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.
In Monday’s press conference, McMaster said Stirling has led the battle for the whole country regarding prison signal jamming. “I know prisons all around this country that would be safer… if this cell phone jammer were allowed,” the governor said.
The effects of jamming can be dramatic. In a 2009 test, a signal jammer with less than a thousandth of the power of a mobile phone aboard the Trinity House vessel Galatea forced false positions to be displayed on the electronic chart and relayed by the automatic identification system to nearby shipping. In addition, satellite communications, the distress safety system and helicopter deck stabilisation failed, clocks went wrong and the ship’s radar and gyrocompass were affected too.
Never-the-less, straight-forward jamming is unlikely to pose the greatest threat, primarily because it is a very blunt instrument and not one that is likely to pass unnoticed. In the event of any abrupt loss or sudden degradation of the signal, a surprising range of devices will detect the problem, not just the GPS receivers themselves, and sound the alarm.
The telecommunications industry has long opposed jamming cell signals, saying that could interfere with legal cell users nearby. But several companies, including Verizon, A&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, agreed to join in tests of various platforms that can jam all calls or simply unauthorized ones, Stirling said.
But while manned aircraft can usually fight back against signal jamming, and pilots in a cockpit can always use their own judgment if communications or navigation is lost, jamming could pose a serious threat to the US Navy’s drones, as there’s no one in the cockpit, according to Lamrani.
The device is capable of obstructing telecommunication protocols between the drone and its remote control. Moreover, the Drone Gun Pro allows to ensure frequency hopping communication systems. In fact, this device is effective against UAVs, IEDs (jamming the triggering instruction given by GSM or radio control) and various communication protocols.