supporting NTIA’s congressionally-mandated study of cellphone interdiction technologies.

As part of the Jan. 17 test, NTIA conducted an independent evaluation of micro-wifi signal jammer technology to determine its efficacy and interference potential with Radio Frequency communications. The BOP and NTIA will review the data and analysis results from both BOP’s and NTIA’s testing and develop recommendations for strategic planning and possible acquisition.

Mobile phones were seized from Block 1,2,3,4 and High-Security block 1. A jammer had been installed in the prison premises two months back. Last year, there were allegedly 72 mobile phone cases registered, while the number is already at 64 this year.

Governor Henry McMaster and South Carolina Department of Corrections director Bryan Stirling reiterated their call for cell phone jamming to be allowed in prisons after a deadly riot that left seven inmates dead.

An advocate for cell phone jammers being installed in South Carolina prisons, Stirling has previously said that prisoner access to cell phones is no different than access to weapons. McMaster has also supported cell phone jamming in prisons.