The Russian military has been jamming some U.S. military drones operating in the skies over Syria, seriously affecting American military operations, according to four U.S. officials. So far, the attacks have only affected small surveillance drones, four officials told NBC News, not the U.S. Air Force’s armed Predator and Reaper models. They declined to discuss whether any of the small aircraft had gone down as a result of jamming. High-end drones like the Global Hawk, Predator and Reaper are equipped with inertial navigation systems, which do not depend upon external signals for positioning, in addition to their GPS receivers.
I know, some of you are reading this and saying, “No way! I can stop texting and talking while driving, I don’t want anyone knocking out my cell phone.” Like anyone else, I hate to lose my ability to communicate, but the idea is not a crazy one. A company in Doylestown, Pennsylvania called Perfectjammer patented technology in its cell phone cell phone jammer device. The cell phone blocker jams the cell phone signal of the person sitting in the driver seat a car going over 10 miles per hour. In other words, the drivers cell phone does not get a signal.
The specter of a bill that would allow jamming of cell signals frightened the cellular industry. In 2009 CTIA, the wireless communications industry association, approached Tecore about developing an alternative to signal jammer, which became iNAC.
GSM jammers, also known as cellular jammers or mobile phone jammers, are designed to prevent cellular communication in designated areas. The cellular jammers emit RF jamming interference signals that attack the abilities of a mobile phone to receive service from a cellular network. That means that if a cell phone user is beginning to make a call or is already engaged in a call, cell phone jamming will overpower the carrier signal and terminate the call.
According to the report, the jamming equipment was developed by the Russian military and is sophisticated enough to affect even navigation equipment with anti-jam technology and good enough to affect encrypted communications, though encryption only makes it hard to get into the drone’s control systems or sensor output. The Department of Defense declined to comment on whether any drones had crashed as a result of the jamming.
A Corrective Services NSW spokeswoman said the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) recently approved a two-year trial of jammer equipment at the Goulburn jail. “Mobile phones are becoming smaller and harder to detect all the time,” the spokeswoman said. “We put a lot of effort into preventing the use of these phones by inmates, but for maximum effectiveness, jamming needs to be part of our approach.”