FOX News Breaking: Iraq may have purchased GPS jammers from Russians

FOX News Channel | January 9, 2003 | FOX News Channel Staff

[El Gato]

Carpet bombing is cheap

Actually it's not. Assuming one knows where target is to sufficient precision, many fewer sorties, will be required to kill it with PGMs than using carpet bombing, whatever you might mean by that. Sure the dumb bombs are cheaper, but fuel to haul and manpower to prepare all those dumb bombs is not cheap.

[El Gato]

How many bombed out mosques does it take to start a war between the U.S. and all of Islam?

Might be as few as one. But then again it might even be zero. With the mood the Islamists are in these days, a single baby milk factory might ignite the flame.

[MeekOneGOP]

Alright !!! Thanks !

Let's Roll !!

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Sorry, but have to disagree. I won't violate the "don't ask don't tell policy of FR" but visual vs. OTH attacks are much more difficult. Take my word for it....

[El Gato]

Spread spectrum - called Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) in cell phones. Qualcomm invented it, and still has the controlling patents on it. It is generally a low powered signal that looks like static to a reciever without the key. The low power is why a 4 watt signal can jam so far.

CDMA is a form of spread spectrum. Not all spread spectrum is CDMA. The low power has nothing to do with the modulation. CDMA signals are generally low power, because they can be in the applications used, where line of sight requirements means that distances between transmitter and receiver are short. Your last sentence makes no sense whatsoever. Power density is what is important in denial type jamming. Since a spread spectrum signal is spread over a larger bandwith, the jammer power must be too, and thus the power density, watts per Hertz, will be low for a given total power, it's what makes spread spectrum systems less suseptable to jamming, not more suseptable. With GPS the jammer designer has the advantage of knowing exactly what frequencies to jam and how wide the jamming needs to be, as these are all published standards.

[Dan(9698)]

The GPS satelites are not 21,000 miles up.

They are low earth orbit, and the antenna is on the back of the bomb, with directional coverage.

The bomb looks up, not down and so the jammer would have to be reletively powerful.

[OReilly]

Sure, if you use really big antennas! <<<<<<<
The text accompanying the pictures seems to indicate that those longer jamming ranges are with directional antennas, and probably not the little job shown on the top of the unit.

The Iraqi 4 watt jammers will more likely be placed high in the air to maximize range. At 1 Gigahertz, long transmission lines will not be effective. Even a big antenna at 1 Gig is not very big. EMP seems like the best first step. What is the policy on EMP use by USA. (probably intentional ambiguity and maybe deniability)

[Crazymonarch]

Serbians also used microwave ovens,power on doors open, pointed at the sky,for anything electrical theres an equal and opposite to nullify it,cardboard cutouts etc etc Im sure the serbs might have taught the Iraqi's something by the same token we're ten years down the track also but I wouldn't be surprised if you see primative emp weopons in this one,theory being without electricity Batmans toys are useless Popular Mechanics had a good story on them recently for 400 dollars you can build a toy that will toast the most part of a cities electrics.

[fogarty]

Let's not forget a key issue:

Boeing makes JDAMS. It is the same Boeing that is now standing accused of exporting sophisticated weapons technology to China. The same Boeing that has been given the pass-go-slap-on-the-wrist by both Clinton and Bush administrations. Who wants to bet some of the Boeing technology didn't drift from China to North Korea and even...to Iraq?

[snooker]

>>>>...4 Watts can jam to 200KM?? ...

>>Sure, if you use really big antennas!

Try a 5 watt ham radio HT and see how far it goes. It will go a long way, reaches the space shuttle with the right antennaes, but nap of the earth, about 5-8 miles. And the spread spectrum of gps is very jam resistant as it is.

Put the bomb's antennae in the tail. Kinda hard to envision putting it in the nose if you want to look up to get directions.

dis-information SCAM ... from Iraq most likely to FUD up the PR war.

HARM is made for this, if it really were a problem.

snooker

[Poohbah]

Popular Mechanics had a good story on them recently for 400 dollars you can build a toy that will toast the most part of a cities electrics.

If this were a true statement, then it would have been done many times over by now.

EMP warheads are touted as these amazingly powerful devices, but the reality is that getting lethal effects to electronics generally means putting out enough EM to be lethal to people.

[Blueflag]

Thanks for the explanation. Makes sense.

[Paleo Conservative]

HARM is made for this, if it really were a problem.

I doubt the Iraqis want to be in HARM's way.

[LibWhacker]

How many bombed out mosques does it take to start a war between the U.S. and all of Islam?

You say that as if a war between the U.S. and all of Islam is a bad idea. There's no going back. That war started on 9/11.

[mikegi]

Per the breaking report, this could cause JDAM's problems...

Our guys are on top of this already. Click here for a story from 1998. The anti-jamming work has been going on since 1995, at least. Do a search on google.com for "GPS JDAM jammer" and you'll get a bunch of hits.

[PokeyJoe]

I understand that the JDAM kits use a spread spectrum encrypted relay via a data link/military channel. VERY hard to jam - so not only would it have to be a powerful jammer, it would have to be very LOUD (spectrum blocker).

I also understand that JDAM kits use a backup inertial guided GPS system (meaning that the bomb has a memory of where it is and calculates where it wants to go if it loses GPS signal).

I wouldn't want to be the Iraqi beta testor for the Russian Jammers.

I have a feeling that the Iraqi's may have deployed them to high value targets, not knowing that they actually helped us locate where we should place precision munitions because of the GPS feedback. =)

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks for the reply! That should set the record straight on here!

[red-dawg]

My father has worked at the Air Force Intelligence Agency for over forty years. It used to be called Electronic Security Command. The Serbs didn't have a chance either because those guys knew about every radar they had. EVERY frequency, pulse repitition rate and dynamic characteristic of each and every one they had. How did they know? Because every radar they had was profiled by them (when Russia owned them) by a small package strapped under an SR-71. It drove the Russians NUTS.

[GOP_1900AD]

I say we send a few sorties against the Russian manufacturers, who clearly still hate the West.

[relee]

...dis-information SCAM ... from Iraq most likely to FUD up the PR war....

Or from US to make Iraq think they can jam our JDAMS?