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Russia plans to install Pole-21 anti-missile jamming device on cell towers
- TeMPOraL 10y agoBased on the title, I expected to read that the Russians are installing missile launchers on cellphone towers... The article doesn't make it explicit, but the Pole-21 system seems to be (at least in part) a satellite navigation jammer[0]. [0] - https://www.sott.net/article/327171-New-Russian-hi-tech-jammer-operational-blocks-all-GPS-navigation-systems https://www.sott.net/article/327171-New-Russian-hi-tech-jamm...
- 24gttghh 10y agoFrom the OP's article-First stanza: "...the Pole-21 anti-missile jamming device..." Further down: "...Russia will be virtually impenetrable to missiles using satellite navigation."
- jalk 10y agowouldn't it more be like: missiles will not hit the designated target, but something near by
- dtparr 10y agoShouldn't that really be using only satellite navigation? Anything with a backup (e.g. inertial, celestial, terrestrial) should still be viable, though perhaps degraded in accuracy. But hardly impenetrable.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoI wonder about it too. From what I read, military-grade inertial navigation is pretty damn accurate.
- 24gttghh 10y agoOnboard precise clock, very accurate ground/airspeed gauges, heading tracking would get you pretty close. Maybe not laser-guided close, but hey what are cluster-bombs for?
- arpa 10y agoor nuclear warheads.
- woodman 10y agoThe terrain following guidance in cruise missiles had an accuracy of a few meters in the early 80s. The only place that tech doesn't work is over the ocean... where there aren't any Russian cell towers. http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a110286.pdf http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a110286.pdf
- 24gttghh 10y agoRight. This would specifically inhibit things like GPS guided cruise missiles, not laser-guided or maybe even radar-guided munitions.
- varjag 10y agoNone of American missiles and smart munitions uses GPS as a sole guidance method. Those that do use it as an enhancer to the primary inertial system.
- lallysingh 10y agoYeah but all the backup stuff is still expensive to develop/build with good quality. I can buy a good GPS for a few hundred bucks. I don't think this is to defend against American missiles.
- openasocket 10y agoCelestial Nagivation? Do you mean missles can navigate by, like, finding the North Star? Are there cameras mounted on the sides that can track stars? That is fascinating!
- dtparr 10y agoNot just the North Star, of course, but yeah, they know where certain stars should be and compare what they see. The Trident Missile (sub launched missile) uses it in conjunction with inertial nav to correct its course mid-flight.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoYes, and the article I linked names "GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou" directly. That's what I consider stating something explicitly :).
- 24gttghh 10y agoFair enough :)
- PerfectDlite 10y ago> Russia will be virtually impenetrable to missiles using satellite navigation Wow, that's one wishful thinking, especially considering lame attempt to disrupt them when missiles basically already approached their target.
- chinathrow 10y agoWho needs jammers when there is INS.
- woodman 10y agoThis has to be propaganda designed for domestic consumption, because there is no way this would be effective. You know how cell towers are on the ground, and missiles are in the air? Yeah, sky facing directional antennas in the hundreds of cruise missiles would defeat a 250,000 tower project. I'd be surprised if the functionality wasn't already built into the weapon systems - the handheld GPS unit I was issued in 2006 had the ability to detect jamming and selectively ignore the direction of the source.
- Const-me 10y agoTo add to that, on the terminal part of the trajectory, visual navigation works exceptionally well. The missile matches video from its camera with a pre-downloaded aerial or satellite images. For example, BGM-109 Tomahawk have that thing on-board. For more info about the technology, google “Digital Scene-Matching Area Correlator”
- Someone1234 10y agoOlder cruise missiles with less sophisticated guidance systems flew at higher altitudes, but that made them susceptible to anti-missile defences (from lasers to David's Sling). Modern ones "skim" along the terrain, this massively reduces their radar detection range (due to the horizon) and allows them to navigate around known defensive measures. This is also why both the US and Russia has spent millions of dollars on extremely sensitive microphones to literally "hear" an incoming cruise missile. A system like this, combined with a system to combat high altitude cruise missile attacks, could theoretically work. Or certainly limit/disrupt the ability for very low altitude weapons to enter your territory uncontested. Plus low altitude drones definitely have a future, particularly against a technologically advanced nation.
- DudeFromBuffalo 10y agoWell, the method of fire-and-forget has long been the holy grail of arms manufacturers for many decades now. What that has done, has create levels of precision and the acceptability of precision upper/lower bounds is relative to what optically, thermal imaging, and radar provide beyond the low altitude signature and physical characteristics of that projectile going down range (aka stealth, etc). I CAN say with some conviction that audio disruption has already been thought of and implemented as a counter jamming measure and counter counter jamming measure to increase effectiveness of projectiles fired at a target. The "tools" of the trade to hit a target are much more sophisticated than even stated here ... but the conceptual point of the jamming method ... is effective, but not impossible to defeat based on current tech Im aware of.
- Jtsummers 10y agoSo, practically speaking this can't be constantly on (in many areas) because it jams even their own navigation systems. Does this mean it will only be activated when there's a threat (perceived threat such as observed escalation, or detected such as a detected launch)? And then, this doesn't necessarily protect the area, it just means the weapons navigating by these jammed mechanisms will be more likely to hit a random target than the desired target. Effective for protecting strategic assets, but ineffective at actually protecting your territory in general.
- lallysingh 10y agoCell towers as defense aren't new. In 2008 Egypt was showing off a passive radar system that detected objects by how they reflected cell tower emissions.
- codesnik 10y ago"missile defence", ha. As a russian, I now have to buy more foil for the cases of uncontrollable urge to march, sing hymns and praise Putin. jokes aside, near kremlin now there's a zone where most gps devices are really off. Jamming is already used, though most think it's primarily designed to counter drones, not rockets.
- drzaiusapelord 10y agoand that's the only scenario this stuff makes sense. Missiles aren't wholly dependent on GPS and are designed to expect jammed or spoofed GPS. More than likely this to deter drone attacks which are GPS dependent. Sounds like the Kremlin is worried about drone attacks at their leadership. I suspect the blowback from Syria is heating up, on top of that passenger plane from Egypt that was recently blown up. Playing it off as protecting Russians from "missile attack" is domestic propaganda to not admit that serious blowback against Russia from Islamic terrorists is a large and growing concern.
- kw71 10y agoHow is GLONASS affected near Kremlin?
- codesnik 10y ago"civil" glonass is probably affected in the same way, I think, but I don't really know. They use some 3rd party (chinise?) gps/glonass jammer which shows that signal is coming from one of international airports (VKO in case of kremlin jamming), which are already a no fly zone for most civil drones
- wmil 10y agoThis wouldn't be effective against actual military missiles. It might be effective against terrorists using weaponized drones.
- jandrewrogers 10y agoJamming GPS won't do much against US cruise missiles because the primary guidance is optically-corrected inertial i.e. there is a camera that matches terrain features for fine-grained localization. IIRC, some variants also have a terminal guidance package that knows what the target looks like and can make corrections toward the target as it comes within range. The only thing jamming GPS might impact is the inflight re-targeting features, but military GPS is not easily jammed and the inertial system should still be able to do the job until the optical localization can get a fix. Should work great against cheap drones and such though.
- EugeneOZ 10y agoBullshit, there is no such article by the link behind word "reported" and googling by word "полюс 21" (pole 21 in russian) doesn't give nothing.
- bduhan 10y agoThe jamming cell towers are stationary and could be used as navigation aides for incoming missiles.