US department of Homeland Security (DHS) operates autonomous drones patrolling over the USA-Mexico border, which suffer jamming attacks by border smugglers, mainly the drug cartels,” said Gai Mar-Chaim, Senior Partner at the management consulting firm POC. “The DHS gives high priority for lightweight anti-signal jammer solutions for this challenge, and GPSdome is the only commercially available solution that weighs less than 150 gram and consumes power less than 0.75 Watt.
The BBC broadcasts are carried on shortwave frequencies from Taiwan and Uzbekistan, and on medium wave from Mongolia, 38 North reported. It said it wasn’t possible to determine if the medium wave frequency was also targeted by jamming.
Eager to test its Mi-8 electronic warfare variants, the Soviet Union subsequently deployed up to eight Mi-8PPAs, Mi-8MTP/Us and Mi-8SMVs to Syria, where they were based at T4 airbase with regular detachments to Mezze airbase, located closer to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. These helicopters were tasked with jamming the guidance radars of enemy surface-to-air missile systems (SAMs), and might have been pitted against Israeli MIM-23 ‘Hawk’ SAM sites during peacetime before they returned to the Soviet Union at the end of the eighties, ultimately ending up in a helicopter boneyard.
While the tasks of the aforementioned helicopters are relatively straightforward, the SyAAF also operates at least two Mi-17s airborne cell phone jammer platforms for the jamming of enemy air defence radars. First seen during a large-scale Syrian Arab Air Force exercise in July 2012, the first type was seen equipped with two oddly shaped containers installed on either side of the fuselage. While the exact purpose of these containers remain unknown, it is now believed that they are part of the North Korean TACAN electronic jamming system installed onboard at least one SyAAF Mi-17.
Jamming GPS and other satellite navigation systems is the classic asymmetric threat. It’s inexpensive, equipment is readily available and easy to use, and its effects are scalable from targeted local impacts to wide area strategic disruptions. At the same time it is very, very difficult to detect, especially when operated intermittently and/or from a moving platform, and its impacts are often attributed to other causes.