[PIF]

Russia has figured out how to jam U.S. drones in Syria, officials say

Dr. Todd Humphreys, the director of the Radionavigation Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin, an expert on the spoofing and jamming of GPS. "GPS receivers in most drones can be fairly easily jammed," he said. The drones impacted so far are smaller surveillance aircraft

[ETCM]

"GPS receivers in most drones can be fairly easily jammed," he said. The drones impacted so far are smaller surveillance aircraft

PIF, there is a reason why only "smaller aircraft" are being impacted. In addition to more robust GPS technology, our larger strike/surveillance drones are designed to work in an EW environment where jamming and other measures are present. Their navigation systems are constantly monitoring for jamming and performing "sanity checks" on nav data. Like most of our missiles, they they have navigation systems that can use but do not require GPS, such as inertial navigation systems.

The Russians are pretty smart folks, and I'm not saying they CAN'T jam our better drones, but they have not demonstrated that capability. Our small tactical surveillance drones, while they provide valuable intelligence and are not exactly cheap, are pretty close to disposable when used in a combat environment.