areas of the world.
Posted on 06/15/2007 6:51:38 AM PDT by RDTF
ABOARD THE USS NIMITZ IN THE GULF – A secret aircraft that debuted in Vietnam and usually protects U.S. fighter jets has taken on a different and crucial task over Iraq – trying to stop the scourge of roadside bombs by jamming ground signals from mobile phones and garage door openers. The EA-6B Prowler is thought to be one of the most effective U.S. weapons against the bombs, the biggest killer of American service members in Iraq. But no one can be sure: Even supporters say its effectiveness is hard to measure.
The aircraft debuted at the tail end of Vietnam and was used in Kosovo and the 1991 Gulf War, escorting U.S. attack jets while jamming military radios, hostile radars and air defense batteries aimed at them. These days the Prowler focuses its jammers on smaller signals: those of mobile phones and garage door openers that are used to trigger roadside bombs in Iraq, said U.S. Navy Capt. David Woods, 49, of Ogden, Utah.
Often, it's hard to prove that a roadside bomb failed to explode because of Prowler jamming signals, Woods said. Still, he's confident the plane is making a difference against the bombs, which the military calls improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
“When it's flying we have greater success and fewer IEDs going off,” Woods said. “It's kind of an insurance policy.”
Woods, the commander of Carrier Air Wing Eleven and one of the Navy's most experienced Prowler pilots, says few people understand the EA-6B's mission, which is to control the electromagnetic spectrum so allies can use it – but not enemies.
The Prowler and its electronic warfare system is so valuable it has never been exported – even to close allies. Details about the training of crew members are secret.
(Excerpt) Read more at cfx.signonsandiego.com ...
Directivity plays a part. All you need at low frequencies is a hardy dipole that can handle 300 watts. A spectrum analyzer, 2 signal generators, triangular wave function generator, pulse generator, and a few mixers. And a parametric amplifier. You do swept AM, FM, pulse and power combined. Fill up the envelope on the spectrum analyzer then connect it to the PA and antenna. It takes 10 minutes to set that up on a bench. I jammed a radio station signal like that when an idiot was listening to particularly shitty stuff near me and very loud. And I likely jammed it for a few miles around.
The F-111 has to be the loudest plane I ever heard take off, and that includes pairs of F4’s and F-16’s
The F-111 has the same TF-30s that the F-14 had. (Before the F-14s were upgraded to TF-110s, that is.)
Same compressor stall problem, too.
Put a strong enough RF signal on an electric blasting cap, and it will go off. A good way to produce "work accidents".
Love it. What the country really needs is a massive dose of EMP (which would also help eliminate truck bombs).
Can I buy one here in the US? Failing that, how about a disintegrator/death ray for use on those guilty of oblivious public obnoxiousness?
Could an eighteen wheeler carry such a power source?
Oh, the HUMANITY!
BUMP!
Just do it!
You'd be literally 'cooking' the soldiers in the convoy. They don't put those radiation markings on the ECM pods on the EA-6B for nothing. Still, I think something with lower power & crew shielding could run interference for a convoy. Mount it in an armored "Gun Truck".
Yeah, but compare the gross takeoff weight of the F-111E/F to an F-14A. I suspect that while both aircraft would use full AB's on takeoff roll, the F-14 would be away a lot quicker due to faster acceleration. Make a big diffence to perceived sound to anybody standing near the flight line.
I don’t know if they are able to do this, but it would be neat if they could also broadcast those collected signals at times when are troops are clear in order set those bombs off early and take out a few bomb makers in the process.
Too big? Miniaturize. Too expensive? Too expensive as compared to what? Our soldier’s lives?
From reading the article; how about too sensitive? Sure an aircraft could get shot down and the equipment end up in enemy hands, but put it on a whole lot of ground vehicles and the chances of losing some of it to the enemy go up dramatically.
Then you also have to consider, that the best way to detect, and to jam RF, is from the high ground.
Even a 100-Watt wideband jammer should be easily doable in a hummer-sized vehicle. Since garage-door openers and cell phones are only 0.5 - 4 Watts, a 100 Watt jammer for the immediate vicinity of the vehicles should be effective too.
How about using unmanned drones to be the eyes, ears and fist of this system, responding only to commands from the far away and untouchable brain?
If the tax dollars we spend on our military, science and research is not intended to protect our country, our way of life, and provide as much safety as possible for our young sons and daughters in uniform. What the hell do we expect in return?
You've never been near the fully laden B-52's taking off from Utapo.
“Could an eighteen wheeler carry such a power source?”
Probably, but in my experiences, jamming units were positioned on the front line, and an unwieldy 18-wheeler would make one hell of a cumbersome target.
LOL!
Kewl, but at the end of the day, a Prowler is still just a stretch Intruder.
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