Jam-Proof Insurgents? Doubtful

Have insurgents in Iraq managed to beat one of the most live-saving pieces of gear American troops can get? That's the provocative suggestion, made by Debka File. Luckily for U.S. servicemen -- and the whole American effort in Iraq -- the suggestion is almost certainly wrong, specialists in the field tell DANGER ROOM.

Since the war began, thousands and thousands of American vehicles have been equipped with radio frequency jammers, which interrupt attempts to remotely-trigger a roadside bomb. The devices aren't foolproof -- they interfere with U.S. radios, and they're useless against an explosive set off by a detonation cord. But the electronic safety bubbles the devices provide trail only behind armor, bulletproof vests, and helmets in keeping U.S. forces safe.

Or do they? *Debka *(via these guys) says that:

Soon after they were fitted on US military vehicles and went into successful use, al Qaeda came up with a device capable of jamming and disarming [these] US electronic measures by radio signals. The Islamist terrorists thus escalated their challenge to the US military by introducing electronic warfare.

Their success has boosted the US and British death toll in Iraq. Of the
50 US and UK soldiers who died in Iraq in the first 9 days of April, 30
were killed by IEDs [improvised explosive devices]. Al Qaeda’s mystery device is believed by military experts to account for the soaring rate of effective roadside bomb hits on American vehicles, even those fitted with the new counter-measures.

Not bloody likely, says one currently deployed American radio specialist. "The level of sophistication the insurgents operate at doesn't map to the electronic chess game which 'jamming a jammer' implies," he tells DANGER ROOM. Debka's writers "are either mixing up their terminology, or being intentionally vague."

The more I think about it, the less sense it makes. Are they referring to some sort of device which nulls out the jamming signals? That's a tough sell. Radio-detonated IEDs usually use cell phones, walkie-talkies, or other consumer electronics. It's hard to imagine a one-size-fits all device that would work with *all* of those to counter jamming effects. The usual insurgent counter to IED jammers is to use non-wireless detonators.
Another possibility is that they're talking about a dedicated radio detonator which uses some sort of anti-jamming techniques to mitigate the effects of jamming, perhaps a spread-spectrum receiver along the lines of
DSSS, or simply using a frequency set which the IED jammers don't block.
Simple frequency-hopping (like [the U.S. military radios, such as] SINCGARS or HAVE QUICK) probably wouldn't do the trick, but a more sophisticated spread-spectrum technique might.*
Neither answer fits the description in the article.*

In closing I don't buy it. It's either wrong outright or using the wrong terminology. Given the tone of the article, I suspect the former.

**

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• * It's said that the IED jammers wipe out cell phones in their immediate vicinity. If the Iraqi cellphone infrastructure isn't analog or GSM, this implies that the IED jammers are able to overcome commercial spread-spectrum techniques.*

This (kinda sorta) echoes a statement made last month by Islamic State in Iraq insurgent group, which claimed to have a "new electronic circuit that cannot be defeated by current jamming techniques."

Michael Puttre, the former editor of the Journal of Electronic Defense, concurs.* *Debka's "notion of disarming an anti-IED
jammer doesn't make sense. You don't disarm a jammer. And you really can't drown out a jammer by broadcasting back at it. Besides, broadcasting on the same frequency of the jammer is doing the jammer's work for it."

I used to read *Debka *all the time. I even wrote about the site, once. But after a while, there were just too many stories that melted away, on further examination. This sure seems like one of them.

UPDATE: Back in early March, the Islamic State of Iraq insurgent group released a video in which it announced the development "of a new electronic device to target US minesweepers. The device is a new
electronic circuit that cannot be defeated by current jamming techniques," says IntelCenter.