The drone is a hexarotor and, as reported by China’s state-owned ECNS news service, it will scan for suspicious radio signals from exam-takers. While that won’t stop any cheaters who use low-tech methods to get around difficult questions, it will detect any number of advanced methods that rely on the test-taker exchanging information with a second party outside the exam room. These methods include cameras hidden in glasses with transmitters hidden in water bottles, cell phones hooked up to flesh-colored wireless headphones, and pen cameras that film the exam-takers’ test.
In the future, while we will hopefully never fight Russia or China, we almost certainly will fight someone who has bought advanced jamming and electronic warfare systems from them or even some of our own allies, said Tom Greco, Gen. Perkins’ chief of intelligence: “It is not a stretch to say that just about any capability that we have has the potential of being disrupted.”
Training to deal with cell phone jammer requires having jammers to train with. That’s tricky for the Army, which got rid of its electronic warfare units as part of the “peace dividend” in the 1990s. The service has short-range defensive jammers that prevent certain types of roadside bombs from detonating, but for offensive jamming it relies entirely on Air Force EC-130H Compass Call and Navy EA-18G Growler aircraft. The Army won’t have its own offensive jammer again until 2023.
While this drone will likely cut down on cheating, there is also the possibility that it may spur a technological arms race in cheater tactics. Perhaps the exam cheaters of the future will use jamming devices or find ways to mask their signals, or maybe they’ll even revert to older, less detectable methods of communication. Either way, under robotic surveillance, the students will definitely learn a lesson in surveillance.
In a major crackdown, telecoms business, Rosobrnadzor, advised schools to use metal detectors at the entrances of exam rooms and if possible, signal jammer, in a bid to ban mobile phones and tablets from the classroom.
Observers note that Russia is using its EW capabilities as a tool of asymmetric warfare, countering expensive weapons like a U.S. Navy destroyer with cost-effective jammers and other EW systems. According to an unconfirmed account published in a Russian newspaper, a Russian SU-24 fighter using the new Khibiny EW system was able to turn off key elements of the U.S. destroyer’s Aegis Combat System, including its radar and data transmission network.