Commercial Jammers defeat IEDs in Iraq....where are they ?

[EVDebs]

From: http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=21005&archive=true

"Knowledge is power against roadside bombs"
by Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, April 26, 2004

"...Commercial jammers

Since at least the early 1980s, companies have sold devices that jam electronic signals for remote-controlled bombs, according to Ben Jamil, chief executive officer of Security Intelligence Technologies, Inc.

At first, the devices were all “barrage” jammers, which sent out a blast of “white noise” over a spectrum of frequencies and disrupted all radio communications, including the signal used to activate the bomb.

These weighed upwards of a ton and had to be carried on trucks, Jamil said.

Today’s jammers fit in a briefcase and use sophisticated computer algorithms and that “selectively analyze” signals in a given area, Jamil said, “and quickly make a decision whether to jam or not.”

In late January, during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker acknowledged that the Army is using jammers in Iraq to counter IEDs.

Schoomaker refused to say to what extent, and the Defense Department’s efforts to defeat remote-controlled IEDs continue to be shrouded in secrecy.

But in an April 21 hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, the Army’s assistant deputy chief of staff for operations, said that “we have processed the needs statements for the jammers and those have been fielded now.

“Almost all convoys now have the capability to remotely jam the electronic detonation devices, like the garage doors or the cell phones,” Blount said.

Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., said he wants assurances that all convoys will have jammers.

“Has the decision been reached to see to it that every convoy will have some form of protection against IEDs, some form of electronic countermeasures?” Taylor asked at the hearing.

“I could not answer that truthfully right now,” Blount said. “I know that’s the intent, but whether that is in fact taking place, I’d have to get back to you.”

Taylor was less than satisfied with that response.

“I feel bad that when I go to Iraq to visit the troops, someone is guarding me with that device,” Taylor said. “Doggone it, if you do it for me, you ought to be doing it for every kid that you send over there.”

Taylor, who has criticized the Army in previous hearings, saying the service is not doing enough to get jammers aboard convoys, said the cost of the jammers shouldn’t be a factor anymore.

“I’m told with some of these devices, because of the production rates, we’ve gotten it down to $10,000 a copy,” Taylor said. “I don’t think we can bury a GI for $10,000,” Taylor said.

“I do understand, before you even tell me, that once we do that they’re going to change tactics. Fine. Let’s make them change tactics. Because what they’re doing is working way too often, and way too easy.

“It is a priority,” Blount said.""

[The Doctor.]

1. Way to go Taylor! n/t

[Spinzonner]

2. Sorry, no can do

Carlyle doesnt own a piece of that market

[bullimiami]

3. when they cant trigger them with hi tech

they will go back to low tech. triggers, timers, fuses.

They will be as resourceful as they need to be to defeat any countermeasure.

[RoyGBiv]

4. Nice theory, but ...

IED is an acronym for Improvised Explosive Devices. That can mean anything from a bomb set off with a cell phone to a barrel of gasoline with nails in it set off with a flaming arrow. Jam one method of ignition, and they'll find another. Or, they'll just move to digging holes in the ground and filling them with sharpened sticks.

As with all things, follow the money. Someone will make a profit on these jamming devices, and bet your farm that someone tied to that person or group is pushing their use.

And they'll be bought, and soldiers and civilians will still die.

[EVDebs]

5. I just want to make it harder work for the insurgency

...the quicker this Mess-O-Potamia is over with and our forces get to leave the better. Unless the DoD wants them to stay, and I'm hearing that on CNN awhile back Sen McCain said they'd be there for "10 to 20 years"; Gen Tommy Franks' book says "5 years".

Somebody's lying, but just like Vietnam, it will be the money being cut off that brings our guys/girls back home again. I remember reading that in the '70's when we were bringing them home and the money was being cut off, guys at the Pentagon were bitching that they couldn't even get gas for their cars so they weren't about to throw money down a Vietnam rathole....

New war, new rathole.

[RoyGBiv]

6. I understand that ...

Wasn't criticizing you or even the information really. Hell, yes, give our people what they need to survive and get home. Wrap 'em in titanium body suits if that's possible and helpful. I'm starting to see more and more wounded veterans around here, and it sickens me, especially when they mention how hard it is for them to get medical treatment for these physical problems they have that no one can diagnose. I want that to stop, now, and I want the Iraqis dying and being tortured to stop just as much.

But, "just like Vietnam," this war will not be won by any reasonable definition of the word. It will not be won, not by either side. People will suffer and die, and eventually someone will declare victory, and we'll go back to suffering with a less atrocious rate of killing.

The war, as we know it, is unwinnable.

Where's Walter Cronkite when you need him.

[EVDebs]

7. Dan Rather said at the start of these most recent wars...

something on the line of 'if you speak up, you could get 'necklaced'' and ruin your journalistic career.

No medals of freedom for reporters from this war.

Read about USMC Gen Smedley D Butler and tell me if he'd have put up with this today !