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

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

[lepton]

Early in 2001, there was an attack launched wherein most of the GPS targeted munitions "missed in the same way". This seemed to indicate some sort of spoofing or jamming. A few weeks later, it was announced that the problem had been fixed.

[lepton]

Early in 2001, there was an attack launched wherein most of the GPS targeted munitions "missed in the same way". This seemed to indicate some sort of spoofing or jamming. A few weeks later, it was announced that the problem had been fixed.

[geopyg]

I heard it was part of the deal when the Russian's sold them the nuclear material. "Hey this container isn't made of lead - we'll get radiation poisoning - except the radiation monitor isn't ringing". "Nyet - special top secret metal. Looks like tin, but blocks all radiation. Just don't open it or we'll all be fried. And if you buy now we'll throw in has been our ACME GPS SuperJammers has you can stuff in your trunk."

[lepton]

I'm no RF electrical engineer, but I seem to recall a broadcast omnidirectional signal loses power proportional to the cube of the distance from the antenna. 4 Watts can jam to 200KM??

Geosync satellites are how far away?

[Maedhros]

Kind of expensive way to deal with a cheap jammer, but effective.

You betcha. According to the Navy Fact File, each Harm costs $284,000.

[Dan(9698)]

GPS is not geosync. ---They are low earth orbit.

Geosync is approx 22,000 miles away.

[Texas Eagle]

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

Well, gee. How should we go about finding out if this is true? Heh, heh, heh....

[lepton]

so to equal a 4W transmitter, the satellite would have to be transmitting at 40,000W.

[Newbomb Turk]

EMP bombs in the first hour, JDAMS follow

Great call. EMP weapons will most likely be used anyway to blackout most civilian areas. If the Russians have this technology we do, and we already have a plan to counter it.

Lets roll !

[Ben Bolt]

Have you noticed that many of these beatnicks play an acoustic git ~ fiddle ?

I remember when a bum was called a hobo ! Actually I think I read a good deal ..

[lepton]

Geosync is approx 22,000 miles away.

I was thinking 25,000...but either way, yes, that 12,000 mile figure did look funny.

[BlueMoose]

GPS can be encripted

[lepton]

Geosync is approx 22,000 miles away.

Hmmm. According to the net, GPS Satellites are "Altitude: 10,900 nautical miles "...which is about 12,000 miles....and a 12 hr orbit.

What is GPS?

[Dan(9698)]

>>>...I was thinking 25,000...

In any event, the calculations should be based on low earth orbit. (approx 200 miles)

[lepton]

12,000/120=100; 100^2=10,000; 10kW*4=40,000W

[Dan(9698)]

>>>..."Altitude: 10,900 nautical miles "...

My bad.

[chuknospam]

Jammers are great targets!

DItto! We've got goodies like the HARM that can zero in on transmitters even after it's turned off. I can see the look on some Iraqi's face, "Habib, it's not working, it's not working, the missle still coming...... BOOM!"

[BlueMoose]

http://www.darpa.mil/spo/SPO_handouts/GPX.pdf

[OReilly]

The fact that the JDAM GPS receiver and antenna is on the rear of the bomb, explains why the Russian Map of Iraq shows the Jammers on the periphery (on the boarders) of Iraq.

Now Saddam may move the ring of jammers in further towards the area of Baghdad on every high tower in the area.

[BlueMoose]

Pentagon is probably jamming GPS in Afghanistan, experts say
BY BOB BREWIN, COMPUTERWORLD October 26, 2001

The U.S. Defense Department has probably been selectively jamming signals from the Globe Positioning System (GPS) in Afghanistan since the start of the air campaign earlier this month, according to non military GPS experts.

The experts emphasized that the jamming in Afghanistan will have no effect on civilian users, including airlines, which increasingly rely on GPS for transoceanic navigation. Signals from the GPS satellite system available to civilian users provide an accuracy of 36 meters or better, while separate, encrypted military signals used to guide so called smart bombs in Afghanistan provide accuracy within 6 meters, according to Richard Langley, a professor of geodesy and precision navigation at the University of New Brunswick.

Langley said the Pentagon has developed the capability to jam civilian GPS signals with a specific targeted area and could easily deny the 36-meter-accuracy civilian signal to the Taliban forces without interfering with users in other areas of the world. Depending on whether the pentagon, which developed the operates the 28-satellite GPS constellation, uses airborne or ground jammers, this could deny the signal to the Taliban over a wide area, with some of the jamming potentially spilling over into Pakistan.

GPS receivers, which sell for as little as $100 for a simple version used by hikers, plot position through sophisticated triangulation operations which with at least three GPS satellites. Area jamming would prevent GPS receivers used by the Taliban from locking on to the satellites and deriving a highly accurate location. The Pentagon has developed this jamming capability to ensure that enemies don’t use the GPS signal to guide their own smart missiles or bombs in an attack on U.S. Forces.

Sam Wormley, a researcher at Iowa State University in Ames and manager of an authoritative GPS resources and accuracy web site, said that the Pentagon “definitely” has the capability to jam civilian GPS signals in a given area without interfering with more precise military signals. Wormley said that’s because the military signals occupy a different and smaller slice of the GPS frequency band that used by the civilian signals.

The Pentagon doesn’t discuss its GPS jamming capabilities, especially in time of war, but information readily available on the Web provides an inside into the power of the GPS jammers in its inventory.

The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, Calif., operates electronic test ranges that have GPS jammers capable of 500 watts of output, according to a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) published by the Coast Guard Navigation Center in Alexandria, VA. The notice warned of “unreliable” GPS signals within 300 nautical miles of the test range from Oct. 22 through Nov. The U.S. Department of Transportation, which includes the U.S. Coast Guard, jointly manages civilian GPS signals with the Defense Department. Langley said that such a NOTAM indicates that China Lake is conducting jamming tests and shows that the U.S. military possesses the capability to jam GPS signals anywhere it wants.



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