GPS proves jam resistant: type the phrase 'GPS jammer' into any Internet search engine, and you'll find dozens of sites assuring you that anyone with a modest degree of hobbyist electronic construction skills can build a jammer able to disrupt the Global Positioning System, an essential navigation aid in modern combat. But as the Iraqi armed forces learned in March 2003, GPS isn't so easy to knock out.

Summary

---

Navigation

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

GPS proves jam resistant: type the phrase 'GPS jammer' into any Internet search engine, and you'll find dozens of sites assuring you that anyone with a modest degree of hobbyist electronic construction skills can build a jammer able to disrupt the Global Positioning System, an essential navigation aid in modern combat. But as the Iraqi armed forces learned in March 2003, GPS isn't so easy to knock out.

As the prospect of war against Iraq increased in late 2002 and early 2003, concern was voiced that in the event of hostilities, Iraq would jam the Global Positioning System (GPS), blunting the effectiveness of the huge US investment in GPS receivers and GPS-guided bombs and missiles.

Before the war began, the Iraqis were warned by the US Department of Defense of the futility of attempting to use GPS jamming. Anyone attempting the jam GPS could find himself singled out for attack. "Anyone who transmits on the battlefield can be found, and anyone who can be found can be targeted," said Lt Col John Carter, chief of space requirements at the US Department of Defe...

See the full content of this document

---