The Shtora is an electro-optical cell phone jammer designed to disrupt guided missiles. It’s not clear if the jammers were switched on, or didn’t work, when the Hawks Mountain Brigade opened fire. Russian media has also reported that the particular tank was an earlier version of the T-90, so more recent upgrades, such as the T-90A which boasts a modified turret, should fare better.
But even with precision electronic warfare, jamming from one place for a long time is generally an invitation for enemy fire, so EW systems need to be mobile. (Even then friendly forces generally don’t hang out too close when enemy artillery is in range). That brings us to the TV part of EWTV, the Tactical Vehicle.
The Pentagon is keenly aware of the risk. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) long-running Communications Under Extreme R.F. Spectrum Conditions initiative and similar programs aim to develop “signal detection and reasoning technology that allows radios to recognize interference and jamming, and adapt to maintain communications — even in the presence of severe and/or adaptive jamming,” according to DARPA program manager Joseph Evans.
The Next Generation signal jammer is the navy’s main effort to recapitalise its airborne electronic attack capability. The new system will augment and eventually replace the ALQ-99 tactical jamming system currently integrated on EA-18G Growler aircraft.
The navy plans to field the Next Generation Jammer in evolutionary phases, each focused on a different frequency band. Increment 1, an estimated $8.7 billion acquisition led by Raytheon, will have mid-band capability and will be outfitted on the EA-18G Growler aircraft as soon as 2022 – a recently disclosed one-year delay. Increment 2 is the low-band effort and Increment 3 will focus high-band frequencies; both will also fly on the EA-18G.
Militaries the world over regularly practice ‘electronic warfare’, which involves the jamming of everything from radio communications and radar through to satellite signals. But, as with all ‘live fire’ exercises, threat warnings are issued and exclusion spaces declared.