While fighter jets, helicopters, and assault rifles saturate what many of us think of when we imagine the war in Iraq, invisible radio signals can be just as deadly of a threat. Insurgents using cell phones to set off improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have caused an untold number of casualties since the early days of the conflict, and military technology has been working to eliminate that threat ever since.?Wired's Danger Room recently went deep inside the deadly face off between US military technology and the insurgents it attempts to thwart.
Most IEDs are quickly thrown together using crude radio components and outdated black market bomb materials, and are set to go off when hit with a certain radio signal. Insurgents can use just about any type of cellular device to activate these homemade weapons, and can do so from a distance, making the culprit nearly impossible to trace. However, the bomb is completely useless if the attacker can't signal the device to detonate, making radio jammer technology a key to winning the war.
Early jammer prototypes were bulky, power-hungry, and had an extremely limited range. ?The U.S. military came up with a device that could block the most popular detonation frequency used by the insurgents, but once the bomb makers caught on, they simply used different gadgets to detonate the IEDs, switching the frequency in the process.
Eventually, all of the major defense contractors got involved, each one trying to create an all-encompassing jammer device. Unfortunately, testing multiple prototypes in the field caused some to recognize other jammers as the enemy, locking on and making both devices useless.
Over time, the military learned how to keep the various types of jammers from interfering with each other, and the devices began saving lives by allowing specialists the precious time needed to defuse the explosives. In 2006, the pentagon spent $3.6 billion on IED countermeasure technology, and they were just getting started.
The military became so adept at thwarting the IED threat that many insurgents gave up on what was once their greatest advantage. The enemy began using "command wire" triggers which literally used nothing but a long wire and a battery to detonate the explosives. This old school approach wasn't favored by the majority of attackers, as it meant coming face to face with the soldiers they were attempting to target.
Deaths by IEDs have dropped substantially since the early days of the war, and the military is now poised to unleash new technology that not only eliminates any chance of insurgents remotely detonating a bomb, but can also identify and locate threats before a troop ever sets foot in the area. But that tech, as you might expect, is still being kept largely under wraps.
(Source)
[Image credit: Expertinfantry]
More from Tecca:
news on 6 george strait news 9 oprah show bank of america hunger games movie casey anthony trial
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.