In recent years, the number of websites providing "cell phone jammer" or similar devices to block communications and create "quiet areas" in vehicles, schools, theaters, restaurants, and other locations has increased dramatically. These devices are sold under different names, e.g. B. Signal blockers, GPS jammers or text stoppers. However, they serve the same purpose.
Fifteen years ago, jammers were considered the most common expensive piece of equipment for governments or nation states. But now there are low-cost, low-power jammers everywhere, triggering a wave of cheaper and more reliable consumer electronics like WiFi routers and smartphones. Military GPS systems, while more flexible than commercial GPS systems, cannot be 100% guaranteed, especially for high power jammers.
GPS jammers can be bought on the Internet. The size ranges from a small cigarette lighter to a suitcase and ranges from a few meters to a few hundred. You can buy a 2-in-1 jammer or block your phone for a few hundred dollars.
The military and its industrial partners have used various methods to ensure that bombs can hit targets, regardless of whether they imply redundant target systems, e.g. B. Viewfinders aiming at wifi jammer, laser guidance systems or camera-based navigation.
In short, interference spreads noise, overwhelms nearby GPS receivers (based on weak signals from distant satellites), and loses actual GPS signals. If the precision-guided bomb loses its latch within a minute of hitting the target, the consequences can be catastrophic.
Manufacturers of precision-guided ammunition no longer ensure that simple GPS control systems always work independently of one another. Mobile jammers and deception devices threaten the development of the future battlefield. Manufacturers have noticed the threat and addressed it.
North Korea appears to be using onboard systems to actively interfere with GPS signals, thereby overloading the signals from tracking satellites. South Korea could not pinpoint the location of these jammers because the army blocked them for ten minutes and then moved them.