Russia will gain an edge in electronic warfare

The unnamed officials told NBC that the jamming was having an “operational impact” and that the Russian equipment was sophisticated enough to break through a number of existing countermeasures, including some jamming-resistant components. “The U.S. military maintains sufficient countermeasures and protections to ensure the safety of our manned and unmanned aircraft, our forces and the missions they support,” Eric Pahon, a Pentagon spokesman, said in response to the outlet’s request for additional information, refusing to confirm or deny the reports.

Drone Gun also features a GPS signal jammer system for disrupting communications between the drone and its operator. Drone Dome’s range reaches several miles, but causes minimal interruptions to other systems in nearby urban areas.

The standard Drone Dun system comprises a RADA RPS-42 S-band multi-mission hemispheric radar, a Controp MEOS electro-optical (EO)/infrared surveillance suite, a communications package, and the C-Guard RD jamming and NetSense Wideband detection sensor systems developed by Netline. The UAV threat is neutralized by activation of directional GPS/GNSS and radio-frequency inhibitor/jammer devices.

But Russia’s capabilities to jam and intercept video feeds from this category of drones are well established at this point. The country has a wide array of man-portable and vehicle-mounted electronic warfare systems that are reportedly capable of jamming transmissions and also feeding false information into networks, including “spoofing” GPS signals and potentially sending parties and vehicles off their intended course.

In Syria specifically, there have been increasing indications that the U.S. military is concerned broadly about the potential for GPS jamming or other disruptions with the navigational network. The War Zone was first to report that at least one weekly U.S. Air Force intelligence summary in 2016, which we obtained in a heavily redacted form via the Freedom of Information Act, included an entire section devoted to the issue.