Introduction Electronic warfare has become a key factor in determining victory or defeat on the modern battlefield. Russia has widely used GPS jamming technology in its military operations in Ukraine, disabling Ukrainian drones and precision weapons. cell phone jammer To meet this challenge, a US company, Zephr, is testing a new way to use ordinary smartphone networks to counter GPS jamming. This article will explore how this innovative system works, the initial test results in Ukraine, and its possible impact on future electronic warfare. GPS jammer
I. Russia’s Electronic Warfare Strategy Russia widely uses electronic jamming on the battlefield, especially jamming GPS signals. This strategy aims to make Ukrainian drones and weapon systems lose navigation capabilities, seriously affecting their combat capabilities. Traditionally, detecting jammers requires high-end military equipment such as software-defined radios (SDRs) and complex antenna systems, which are often expensive and difficult for Ukraine, which has limited resources, to use on a large scale. Wifi jammer
II. Zephr’s innovative solution To meet this challenge, Zephr has proposed a new idea: using ordinary consumer mobile phones to form a large distributed antenna network to detect jammers. signal jammer This system is based on the sensors and GPS signal reception functions inside the mobile phone. Through networked collaboration, mobile phones can sense and report whether their GPS signals are being jammed. The system relies on data comparison between mobile phones to determine the location of the jammer and can use artificial intelligence for data processing.
3. Testing on the Ukrainian front In April 2024, Zephr tested its system on the Donetsk front in Ukraine. During the test, mobile phones were installed on drones and vehicles, or fixed in designated locations. The test results showed that ordinary consumer mobile phones can detect whether there are jammers around. Sean Gorman, founder of Zephr, explained that by using the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) sensor on the phone, the phone can provide data about the distance to satellites and other devices to detect interference.
4. New insights into jamming The test also revealed a new problem with Russia’s jamming strategy: many reported GPS spoofing behaviors are actually just high-power jamming. Jammers simulate GNSS signals to create “phantom” satellites, causing receiving devices to mistakenly identify non-existent signal sources. This strategy interfered with the Ukrainian military’s drone operations, but also provided clues for developing more targeted countermeasures.
