Marines look to install device on on F-18's to thwart Russian GPS jammers

Marine Corps Times:
The Corps is looking to install antennas in its F/A-18 C/D Hornets to help the aircraft defeat GPS jammers.

In a request for information posted in early June by Naval Air Systems Command, or NAVAIR, the Corps wants to install the anti-jam antennas known as the Air Navigation Warfare Program, or NAVWAR, in 120 of the legacy Hornets.

The anti-jamming antenna “provides Global Positioning System (GPS) protection for Naval Air platforms by allowing for continued access to GPS through the use of Anti-Jam (AJ) Antenna Systems designed to counter GPS Electronic Warfare threats from intentional and unintentional interference,” Michael Land, a spokesman for NAVAIR, told Marine Corps Times in an emailed statement Tuesday.

The development comes as U.S. aircraft have faced mounting electronic warfare attacks against aircraft in Syria.

Army Gen. Tony Thomas, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, told audience members at a conference in April that adversaries were trying to bring down AC-130 gunships in Syria using electronic warfare, or EW.

.“Right now in Syria, we’re in the most aggressive EW environment on the planet, from our adversaries,” Thomas said. “They’re testing us every day, knocking our communications down, disabling our AC-130s, et cetera.”
...
The jamming became intensive after US forces including th AC-130 gunships destroyed a Russian mercenary attempt to attack US and coalition forces while they were trying to take oil fields in Syria.  Defeating those jammers should be a top priority.  It is good that US forces found out about it in the Syrian operation and not in actual combat with the Russian military.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains