The US Marine Corps deployed a new portable jammer system last week to destroy an unmanned Iranian aircraft and force it to jump into the sea. The new integrated light marine air defense system (LMADIS) interrupts the signal between the drone and its operator, exposing them to the physical environment, inevitably affected by gravity.
The incident occurred in the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. The 11th Naval Expeditionary Force stationed on the amphibious assault ship Boxer parked the LMADIS jammer in the boxer ’s cockpit to defend against Iranian drones known to be fighting in the area. The Marines discovered an unmanned Iranian aircraft and blocked it when the drone approached the boxer within 1,000 meters.
LMADIS is a weapon of the unmanned counter antenna system (Counter-UAS), which consists of two Polaris MRZR scooters: command vehicle and jammer. According to an article from C4ISRNet earlier this year, LMADIS is composed of “tactical air surveillance radar RPS-42, small EO / IR camera, Skyview RF detection system, and MODI RF jammer in the Sierra Nevada”.
The setting process of LMADIS is as follows: RPS-42 detects the drone on the radar, or Skyview detects the back and forth radio signals between the drone operator and the drone itself. The incoming drones are trained to be sure they are friendly or hostile. In a hostile situation, the Marines aimed the MODi cell phone jammer at the drone and prevented radio commands from the drone operator from reaching. Gravity does the rest.
The LMADIS vehicle was located on the bow of the boxer and was even held in front of the camera by another Iranian drone during the reconnaissance flight. The Iranian Armed Forces apparently did not evaluate LMADIS as a threat to its drones, although the system has been shown on US social media sites on the deck of other naval ships in the Middle East.
The MODi jammer has been tested on various civilian drones, including DJI Phantom 4 Pro, X8 fixed wing and air eagle. The C4ISRNet article quoted the program manager of LMADIS: “We have realized that the threat to the user interface is constantly changing.” Enemy illusion experts will fly one day, and the next day they will fly on fixed wings with certain components . What really helps the fleet is its flight situation and how to defeat it so that we can turn to the fleet and provide them with better products, so that we can understand the current threats of the enemy. ”
Iranian drones are almost certainly larger than commercial trolleys. A Pentagon spokesperson said the drone was a “UAS fixed-wing flight system (UAS).” Probably one of Iran’s Mohaj drones.
Although commercial civilian drones that have been tested with LMADIS and Iranian military drones may use the same control system and frequency, it is interesting that the United States seems to understate the capabilities of jammers because they only target civilian The man-machine was tested.
A more comprehensive integrated marine air defense system is designed to shoot down drones, fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, and includes non-kinetic (interference) and kinetic energy weapons to shoot down drones. The kinetic energy weapon is a 7.62mm miniature gun mounted on the new Humvee replacement “Joint Light Tactical Vehicle”. The Marine Corps plans to eventually equip LMADIS with laser weapons.
LMADIS is part of the Marine Air Defense Artillery and part of a broader effort to restore short-range air defense. Despite the overwhelming US superiority in air power in the past to protect American ground forces from air strikes, with the development of war weapons, the proliferation of drones has created a weapon that can easily sneak in under the patrol of F-35 fighter Ground Marines attack.
Organizations such as ISIS, smaller countries such as Iran and even Russia and China use air defense systems composed of drones to shoot down anything from commercial drones to enemy attack helicopters and fighter jets.