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U.S. Deploys Satellite Jamming System

CNN has an article about a ground-based satellite jamming system that "uses electromagnetic radio frequency energy to knock out transmissions on a temporary and reversible basis, without frying components". Is this just another old school EM jamming technique, or something new? Of course they won't say, citing "operational security" concerns.

342 comments

  1. Thin ice by fembots · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This whole control of space thing is approaching the thin line between annoyed and pissed.

    While USAF claims this "ground-based jammer uses electromagnetic radio frequency energy to knock out transmissions on a temporary and reversible basis, without frying components", it will only take one mistake (and it's not that unusual) to fry someone's $500mil baby.

    If other countries even dare to think about developing a similar jammer to "neutralize" US's satellite communication and its space-based capabilities, it's likely that US will simply launch another pre-emptive attack to destroy those jammers in these countries.

    1. Re:Thin ice by nightsweat · · Score: 5, Funny

      $500 million baby? I can get you one for $143.50 on the Internet.

      --

      the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
    2. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yea, we have invaded lots of countries to control the proliferation of satellite jamming equipment.

      I always forget *we* are the only ones who develop weaponry.

    3. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      $500mil baby, like a space shuttle or international space station? Not good.

      Surreal Dreams

    4. Re:Thin ice by theparanoidcynic · · Score: 1

      Don't worry, the way we're going we'll be too broke to do that kind of shit soon enough.

      --
      Only in a Slashdot fantasy can a Slackware install turn into several hours of sex . . . . .
    5. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It might be amusing to watch the US launch a pre-emptive attack to destroy the jammers in britain or france, at least for the few seconds before the british and ( ;-) ) freedom-ish nukes erase the eastern seaboard of the US...

    6. Re:Thin ice by Keebler71 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      If other countries even dare to think about developing a similar jammer to "neutralize" US's satellite communication and its space-based capabilities, it's likely that US will simply launch another pre-emptive attack to destroy those jammers in these countries.

      Right... just like the US pre-emptively attacked Russia because they build GPS jammers. Now if a country started using (rather than just developing) such a system, I would agree with your position.

      --
      "It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
    7. Re:Thin ice by ryturner · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Your post indicates thats you think wars should be a fair fight. Personally, I want any war the US is in to be very unfair. The point is it win.

    8. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, that scenario is about as amusing as it is probable. Fucking idiot.

    9. Re:Thin ice by Tackhead · · Score: 4, Insightful
      > Right... just like the US pre-emptively attacked Russia because they build GPS jammers. Now if a country started *using* (rather than just developing) such a system, I would agree with your position.

      And because any ground-based emitter of EM is going to show up as a pretty big honking target when it's turned on...

      a) blowing up the jammer is not a pre-emptive attack, and
      b) your jammer will get blowed up real good, real quick.

      Keep in mind that part b) applies to both sides in the conflict. If you're fighting an adversary capable of launching satellites, you're (by definition) fighting an adversary capable of detecting and lobbing anti-radiation missiles at any EM emitter you own that's more powerful than a microwave oven.

    10. Re:Thin ice by TigerNut · · Score: 3, Interesting
      ...it will only take one mistake (and it's not that unusual) to fry someone's $500mil baby.

      Not likely. If you assume that the jamming approach is to beam noise at the satellite in the frequency range it's designed to accept, then the power required to jam its receiver compared to what is required to damage the thing is at least a couple of orders of magnitude (factors of 10) different.
      Jamming the satellite's transmissions in a certain terrestrial location simply involves having localized noise generators in the same frequency band as the satellite in question. Or, for world-wide coverage, just launch a satellite(s) in a compatible orbit to the target satellite, and broadcast away.

      --

      Less is more.

    11. Re:Thin ice by ajs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This whole control of space thing is approaching the thin line between annoyed and pissed.

      Ah... yes, well I'll assume you meant that YOU are getting annoyed.

      While USAF claims this [...] jammer [...is...] temporary and reversible [...] it will only take one mistake (and it's not that unusual) to fry someone's $500mil baby.

      How often does this particular jamming technology fry satellites? Really, how often? Heck, you don't even know what this *is*, must less what its failure modes are. ANY complaint about this technology must be on the grounds of lack of information (kind of strange to complain about THIS instead of the dozens of other, far more problematic items that the US military refuses to discuss) or on the grounds that the US feels it has the right to unilaterally develop technology to disable other country's communications (again, I'd start with the MONITORING of communications which is ONGOING rather than the chance that the US MIGHT block communications in the future).

      Anything else is arm waving.

      If other countries even dare to think about developing a similar jammer to "neutralize" US's satellite communication and its space-based capabilities, it's likely that US will simply launch another pre-emptive attack to destroy those jammers in these countries.

      Doubtful. Of the countries that have the capabilities to do so, only one is not an ally, and I don't think we'd invade China over THIS.

    12. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What are you, an idiot? Only an idiot would think launching nukes at the US would be a good idea. Here's a hint: the US has roughly 48% of the world's nukes. America could literally cover Britain and France with nuclear explosions. 0% chance of survival.

    13. Re:Thin ice by gfxguy · · Score: 0, Redundant

      but that wouldn't be FAIR!!!!

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    14. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is why I'm sticking with cable.

    15. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No such thing as anti-radiation missiles?

      Someones been smoking too much crack lately *cough* AGM-88 HARM missile *cough* aka the High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile.

      And the bigger the radar or jammer, the further away you could launch a missile from and still find it.

      So yeah. Shut up, dumbass.

    16. Re:Thin ice by kin_korn_karn · · Score: 5, Informative

      "Anti-radiation missile" is a military term for anti-radar missiles like the Shrike and HARM, or for EU types the ALARM. Doesn't have anything to do with nuclear radiation.

    17. Re:Thin ice by Jason+R · · Score: 1

      What confuses you about the term 'anti-radiation missile'? Things like the HARM or Shrike home on transmitting targets. Yes those are A-G, but they must have a similar package that can be put on a space capable missile. I haven't heard of any space based package for it, I'm just confused by your statement that there is no such thing as an anti-radiation missile. There's plenty.

    18. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, there is such a thing as an anti-radiation missile; ever heard of HARM? They are anti-radar missiles, but I guess one could make it lock on any other EM emitter, with proper modifications. It refers to the locking/tracking method, not the payload (usually it carries a conventional warhead, radar antennae are usually exposed...).

    19. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      800 nukes could cripple america.

    20. Re:Thin ice by dustinbarbour · · Score: 1

      A country must do what is in its best interests. If that means destroying ground-based jammers pre-emptively, that's what that means. If that disturbs your utopian ideal where every nation and person is treated equally, I'm sorry. Don't hate the US for being the big guy on the block. Any other nation would do the same if they had a legitimate chance at success.

    21. Re:Thin ice by thedillybar · · Score: 3, Funny

      Offtopic, but why is an "order of magnitude" a factor of 10? Is it just because we're working in base 10? I don't get it...

    22. Re:Thin ice by taylortbb · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But Europe could also cover America. Its a concept known as mutually assured destruction, and its why there hasn't been nuclear war. I however doubt that George W was a firm grasp of the concept, thats why him winning the '04 election scares me.

    23. Re:Thin ice by udowish · · Score: 1

      knowing the US one "secret agency" will start jamming another "secret agency" 's sat and then before long there will be a war against Ethiopia until they realized it was us jamming ourselfs all along! Bush: I reall thought Ethiopia had WMD or at least a weapon...oops.

      --
      when in doubt press enter and we'll figure it out later..
    24. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Do you understand how much like a pre-war Nazi party member that sounds? Or have they stopped teaching that bit of history too in America Skool-Xtreme!!! (tm & (c), pat. pending, a Coca-Cola product).

      It's pretty worrying watching history repeating itself only a few decades on. Don't think the free nations of the world will sit back and put up with the USA's fascistic idiocy forever.

    25. Re:Thin ice by demachina · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One of the more interesting uses for jamming satellites coming real soon now is Galileo, the European/Chinese GPS constellation, coming on line in a couple of years. The U.S. is most unhappy that there will be a GPS system with 1 meter resolution, with wider coverage, they don't control, because it will break their monopoly on GPS guided weapons and navigation during a conflict unless they have the capbility to jam it. The U.S. GPS system can be selectively crippled/encrypted by the U.S. to deny its use to its enemies.

      I wouldn't be surprised if the U.S. is making this threat public to send a signal to the Europe/China that if they proceed with a GPS system free of U.S. domination the U.S. is going to counter with the technology necessary to cripple it.

      China's Xinhua has a pretty biting commentary on the subject that appeared on SpaceDaily a couple days ago.

      It is a further indicator that as the U.S. continues to seek its global empire and world dominion it is going to continue to place itself against and at odds with the entire rest of the world.

      Apparently only the U.S. is allowed to decide who can use and deploy basic technology.

      --
      @de_machina
    26. Re:Thin ice by TigerNut · · Score: 1

      Well, this is what Wikipedia has to say about it. In short, yes, for historical reasons. Occasionally we (here at work) will use 'order of magnitude' in a specific context where it means a factor of two, but that's by no means common usage.

      --

      Less is more.

    27. Re:Thin ice by jacoby · · Score: 1

      Is there something I'm missing? Any chance of a US/Russia warfare ended something like 15 years ago.

    28. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep that in mind, when any one of about a dozen countries with the ability to throw a balistic weapon, and the ability to detect a jammer decide to take out yours first.

      Oh, wait. This just in. "Dustin Barbour no longer thinks it is fair to take out jammers pre-emptively. Apparently the US armed forces set one up in his Mothers backyard, and the preemptive strike not only killed his Mother, but also wiped out Dustins basement server farm, and animal porn collection."

      Funny how opinions change. BTW, we don't hate you because your the big guy on the block, its because your the big drunk asshole on the block. You know, the one that the rest of the street secretly consipres to shank in the back, the next time he isn't looking, or is too drunk to fight back. The guy that people circle around as he is bleeding out on the sidewalk, saying "Hmm, someone should call someone, or something...".

    29. Re:Thin ice by Buran · · Score: 1

      Indeed. As in "electromagnetic radiation".

    30. Re:Thin ice by josecanuc · · Score: 1

      Yes, it's because we work in base-10 math.

      Look up logorithms - log(10)=1, log(100)=2, log(1000)=3, etc.

      It's a useful term because for some things, it doesn't matter what the actual number is, but whether it's closer to (on the order of...) 100 or 1,000,000. If that's what you care about, then whether it's 300 or 800 doesn't matter as much.

      I tend to also thing of time-based values this way, too. I ask if we are expecting a response to a particular request in a day, a week, or a month, just to get a feel for the time frame.

      I suppose if we were used to base 2, then an order of magnitude would be factors of 2. In fact, so many computer-related numbers come in such an orientation.

    31. Re:Thin ice by Andr0s · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Well, I'm just wondering how accurate that thingy is. I mean, it's a long reach from Colo. Springs, CO, USA to high geostationary orbit. And it's getting progressively crowded up there with each day. What are the odds of friendly fire? I bet EU or Japan would be very pissed if their cellphone service went down because USA tried to hit Russian network? Not to mention the fact that modern sattelite communications networks rely on large numbers of sattelites - and hitting all of them might prove to be a rather challenging task.

      Also, I'm very curious about the modus operandi of that thing - I mean, I would assume it's 'direct fire' energy weapon of some sort, meaning its area of effect is greatly limited by horisont and, especially if the thing is in Colorado Springs, natural obstacles such as Rocky Mountains. In case the weapon, instead, employs physical carrier-based weapons such as special warheads on PTS (Planet To Space) missiles, the accuracy is questionable, and capability of hitting multiple targets sucessfully even more so?

      --
      '...computers in the future may have only 1000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1.5 tons...' Popular Mechanics, 03/49'
    32. Re:Thin ice by coaxial00 · · Score: 1

      I agree 100% :)

      terrorism [terrorism]

      n : the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimindation or coercion or instilling fear.

    33. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um. Europe? The EU may seem like just a few hundred million bleeding heart nearly-commies to U.S.Americans., but if the USA carries on the way it has been, it will rapidly make enemies out of them - and the EU has nukes, bio and chemical weapons that are roughly as sophisticated as the USA. I doubt already strained US-EU relations could take another GWB/PNAC term in office...

      Actually, some people on both the US and EU sides might like that, makes their populations easier to control if they have a big enemy on the other side of the ocean.

      But here's another little point: Culturally, Russia (not the USSR which spread across northern asia) has always been mostly in Europe, just not the EU. Yet. Don't you think another 4 years of US belligerence could push the EU into alliance with the Russians and Chinese? I wouldn't personally like it (Idon't trust the french, let alone the slavs), but the combined might could crush the USA. That's why US agencies presently spend so much time trying to start arguments between the various not-quite-enemies-yet-of-the-USA.

    34. Re:Thin ice by mr100percent · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No, I want the US to act civilized. I don't unconditionally support a country, and you wanting the US to be unfair is a slippery slope and dangerous. So should the US commit war crimes? Open a few more Abu Ghraibs? The US would likely win (in the short run), but they would no longer be the moral leader or be in the right. Eventually, the US would back itself into a corner, as playing unfair and pragmatic led to Nazis invading Europe.

      Here's a tip: Go see The Battle of Algiers. It's a good example of how Iraq can and may be botched. (The Pentagon and West Point has been screening it)

    35. Re:Thin ice by ajs · · Score: 1

      "Anti-radiation missiles? WTF? [...] There's no such thing as an anti-radiation missile."

      Google is your friend

    36. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But didn't we pre-emptively attack Iraq over their stockpiling WMDs and working with Al Queda? Ooops, bad example!

    37. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      b) your jammer will get blowed up real good, real quick.

      That's why you put them in hospitals and pre-schools.

    38. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody is going to launch 800 nukes at anybody. Up your Prozac dosage, freak.

    39. Re:Thin ice by dustinbarbour · · Score: 1

      You see.. that's where I differ from most people. I understand the rules of the game, friend. Should someone make war on me, I make war on them. I won't think they played unfairly. That's is how war is won.. by taking every advantage and exploiting every single weakness. I am not one who doesn't stand behind his rhetoric.

    40. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Astra satellite constellation (there's a few of them in similar geosync orbits) carries Murdoch's Sky TV channels, among other things. That's roughly like Fox for Europeans - same corporatist propaganda, just tuned a bit for the more jaded and cynical european citizen. Whoever blows up the Astra satellites might be doing the people of europe a great favour, though europeans are generally so cynical that having corporatist disinformation channels
      around might be okay, as, apparently unlike americans, they don't necessarily believe anything they see on TeeVee.

    41. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That would also affect a lot of the other European countries, possibly including Russia if the wind blows towards eastern Europe.
      And you are forgetting about another thing: not all missiles are land based. Both Britain and France have submarines with nuclear missiles on board.

    42. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep taking your soma, you mean?

      Seriously, we can have a better future than "1984". To paraphrase Bradbury - science fiction doesn't necessarily mean predicting the future. It can also be about preventing it.

    43. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >This is why I'm sticking with cable.

      How do you think cable companies distribute their signal, smart guy? Think, then post.

    44. Re:Thin ice by arodland · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Check the summary. It uses, as could be assumed anyway, EM radiation. That's really about all you need to know. If it uses EM to do jamming, then it has the potential to fry stuff.

      As for the other part, have you ever considered the possibility that the parent poster chose to make a post complaining about satellite jamming rather than something else because the article is about satellite jamming, and not something else? And therefore that the OP is on topic, while you are just ranting?

    45. Re:Thin ice by dougmc · · Score: 1
      $500 million baby? I can get you one for $143.50 on the Internet.
      Perhaps, but the remaining $499,999,856.50 is the shipping charge.

      Satellites cost a lot to put together on the ground, but they cost a lot to get put up into orbit too ...

    46. Re:Thin ice by ForestGrump · · Score: 1

      but if you purchased one on the internet, it would be considered black market.

      You know that buying black market goods is illegal. It is very likely that you'll be hung high and dry as an example of what a "domestic terrorist" is and be given the royal treatment from Homeland Security.

      Be a good citizen. Buy from the military directly. On the bright side, you know who to call if tech support is needed.

      -Grump.

      --
      Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
    47. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is insightful? here's a news flash

      http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/nudb/datainx.asp

      England: 64 Nukes
      France: 117 Nukes (only 48 of which would truly be deliverable in a real war)
      -----------------
      so ~112 nukes

      US: ~10,000 Nukes

      Its a concept known as mutually assured destruction, and its why there hasn't been nuclear war.

      Yes, and that was when you had two countries, the USSR and the USA, who truly could obliterate each other.

      I however doubt that George W was a firm grasp of the concept, thats why him winning the '04 election scares me.
      Actually, Bush understands the idea better than most. He has already said that if any nation uses WMDs against the US, we will respond in kind.

    48. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't that what OBL did? He brought the war from palestine to NY NY. So why are you fighting in Iraq?

    49. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oooh, looky who's all caught up on his high school required reading list...

    50. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wish. Such books have been dropped off the curriculum. Might give the proles ideas or something.

    51. Re:Thin ice by G00F · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Apparently only the U.S. is allowed to decide who can use and deploy basic technology.

      You seam to think people in the USA want to dictate to the rest of the world how to do things. No, actually what happens is the people who want to dictate to the rest of the world, find it easiest to do so through USA.

      Such as the skull and bones, they are a power out of Europe. And other cartel organizations like the riaa/mpaa have existed long before USA, and each country has their own version of the same thing today. So quit blaming USA for everything. We just have a flaw that is being exploited, that is fixable only by the fact we have the right own guns.

      --
      The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive
    52. Re:Thin ice by BgJonson79 · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't that make all governments terrorist organizations? After all, only gov'ts without police or armed forces wouldn't fit that category, and those usually don't last too long.

      --

      There are four boxes used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.

    53. Re:Thin ice by demachina · · Score: 1, Troll

      "Personally, I want any war the US is in to be very unfair. The point is it win."

      If the U.S. uses its military power with discretion you might have a case. For example if the U.S. uses its force to defend itself or others from aggression or to dissuade or to counter aggressive warfare by a rogue nation that is discretion.

      Unfortunately, in the eyes of most of the world since Iraq, the U.S. is the rogue nation now engaging in aggressive warfare and invading countries without provocation and based on fabrication. The doctrine of preemptive warfare is rightly setting off alarm bells around the world.

      You want "any war the US is in to be unfair". The rest of the world doesn't wany any war the U.S. enters in to to be unfair(based on deceit, aggression and fabrication).

      With great power comes great responsibility. The U.S. appears to be increasingly inclined to only exercise its power without exercising responsibility. This leads the rest of the world to being rightly concerned when the U.S. tries to unilaterally impose its will on the rest of the world.

      As I pointed out in another post the U.S. is almost certainly signaling Europe/China that if they field the Galileo GPS system in the next couple years the U.S. is going to take it upon itself to field the capability to jam it since unfortunately GPS is dual use technology. If the world moves to using high resolution GPS to land airplanes in bad weather, for example, I assure you they wont appreciate the U.S. unilaterally jamming it even if its temporary and non destructive.

      --
      @de_machina
    54. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      About all I can say about that site is that they're fools to believe british public statements about their capability. "We only have the 64 tridents we bought off the US"??? C'mon, not even GWB is that dumb.

    55. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the United States wanted world domination you would be in a world of hurt already. Give it a break... The jammer is a counter balance against new Chinese and EU systems. No empire to see here just normal military doctrine.

    56. Re:Thin ice by demachina · · Score: 1

      Heh, nice login, you are a goof. I don't think I'm going to spend the time pointing out why in detail.

      --
      @de_machina
    57. Re:Thin ice by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 1

      Its strange though - because I don't recall any mention of objection when the russians first activated glonas in 93. Last I heard the network is still operational.

    58. Re:Thin ice by kd5ujz · · Score: 1

      Every time a SAM site in iraq aquired a US jet, we lobed a HARM at its ass.

      --
      -William
      God is everything science has yet to explain.
    59. Re:Thin ice by kd5ujz · · Score: 1

      3 nukes could cripple America. Hell, knocking down two towers that hardly anyone knew the use of put us in a recession, now think about totally obliterating wall street. One in the financial district, on in washingtons mall, and one in the port of los angeles and the US would be crippled for a while.

      --
      -William
      God is everything science has yet to explain.
    60. Re:Thin ice by stu72 · · Score: 1

      Airplanes have been doing instrument landings in bad weather for decades before GPS came along, I would hope those systems are not abandoned just because GPS is shiny & new

    61. Re:Thin ice by mgs1000 · · Score: 1
      Maybe they just don't want Galileo guiding missles to targets in Taiwan?

      Or is military aggression ok as long as it's not the Americans doing it?

    62. Re:Thin ice by badmammajamma · · Score: 2, Funny

      ROFL...we can't even handle Iraq and you're worried about world domination?? Holy shit that's funny.

      --
      Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood. -- H. L. Mencken
    63. Re:Thin ice by McFly69 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't know about $143.50, but for $50,000 and some Home Depot measuring tape as an antena, you can have yoru own. http://www.hypocrites.com/article2897.html

      --



      NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
    64. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=goof
      1. An incompetent, foolish, or stupid person.
      2. A careless mistake; a slip.

      He does have a point, I couldn't give a shit what people do to each other on the other side of the world.

    65. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +1 Interesting? Give me a break! The grandparent post is insightful, this is just plain stupid.

    66. Re:Thin ice by mikapc · · Score: 1

      That's what being the world super power is all about. The U.S. calls the shots.

    67. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No he didn't fuckwit.

      First off, if used, Palestine should be capitalized.

      Next, it was not just NY, NY (note the comma) but also the Washington, D.C. area (and Somerset County, Pennsylvania, a detour).

      He brought his war from Saudi Arabia, like he did to Yemen, the African East coast and the Horn of Africa, too.

      OBL is not for Palestinian freedom from Israel. He is for everyone to be forcibly converted to Islam. In particular, his rather reactionary version of Islam, all combined into one great Emirate that (presumably) he is running. Get your facts straight. He isn't Anti-American because the U.S. stands behind Israel and is seen as helping in the oppression. He is Anti-American because the U.S. is seen to have been making moves in the last 20 years to suppress and eliminate Islam from the world. Because the U.S. dared to station troops in Saudi Arabia after the First Gulf War. Because the U.S. staunchly supposed to the Saudi Royal Family.

      Sure, he will ride the strength of hatred that comes out of Palestine against Israel and the U.S., but he could care less about the situation of the Palestinians. There is a reason he was hiding in Afghanistan-No other country wanted him. He was as much an enemy of Sadam Hussein as he is of the Saudi Royal Family.

      However. The last line of your post holds a great deal of truth. The U.S. is in Iraq to find the terrorists. Well, another lie from the mouth of Dubya. I know we are not there for OBL. You should know it, too.

    68. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Russia has had a GPS system operating LONG before you Eurosavages, where is your anti-Russia rant? Oh, wait...

      Also, the main U.S. worry is that the Galileo system is using the same 1.2/1.5 GHz bands as the GPS system. There could be an RF interference issue. You, of course, completely ignored that also.

    69. Re:Thin ice by soliptic · · Score: 0, Troll

      Oh for mod points. 0, Troll? WTF?

    70. Re:Thin ice by WasterDave · · Score: 1

      And some retard modded this as insightful.

      --
      I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
    71. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bush never said anythign abotu Eritrea or Ethiopa and WMD. Now Djibouti is a different matter entirely. It's so fucking hot there that the place itself is a WMD. Rather difficult to deploy though. Best thing abotu the place is the chicks are hotter than the weather...

    72. Re:Thin ice by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Informative

      we can't even handle Iraq and you're worried about world domination?? Holy shit that's funny.

      If we were not worried about public opinion, we could just bomb the hell out of the place, turning the cities into craters.

      What we have trouble with is personal relations. The US is a big geek: technically powerful, but no people skills.

    73. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are thinking that those clever hardware hackers in Russia/Ukraine/etc. haven't already done so, but have decided to keep it very discrete.

      After all, it was noted that Russia did deploy "GPS-jamming" systems in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq, but they didn't seem to work all that well to foible the US' GPS-guided munitions or cause manouver units to get hopelessly lost in the Iraqi sands...

      Besides, an upper atmosphere detonation of a nuke will futz all satellite communications through the ionosphere for quite some time. So do you think that an operational strategy by the cold war countries did not include this?

      But then maybe they've made version 2.0 better...

      It's just an escalation, really. We won the cold war, but are sure acting like it's never stopped.
      There are battlefield units like this to jam comms (say, broadband noise generator to make freq-hopping SINCGARS comms not so useful), etc.

      As more and more stuff is derived from commercial-off-the-shelf stuff, knowing what hardware a MSE SENS is made from could give one insight to what it would take to screw it up from a signals perspective, etc., just like having a ESS manual makes phreaking so much more phun...

    74. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not going to war and figuring out a diplomatic solution sounds like winning to me...

      Sure didn't work for Chamberlin, eh?

    75. Re:Thin ice by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      I don't know exactly the thoughts behind this "or on the grounds that the US feels it has the right to unilaterally develop technology to disable other country's communications (again, I'd start with the MONITORING of communications which is ONGOING rather than the chance that the US MIGHT block communications in the future)"...but it seems you may be feeling like the USA should not be doing these things. Rest assured that if another country was in our position they would be doing the same things and probably more. There are no countries in the world who are excercising moral restraint in the development of military implements. To do so is to put the survival of your enemy over yourself and is tantamount to suicide. To request it of your nation is moronic.

      Personally, if my country feels that it needs to fry someone's sattellite in orbit with a suped-up HERF gun, so be it. If they need to monitor every single international radio, fiber, internet, and tin-cup-and-wire communication originating outside the USA, more power to them. If they want to unilaterally develop technology that can cause someone to lose the ability to move their pinky finger from a jillion miles away with the flick of a switch I am ok with that too.

      In short, anything that is deemed even marginally necessary or helpful in the defense of our country, or that contributes to the overwhelming military superiority of our country, will allow me to have peace of mind when I pay 38% in taxes this year.

      To the grandparent...
      As for the dubiousness (or lack thereof) of pre-emptive warfare, I direct the reader to Homer Lee and his works on military history. An interesting guy who, among other things, predicted the Japaneese attack on Pearl Harbor years in advance. He also predicted the tactical and strategic military importance of Afghanistan in the early 1900's, especially with respect to Russia and their plans for world domination. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest military minds in history, combining a comprehensive knowledge of military tactics with almost prescient ability to judge future events and their outcome with regard to military events.

      His comments, written in the early 1900's, about the evolution of warfare in the next century and beyond place emphasis on the necessity of pre-emptive warfare to maintain national viability.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    76. Re:Thin ice by theLOUDroom · · Score: 1

      One of the more interesting uses for jamming satellites coming real soon now is Galileo, the European/Chinese GPS constellation, coming on line in a couple of years. The U.S. is most unhappy that there will be a GPS system with 1 meter resolution, with wider coverage, they don't control, because it will break their monopoly on GPS guided weapons and navigation during a conflict unless they have the capbility to jam it. The U.S. GPS system can be selectively crippled/encrypted by the U.S. to deny its use to its enemies.

      Perhaps you were unware, but the US an EU are ALLIES!
      Yes, the US has its concerns about the the gallileo system, But it's not as if the US and EU are going to war any time soon. I would expect most of the US concerns are those of interference (do you know that some carrier frequencies are SHARED BY BOTH SYSTEMS), and that the EU at least has the capability to selective degrade it's OWN satellite system, so as to not allow for bargain-basement cruise missles.

      China's Xinhua has a pretty biting commentary on the subject that appeared on SpaceDaily a couple days ago.

      Yes, China bastion of freedom, especially freedom of the press. China is exactly the type of shadow-government fascist regime that the US needs to be able to protect itself against.

      It is a further indicator that as the U.S. continues to seek its global empire and world dominion it is going to continue to place itself against and at odds with the entire rest of the world.

      Somehow, I don't think I'm going to vote for that. Anyways, the real thing you should be afraid of is global corporations playing governments against each other and eventualy building up enough money and influence that goverments are mere servants to their desires.

      Apparently only the U.S. is allowed to decide who can use and deploy basic technology.

      I've worked with GPS in a professional capacity enough to know that only certain groups should be allowed to deploy a GPS system. Arguing that anybody should be able to set up their own gps system is like arguing that anybody should be able to make their own nuke.
      Both technologies DEMAND responsibility in their design and application.

      What the US is afraid of is not that the EU will have its own system, but that the EU will botch the design and allow uncontrollable access to it. With proper access control, people like this guy will be able to sell missiles to the highest bidder, terrorist or not. Seriously, like that guy really had the intelligence capabilities to tell if I'm working for a terrorist when I ask him to build be missiles. What's he gonna do, check for a tatoo that says "terrorist" on their forehead?

      As someone who works with GPS in critical infrastructure applications, I can't wait for a redundant "GPS" system to come online, but not at the cost of giving every angry despot cruise missles.
      The US doesn't *WANT* to shoot the Gallileo system down, just as I don't want to shoot your dog.....but if you let him get rabies he will be shot.
      It's important that the EU understands the responsibility they are taking on.

      --
      Life is too short to proofread.
    77. Re:Thin ice by Merlinium · · Score: 1

      Your forgetting one major important fact here.
      If you are using the Jamming device, what is it that is going to see this and target your Device? because your jamming the satellite that would otherwise see the rather large spot that a Jammer would exhibit upon activation. All the enemy will see is static, as there is nothing coming in from their advanced warning systems other then it has crashed and is no longer working.

      Which if your an enemy and know that the USA has this ability, then you had better run and find some deep cover because the bombs will soon be raining down soon.

      --
      If firefighters fight fire and crime fighters fight crime, what do Freedom fighters fight?
    78. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The people in the USA DO want to dictate to the rest of the world how to do things.

      Also, for what it's worth, New Haven, Conneticut (where Yale University, the home of 'Skull and Bones' is based) is not in Europe. I can't believe you got modded up for that crap.

    79. Re:Thin ice by demachina · · Score: 3, Interesting

      OK since some people seem to think this post has merit, I don't know why:

      Skull and bones is a 100% American. Where exactly did you get "they are a power out of Europe". They are in fact full of wealthy and powerful Americans dedicated to expanding America's wealth and power and dictating to the rest of the world. They are close cousins to the Neocons. If you want to read their outline for global domination read The New American Century. Many of the people behind this statement are in the current administration and key backers of the war in Iraq, including Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Jeb Bush and Paul Wolfowitz. It is kind of a noble sounding statement, freedom and all, until you appreciate its dark side is it advocates American domination of the world.

      The only thing out of Europe about Skull and Bones is yes they are very much an American version of forming a ruling elite like those you find in Great Britain. You know... the sons of the wealthy elite are sent to prep schools and the Ivy League and get the best of everything (like Bush and Kerry), they are qualified to lead and ordinary Americans(like Clinton) aren't. Clinton was basically trailer trash, Rhodes scholar aside, and its one reason the powers that be hounded him every minute he was in office.

      Yes there have been cartels since before the USA, though the RIAA/MPAA obviously aren't examples of the same, recording and motion pictures, not being invented until long after the US came in to being. They aren't doing much but trying to protect and maximize the profits they make on mostly bad music and bad movies. I'm not sure they actually count for much on the global stage because their products are so bad and devoid of substance, though people the world over still seem to buy them for some reason. Maybe they are good sedatives. To break the RIAA's back form a band that makes music that doesn't suck and sell it over ITunes without selling your soul to them. To break the MPAA's back stop watching bad movies which is most of them.

      One might guess you are alluding to a global Jewish conspiracy, if thats what you are getting at why don't you just spit it out and get flamed for it instead of using all the veiled references like "a power out of Europe" and "cartels". What the hell is that.

      Bottomline you are doing what all American's do these days, especially our political leaders. Blame everything bad America does on someone else, instead of taking responsibility when we let our government do bad things. Ranting about "the right to own guns" as being the solution is bullshit until and unless you and probably a whole bunch of others are ready to use them. It would probably be a blood bath and you would probably lose. It may well be that it will come to that if American government stays its current course but I'd say at the moment you are blowing smoke.

      --
      @de_machina
    80. Re:Thin ice by ryanmfw · · Score: 1

      Well, with phased array radars http://www.google.com/search?query=phased+array+ra dar you can block out jamming from locales different from the one you are trying to listen to. I don't know if they have any satellites with phased array antennas, but if they do, jamming them would probably not work too well unless it was powerful enough to destroy it.

      --
      Hurricane Ivan: A 17th century prison collapsed. All of the inmates escaped.
    81. Re:Thin ice by demachina · · Score: 1

      Correct me if I'm wrong but Glonass only provides 100 meter accuracy on its unencrypted channels. You can get accuracy better than that with unguided gravity bombs. The military channel isn't even that great 10-20 meter accuracy.

      Galileo is supposed to have signals in the clear of 1 meter accuracy which makes it exceptionally good for GPS guided weapons. GPS is also really integral to American war fighting now. I'm guessing they want to deny its benefits to China and terrorists in particular.

      --
      @de_machina
    82. Re:Thin ice by back_pages · · Score: 2, Informative
      I believe the meaning of the colloquialism relates to an additional power in the radix of your number system - short answer, yes, it's a power of ten.

      Computer scientists often refer to an order of magnitude when going from problem sizes of N squared to N cubed, which is again tied to an additional power in the "radix" of the problem at hand. Computer scientists also use the colloquialism, in base 10, so it really isn't a binding definition.

      Computer scientists who deal in computability and algorithm analysis (like me) use crazy-ass non-math where numbers are pointless and an order of magnitude only really occurs when you go from linear to quadratic, from quadratic to cubic, and from cubic to exponential. The difference between N^4 and N^100 is basically meaningless when you're dealing with Big Oh or other algorithm analysis notation.

      In summary, who the hell knows? It's one of those cliche quasi-mathematical things people say to indicate something is "super big" compared to something else. It's like English majors saying, "If you have X cars, you need Y tires," without realizing that they have told me nothing about how many tires I need, have apparently defined Y as an implicitly dependent variable which is ambiguously related to X. I don't know how many tires that works out to be, but it's at least an order of magnitude more than my unicycle.

    83. Re:Thin ice by Cobalt+Jacket · · Score: 1

      Actually, in a recent (past month or so) edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology, they stated that the U.S. and E.U. had come to an agreement on Galileo where the U.S. could selectively disable the E.U. system in a given theater of operation. The article implied that it would occur via energy weapons--hence, this jamming system. AvWeek is quite authoritative.

    84. Re:Thin ice by demachina · · Score: 1

      "Perhaps you were unware, but the US an EU are ALLIES!"

      Uh, perhaps you were unaware that China is a now an official partner in Galileo, have been since they signed a deal in 2003. How do reconcile your little rant about "fascist regimes" and the fact they are partnering with your allies in the EU. Not sure of the exact terms but I doubt China is signing up to help develop and pay for a system that the EU can shut off on them.

      I'm pretty sure it is massively chapping America's ass that China is a partner and its chapping China's ass that America is presuming to dictate to the world what is and isn't allowed.

      "It's important that the EU understands the responsibility they are taking on."

      So you are saying is the U.S. is the only one that understands this technology stuff and its America's job to show their dumb little cousins in Europe how to do it, otherwise they will screw up.

      "It's important that the EU understands the responsibility they are taking on."

      And if the EU interprets that responsibility different from America, then the U.S. will make them see the light, by jammer if necessary. Gotta love the "Our way or the highway" mindset that permeates America these days.

      --
      @de_machina
    85. Re:Thin ice by CodeBuster · · Score: 1

      A pre-emptive strike to destroy a jamming system in another country simply because it exists is unlikely. However, in the event of a war with said country, such a system would be a primary target for the first wave of airstrikes along with the radar defense and communications networks. It goes without saying that actual use of an active jamming system which damages or has the potential to damage or destroy US space assets would probably be considered an act of agression with an airstrike response to destroy the offending jamming site at the very least. Other countries, namely China, are almost certainly developing similar systems. Why should not do so as well?

    86. Re:Thin ice by demachina · · Score: 1

      Uh, read The New America Century statement of principials. Whether they can be successful at it is open to debate but it is their goal.

      The only mistake they made in Iraq was to attempt an occupation, oh and in thinking the Iraqi's would welcome them with open arms. I assure you "Shock and Awe" was entirely about sending a message of intimidation to the next countries on the list Iran, Syria, maybe North Korea and basically the rest of the world. America may not be able to successfully occupy anything without reinstating the draft and putting a couple million Americans in army boots, but they can pulverize any smaller nation they choose and remove its leader in a very short period of time. Now that every country knows that, the U.S. neocons are thinking they can intimidate everyone in to doing what they want without using force. Unfortunately it isn't working on North Korea or Iran who are just accelerating their nuclear programs so they can intimidate back.

      The Bush administration plan to field a missile defense system kind of falls in to this. They would like to make America's nuclear deterent unidirectional and preclude anyone from striking back. Its kind of crazy especially with China and Russia but the people who signed the New American Century are pretty crazy, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Jeb Bush representing the Bush clan.

      --
      @de_machina
    87. Re:Thin ice by adam31 · · Score: 3, Informative

      It doesn't matter what base you're in, an "order of magnitude" always means '10' times. If you're working in base 16, for example, it means 0x10.

    88. Re:Thin ice by demachina · · Score: 1

      I'm kind of the school that the world is a better place when you have at least two superpowers whomever they are or no superpowers.

      The world is a really dangerous place when you have one hyperpower that has a nut as its leader and which has such vast military superiority that the world is powerless to stop him, not saying that would ever happen 8)

      Besides, China is like our best friend on the planet now. They are where the entire manufacturing segment of our economy resides and probably where out technology sector is going next. They are kind of like our 51st state now, New Ohio. China doesn't need to use guided missile to get what they want anymore, they can just shut off the container ship traffic and the west will cave.

      --
      @de_machina
    89. Re:Thin ice by demachina · · Score: 1

      Yea and they are really expensive to maintain since you have to have a complex set of beacons at every airport. I think a relatively complex set of gear is needed on the airplane to. I wager switching to GPS would be cheaper on both ends. Also if an airport doesnt have the gear you dont do instrument landings there.

      I'm willing to bet you if there were 1 meter GPS and all airplanes were equipped with landing systems that exploited it the ILS systems would in fact be rapidly abandoned. You would also presumably be able to instrument land at any airport you have GPS coordinates for which is currently not the case

      Not being a pilot but I think there are restrictions on ILS too its only for the approach and not the actual landing. There is a decision height(DH) of 200 feeting for class 1 gear and 100 feet for class 2 gear at which point the pilot has to be able to see the runway lights. In really poor visibility ILS airports still have to shut down. I wager with 1 meter GPS you could probably land in zero visibility probably without the pilot in the loop.

      --
      @de_machina
    90. Re:Thin ice by theLOUDroom · · Score: 1

      Uh, perhaps you were unaware that China is a now an official partner in Galileo

      Actually, I was. Thank you for informing me (really).
      I'm quite suprised to hear this. I would have expected something like that to make huge news.
      How do reconcile your little rant about "fascist regimes" and the fact they are partnering with your allies in the EU.

      Really, that doesn't invaildate my rant. And it's not like this is the first time a European country has made a bad decision.

      So you are saying is the U.S. is the only one that understands this technology stuff and its America's job to show their dumb little cousins in Europe how to do it, otherwise they will screw up.

      I'm not worried about the satellites falling out of orbit or anything, I'm sure they can build clocks and put them in space. What I'm worried about is them giving acess the wrong people and havin inadequate means to controll it. What if one country goes nuts? Can the other cuts them off? Quickly?

      The US fucked up on its on system too.
      They did so by not realizing how much critical infrastructure would come to rely on GPS technology. Telecom networks, secondary airport surveilance, etc.
      The problem with the US network is that they have very little granulariity over who they deny service to.

      And if the EU interprets that responsibility different from America, then the U.S. will make them see the light, by jammer if necessary. Gotta love the "Our way or the highway" mindset that permeates America these days.

      See if this truly going to be a "worldwide" network, that means that their satellites are going to be able to guide weapons to tagets INSIDE the US. While one might claim that the US is overstepping its borders another might claim that Gallileo's crossing ours.

      Building a global navigation system is kinda like building a bank of misslile launchers pointed at every country on the planet. One should expect the diplomatic issues to be at least as complex as the technological issues.

      If you're going to be able to guide weapons into someone else's territory, they're going to want access to the "killswtich" or they're going to start working on a way to shoot the system down or jam it. The seems pretty common sense to me.

      Eventually, I expect we'll end up with "mutually assured disruption" of various competing systems. Anyways, a jammer is a much better option that just shooting the thing down.
      Of course the downside is that jamming will be very slow to have any effect on the gallileo ssystem. This means they won't be able to use it WHEN any enemy attack is launched, it will aready be to late (ground based jammers aren't going to do much when you have a directional antenna pointed at outer space).
      So you end up in a situation where the jammer will get turned on in advance of a potential situation, which will of course then only serve to escalte the sutiation further (if we don't attack in the next N hours, our guided weapons won't work).
      Logically, it seems like the US will want both jamming and destructive capabilities.
      Jamming as an only option might actually make the situation worse.

      --
      Life is too short to proofread.
    91. Re:Thin ice by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 1

      A lot of governments *are* terrorists.

      Civilised ones, however, don't use their armed forces to intimidate or frighten, just to defend and aid.

    92. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This placement is a double benefit, the US would be loathe to just lob a missle at it, and the EM Radiation could possibly create mutants with superpowers!

    93. Re:Thin ice by Orne · · Score: 1

      But it's not as if the US and EU are going to war any time soon.

      What? I thought we've always been at war with Eurasia...

    94. Re:Thin ice by bejiitas_wrath · · Score: 0

      With space travel becoming easier for the average joe, could it be possible one day for a terrorist to use his small private spacecraft to launch an attack against one of these satellites and try to take out one of these himself?
      Terrorist organisations are well funded and this could happen one day. Although I am sure the USA would monitor access to space, or would it?

      --
      liberare massarum ex ignorantia, clausa descendit molestie.
    95. Re:Thin ice by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Hmmmmm...communication satellite jamming equipment...coming online just before the election...where the president has a 50% chance of loss...move along now...nothing to see here.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    96. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The dust helped.

    97. Re:Thin ice by demachina · · Score: 1

      "And it's not like this is the first time a European country has made a bad decision."

      I think Europe is doing the same thing the U.S. is doing. They are treating China as an economic partner, a place to trade and to make a euro. China is chipping in something like 200 million euros as its part of the partnership. I'd be inclined to agree trusting a dictatorship with a lot of mutual animosity with the West is maybe not such a great idea but everyone is doing it.

      I don't really follow your whole arguement about rogue states and terrorists using GPS to launch a surprise attack. Fact is the U.S. probably wont know this is happening until it happens unless America's radar coverage is good and responsive enough to catch cruise missiles. Having the ability to deny GPS service is useless unless you know an attack is coming. A surprise attack on the U.S. can exploit the U.S. GPS and doesn't need Galileo. Degradation and encryption only works if you are in an extended conflict against a known enemy.

      The classic American military response to this problem is they degrade service to everyone who doesn't have access to the encrypted military channel. The only problem is this severely degrades or precludes many of the valuable civilian applications of GPS like automated landing of aircraft in bad weather.

      I imagine the European persective is they would prefer to tap the potential of high precision, widely available GPS and let the Americans cower in their bunkers fearing attack from every direction. Meanwhile they will exploit all the economic advantages of the civilian applications.

      There really are a million ways to attack the U.S. in the modern world and you aren't going to be able to stop all of the them. It might be a better strategy to use carrots, get along with people better in the world, avoid pissing off so many people with the bull in a china shop foreign policy, and just carry a big stick so if anyone attacks you they know what they will get in return.

      --
      @de_machina
    98. Re:Thin ice by serutan · · Score: 1

      Another shot fired in America's one-sided We-must-run-the-world foreign policy. This one isn't aimed at some loose cannon third world nation in the name of fighting terrorism. This is directed at countries that have significant space programs, who we are supposedly friends with, or at least colleagues. Pretty amazingly sad.

    99. Re:Thin ice by ckaminski · · Score: 1

      Not if it's mobile and distributed.

    100. Re:Thin ice by theLOUDroom · · Score: 1

      I don't really follow your whole arguement about rogue states and terrorists using GPS to launch a surprise attack. Fact is the U.S. probably wont know this is happening until it happens unless America's radar coverage is good and responsive enough to catch cruise missiles.

      I would expect it is. Modern radars are taking advantage of some really cool DSP techniques. The missile's rate of speed is going to make it stick out pretty well.

      Having the ability to deny GPS service is useless unless you know an attack is coming.

      Only to a certain extent.
      I'd figure a cheap missile is going to have a GPS for long-term accuracy and a few accelerometers for increased resolution/update rate. The missile is going to lose accuracy very quickly once it looses GPS because its position value is then going to be the result of double integration of the accelerometer reading, and thus contain double integrated error.

      The classic American military response to this problem is they degrade service to everyone who doesn't have access to the encrypted military channel. The only problem is this severely degrades or precludes many of the valuable civilian applications of GPS like automated landing of aircraft in bad weather.

      Yeah the thing that sucks is that's almost the only option. The designers just didn't envision other important uses of the system. There is one interesting prospect arising using what they refer to as a "black key" receiver instead of the typical"red key". receivers. Here's a link on the subject.
      It would be very nice if the Gallileo system provided for many more than two classes of service. (Non-military gov't, civilian critcal infrastructure, seperate codes per country, etc).

      I imagine the European persective is they would prefer to tap the potential of high precision, widely available GPS and let the Americans cower in their bunkers fearing attack from every direction. Meanwhile they will exploit all the economic advantages of the civilian applications.

      Nobody I know is cowering in fear, but it does make sense to be prudent about the situation and consider those "what if" situations. Heck, that's why Gallileo is being built in the first place. It's not as if europeans can use the current GPS system. They're just being prudent themselves.

      There really are a million ways to attack the U.S. in the modern world and you aren't going to be able to stop all of the them.

      Sure, but it's like locking up your bike. You do as best you can and try to aviod any obvious weak spots. You can't ever be SURE no one can take your bike, but you can make it pretty damn unlikely.

      It might be a better strategy to use carrots, get along with people better in the world, avoid pissing off so many people with the bull in a china shop foreign policy, and just carry a big stick so if anyone attacks you they know what they will get in return.

      I totally agree, as do many other Americans. I was at a spech where president Clinton pointed out that with what we're currently spending on homeland security, we could provide every child on the planet with a sixth-grade education.
      Sounds like a whorthwile idea to me.

      --
      Life is too short to proofread.
    101. Re:Thin ice by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      You're right.

      Since the US is the world's only superpower remaining, it should 'play fair' and only deploy technologies that are easily countered by it's second-tier potential adversaries.

      And heaven forfend that it might try to anticipate and counter future technologies....why, that's like CHEATING!* /sarcasm

      Oh yeah, by the way, I'm not sure slashdot noticed, but it ISN'T A FUCKING GAME. There IS no cheating in geopolitics, only winners and losers. If terrorists smuggle a 20kt nuke into a city in an ocean container, what are you going to do, cry that it was a hack and beg to start over?

      In real life you can't kick the enemy from your server if he uses an aimbot, you simply lose and he gets to write the history.

      Apparently only the U.S. is allowed to decide who can use and deploy basic technology.
      As long as we can control it, we will. Anything otherwise is stupid. And in that same vein, I don't blame any other state for trying to break our monopoly on strategic power. I'm not rooting for you to succeed, but I certainly don't blame you for trying.

      The moment another power presents a credible threat to the US that we cannot eliminate relatively safely, American hegemony ends, and we go back to a multipolar world. But for the US defense system to do anything BUT try to shortcut/eliminate/erase such possibilities would be a failure in their primary responsibilities.

      --
      -Styopa
    102. Re:Thin ice by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 1

      I have no clue, but I have an advert here for a GLONASS reciever and it claims accuracy within 8 meters.

    103. Re:Thin ice by Technician · · Score: 1

      Keep in mind that part b) applies to both sides in the conflict. If you're fighting an adversary capable of launching satellites, you're (by definition) fighting an adversary capable of detecting and lobbing anti-radiation missiles at any EM emitter you own that's more powerful than a microwave oven.


      Also keep in mind the jammer may be working on the satelite uplink control and or uplink frequency. The jamming is done with a very high gain dish antenna. The frequencies involved are line of sight. Normal satelite operation is many are on the same frequency, but selected by aiming a high gain dish. (example C-band TV. Many satelites, all operating on the same 24 frequencies selected by aiming the dish.) Great, a US normal uplink type transmitter is now pointed to another country's bird and swamps the control channel and/or uplink communications. You are mid-Atlantic and launch a HARM missle at the source. There is an very good chance you won't find the right source since many uplinks are operating on those frequencies and the dish spillage may be hidden from a missle by natural land features such as the Rocky Mountains. Good luck finding and hitting the right target. The US is a large place with lots of transmitters. Try finding the one that got re-aimed at the foreign satelite and is causing communications problems.

      --
      The truth shall set you free!
    104. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't you think another 4 years of US belligerence could push the EU into alliance with the Russians and Chinese? I wouldn't personally like it (Idon't trust the french, let alone the slavs), but the combined might could crush the USA.

      Well that's why we still have all those nuclear warheads. Fuck with the United States and seriously threaten its' existence and then it's gonna be "pwned gg kk thx bye" for the entire world.

    105. Re:Thin ice by the_bard17 · · Score: 1

      If I was a pilot (I am, but only a private ASEL, and not current), I'd want both.

      Redundancy is a good thing. Electrical and mechanical things break down. Most of us on Slashdot ought to realize that. If your GPS goes down while you're taking a crosscountry trip in the family car, hopefully you brought a set of maps with you. If not, you stop by the next the gas station. Kinda hard to do that in an aircraft. If that GPS goes down, I bet you'd like to take advantage of that ILS system, regardless of its limitations.

    106. Re:Thin ice by t35t0r · · Score: 1

      It's quite simple really, just know the locations of satellites in orbit around the earth, and beam noise at them from the ground, since power on the ground is virtually limitless it would be easy to overpower the satellite. The thing is you might have to know what sort of encoding the satellite uses, what frequency range it receives data on, and several other factors. The thing is a satellite can also determine the location of a signal being sent to it. So could it then not just ignore the signal from an enemy, coming from continent B as opposed to allied signals from continent A ?

    107. Re:Thin ice by Sipos · · Score: 1
      Russia is far too powerful for the US to risk a war with at the moment. The US militarization of space will eventually lead to them being able to completely deny the use of any space based communication, surveillance or weapon systems to any other power. This situation will be very difficult to reverse. They will never willingly give up this power and no one else will be able to take it from them. The development and deployment of space weapons is a turning point like the construction of the first nuclear weapon. After space becomes a real military issue we will never be able to go back to the time when our wars were confined to this planet.

      Tipping the balance of power so drastically like this poses a serious threat to stability everywhere. Once the US can rely on their missile shields they will be much likely to use nuclear weapons against other powers. They already have the most dangerous policy towards their use of any nuclear power (it is US policy, for example, to use nuclear weapons against anyone who sinks one of their aircraft carriers). The advantage they will have as a result of being the only power with access to space will be huge and will mean there is no realistic chance of anyone defending themselves successfully against the US in a conventional war. This will lead to the US being much more demanding in its trade and foreign policy negotiations since there is little the other side can do to stop them having what they want. Once a situation like this develops the last option to fight US power left to the rest of the world will be terrorism and they will use it. It is in neither the interests of the US or the rest of the world to initiate a space arms race or to deploy space based weapons.

    108. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Remember Command & Conquer"

      If you're going to take your military facts from a game, why don't you just shut up.

    109. Re:Thin ice by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      The 2nd amendment protects the 1st. Never forget that.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    110. Re:Thin ice by lachlan76 · · Score: 1

      Of the countries that have the capabilities to do so, only one is not an ally, and I don't think we'd invade China over THIS

      So what you are saying is that it just isn't possible that someone other than China could get a microwave tranceiver, connect it to an antenna, and pump a lot of power through.

    111. Re:Thin ice by Fatchap · · Score: 1

      Perhaps if they started thinking about thinking about developing it.

      Can you spell WMD? never mind find them!

      --
      The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.
    112. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >>Right... just like the US pre-emptively >>attacked Russia because they build GPS jammers. >>Now if a country started using (rather than >>just developing) such a system, I would agree >>with your position

      Wrong... Nuclear subs, ICBM's & a publicly available "what we'll do to you if you attack us" defense doctrine ensures the US does not pre-emptively attack Russia.

      God help the country that tries to defend themselves on principle alone.

    113. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3 nukes could cripple America ... on[e] in washingtons mall

      Actually that would be more help than crippling, assuming it was while Congress was in session.

      Regime change begins at home

    114. Re:Thin ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Okay, so how stupid do you have to be to think that "...the US feels it has the right to unilaterally develop technology to disable other country's communications..." is wrong? I mean, your bloody stupid little country develops stuff and tries to keep it secret and that is good, but if the US does it, by definition it is wrong?

      Fuck off.

    115. Re:Thin ice by CantGetAUserName · · Score: 1

      I was under the impression that with people like Wolfowitz, the preferred expression should be 'The US and EU are ALLIES ... for now'

      --
      Semper en excreta sumus solum profundum
    116. Re:Thin ice by BgJonson79 · · Score: 1

      If they scare one person, they're terrorists. I bet we can find one person in each country scared of the police or army... what do you think?

      --

      There are four boxes used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.

    117. Re:Thin ice by demachina · · Score: 1

      "I would expect it is. Modern radars are taking advantage of some really cool DSP techniques. The missile's rate of speed is going to make it stick out pretty well."

      I'm not so sure. The billion dollar radar the missile defense program has on a off shore platform is supposed to be able to see a baseball and which way its spinning from the other side of the country, but i think it only works for ballistic trajectories Cruise missiles fly nap of the earth, so surface radars can't track them due to the Earth's curvature. To track cruise missiles you need to have radar at high altitude or in space. Maybe the U.S. does but I doubt it has 360 coverage over all of North America, oh and then they sneak the missile in to Canada and launch from there. And of course they don't really need a cruise missile in the first place. They can smuggle a nuke across America's very pouress border and drive it in to a city in a Ryder truck or put it in to a lead lined cargo container. It would probably be easier than acquiring or building a long range cruise missile.

      "It would be very nice if the Gallileo system provided for many more than two classes of service."

      Like I said, in this day and age many would prefer to have quality GPS service for everyone and let the paranoid suffer. You will never be able to satisfy them. If you give them an inch they will just want another inch. Watch Dr. Strangelove if you haven't lately.

      "It's not as if europeans can use the current GPS system."

      I think Galileo has better resolution and coverage. I think they are trying to enable new GPS applications that can't be done with the current GPS precision and coverage. They are advancing technology as people are want to do with technology. And, of course, America isn't a particularly trustworthy country anymore. If other countries start relying on Amnerican GPS then America has a new means for blackmail, "Do what we say or we shut off your GPS".

      "Nobody I know is cowering in fear,"

      You must not know any Americans. As nearly as I can tell most people in the U.S. are living in fear. Thats why their politicians tell them how they are making them "safe" on a daily basis. Thats why they took down Iraq, they were afraid Saddam was going to nuke an American city. If that isn't cowering in fear and rampant paranoia I don't know what is. The U.S. got out of the cold war mentality for a few pleasant years and it pissed off the chicken hawks, the military and the right wing. Thanks to 9/11 they are now back to a new perpetual cold war mentality which is predicated on everyone cowering in fear and spending bucket loads of money on Defense in a futile search for absolute "safety".

      If you read the full Bin Laden transcript released yesterday his most stinging rhetoric is Al Qaida is trying to bankrupt America. They spend a half million dollars on an ingenious attack and the U.S. spends a couple trillions dollars recovering from it and trying to guard against every conceivable new attack which is impossible. Maybe it wasn't their plan but it is obviously a pretty good one. A few more iterations like the last one and they win.

      --
      @de_machina
    118. Re:Thin ice by demachina · · Score: 1

      If GPS failed and there was no fall back you do what you do now if ILS fails or there is zero visibility, you fly to an airport with visual flight rules. It might be nice to have the redundancy and I'm sure you would for a long period but I wager once GPS is established and has a good track record, ILS would slowly disappear. I don't know how much it costs but I'm pretty sure its pretty expensive, especially for cash strapped smaller airports.

      --
      @de_machina
    119. Re:Thin ice by cheesybagel · · Score: 1
      The UK has no land based missiles anymore. Its all Tridents in Vanguard class submarines (upto 16 Trident II D5 missiles with 12 MIRV 100kT warheads, but presently only with 48 warheads x 4 subs). France has some in submarines (upto 16 M45 missiles with 6 MIRV 150kT warheads x 3 subs) and some air force tactical nukes (300 kT ASMP).

      So each country could easily hit well over a hundred targets with nukes using their present force. At a full load of missiles according to best specs, the UK subs could theoretically hit 768 targets, while the French subs could hit 288 targets. Just do the math.

      The French are also introducing the better M51 missile, with 12 MIRVs instead of 6. That could double their number of warheads to 576 standard.

    120. Re:Thin ice by Lucifugue · · Score: 0

      Yeah, yeah. That said, please, don't complain when you get Hantas fever from your drinking water...

      There is no such thing as afair fight. Only fearfull fighters. And nobody wins a war. Ever!
      Do read Sun-Tzu. A war is won when it does not happen...

    121. Re:Thin ice by theLOUDroom · · Score: 1

      It would probably be easier than acquiring or building a long range cruise missile.

      Not really.
      A cruise missile could be built by a few engineers using easily available equipment...
      We're talking stuff you could buy online and have it all at you house in a week. Legally.
      And once you've got a working prototype, you can start cranking them out like crazy, then launch hundreds of them at once.
      Getting a critical mass of uranium or plutonium would be MUCH harder, and then you still need a team of engineers and some equipment that is going to throw up serious red flags if you want your engineers to survive long enough to actually produce ONE bomb. (And you're not going to be able to get enough material to produce lots of nukes.)

      I think Galileo has better resolution and coverage.

      Better resolution is possible, but better coverage (for civilian applications) doesn't seem very likely. They're going to be using the same carrier frequency and a very similar modulation scheme. This means their power levels are going to have to be carefully matched to those of the GPS system. CDMA demands it to function properly.

      If other countries start relying on Amnerican GPS then America has a new means for blackmail, "Do what we say or we shut off your GPS".

      Which was the point I was trying to make. The Europeans are being just as paranoid as us Americans, or they wouldn't be building Gallileo in the first place. We're afraid you'll misuse Gallileo and you're afraid we'll misuse GPS. Pot, meet kettle :)

      You must not know any Americans. As nearly as I can tell most people in the U.S. are living in fear. Thats why their politicians tell them how they are making them "safe" on a daily basis. Thats why they took down Iraq, they were afraid Saddam was going to nuke an American city.

      Well, the funny thing is that I, as an american, didn't get a say in attacking Iraq.
      A great many Americans are aware of the REAL reasons we attacked Iraq, but don't really have much ability to do anything about it.
      A LOT of us think it's retarded that we had 9 times more people after Saddam than the guy who was ACTUALLY RESPONSIBLE for 9/11.

      --
      Life is too short to proofread.
    122. Re:Thin ice by ajs · · Score: 1

      If it uses EM to do jamming, then it has the potential to fry stuff.

      I want to hope that you're trolling and that you don't actually believe that.

      Let's just construct one simple example device that uses EM to do jamming, and yet runs no risk of "frying" anything: your device produces a signal which is bounced off of the target satellite, such that it appears to be "coming from" that source to an earth-based observer. Your bounced signal conforms closely to the carrier used by the satellite's communications, but differs in such a way as to make it very difficult for even the most sensitive equipment to process the signal.

      I could come up with a dozen of those, and they're certainly all MUCH simpler to make and test than some satellite-frying beam (the power required to fry a device which is built to survive even low-orbit solar EM would be staggering).

    123. Re:Thin ice by ajs · · Score: 1

      Rest assured that if another country was in our position they would be doing the same things and probably more.

      I disagree, though the more traditional argument (and one which obviously cannot be disproven) is to say that any other country would have to do what we've done in order to be in our position. That is, if we had not been listening to the world's communications (with the help of the UK and Australia) since World War II, then we could not have continued to dominate would finance and technology.

      Personally, if my country feels that it needs to fry someone's sattellite in orbit with a suped-up HERF gun, so be it. If they need to monitor every single international radio, fiber, internet, and tin-cup-and-wire communication originating outside the USA, more power to them. If they want to unilaterally develop technology that can cause someone to lose the ability to move their pinky finger from a jillion miles away with the flick of a switch I am ok with that too.

      Wow... ok, well if that's how you feel, then good for you I guess, but I'll just point out that that weakens any attempt to argue that other countries should not act in whatever way suits their percieved need for security (e.g. North Korea), and when we want to convince ally nations (e.g. NATO) to join us in controling the threat of terror, the probe into Echelon by the EU hurts our cause deeply.

      In short, by doing what you suggest, our country has damaged our national interests and security in the long term for short term rewards. From a purely US-motivated point of view, that is a huge problem, and one for which blame rests on the shoulders of all political officials (elected or not) who had significant influence, regardless of party or views in the last 50+ years.

    124. Re:Thin ice by ajs · · Score: 1

      So what you are saying is that it just isn't possible that someone other than China could get a microwave tranceiver, connect it to an antenna, and pump a lot of power through.

      No, that's not what I'm saying. It's a much harder problem than that. It requires the engineering capabilities, I would think, of at least a substantially develped nation. Certainly the G8 count (as I pointed out, these are our allies, except for China). Brazil might be up to it... I'm not sure. They could potentially count as someone who is not strictly an ally of the US and yet has this capability... still, they're not hostile to the US in any substantial way.

      NK could potentially work this out, but not having a satellite program (to my knowledge, anyone want to confirm or deny?) I don't see them having ready access to the specs needed unless they could steal them.

      The US knows how everyone's devices work in orbit. We know where they are at all times. We know what they transmit and who listens. These alone are huge advantages in jamming their output.

      If you can think of counter examples, I'm all ears (and willing to believe I've overlooked something).

    125. Re:Thin ice by lachlan76 · · Score: 1

      Could Soviet-era aircraft/ICBM tracking radars be modified for significantly increased power? I would imagine that they would be a lot easier to come by than any home-built solution.

      But, you've come up with good responses to other things I've said, and I only have fairly basic knowledge of radio circuitry.

    126. Re:Thin ice by ajs · · Score: 1

      Could Soviet-era aircraft/ICBM tracking radars be modified for significantly increased power?

      I dunno. I would *think* that the technology involved is much more difficult than that because it's taken the US this long to come up with something that can do it...

      The real difficulty is that ground stations know weere the satellite is and the satellite has a fairly narrow area to which it broadcasts (e.g. the surface of the planet, which occupies substantially less than 180 degrees of the satellite's view). This makes the signal very hard to block. You would need to overwhelm ground-stations (a hell of a lot of power required) or directly target the satellite with some sort of jamming signal (e.g. interfering with either the uplink or downlink communications).

      I would think that while any directed transmitter could be used as a starting point, it's more the knowledge of the specs for the satellite in question and its uplink protocol that would be needed as well as some top-notch RF hackers.

    127. Re:Thin ice by lachlan76 · · Score: 1

      What I was thinking was that by broadcasting enough RF at the satellite, the s/n ratio would be low enough that the ground station would be lost in the background.

      because it's taken the US this long to come up with something that can do it...

      Oh, you had it alright...except it involved setting off a nuke in the upper atmosphere.

    128. Re:Thin ice by jacoby · · Score: 1
      Um. Europe?


      In 1982, the British Navy had to press into service cargo ships and ferries in order to bring enough of a force to the Falklands to invade, and even then, they had fewer invaders than the Argentina had defenders.

      At that time, Britain had the world's third largest navy.

      During the Balkans war, the Royal Air Force flew the second highest number of bombing sorties, over #3 by a large margin. They flew 4%.

      Europe settles differences by politics and negotiations, and the US settles its differences with Europe the same way. Considering they had 2 major wars in Europe in the last 100 years and none in the last 50, when the US was there to protect them from the big, bad outside world, I'm glad they've switched, even if it means few peacekeepers.

      Don't you think another 4 years of US belligerence could push the EU into alliance with the Russians and Chinese? I wouldn't personally like it (Idon't trust the french, let alone the slavs), but the combined might could crush the USA.


      China likes trade. China is growing. China, to grow, needs oil and concrete. China groans and points at Taiwan on occasion, but China is not going to fight any time soon. Big bombers and hidden guys with laser sights will destroy any combined might that tries to crush the US, then the capitol buildings of the nations that put those forces together, should it come to that. Honestly, messing with trade relations is a much bigger concern than invasion.

      That's why US agencies presently spend so much time trying to start arguments between the various not-quite-enemies-yet-of-the-USA.


      I could be blind, but I don't see that happening in the world.
    129. Re:Thin ice by jacoby · · Score: 1

      It's more than just the nukes. The US Navy is the second largest Air Force in the world and the only blue water navy out there. In many nations, they could never have equivalents to our Rangers, Delta or Special Forces, because those in power would worry that people out of that unit would kill the current leader and/or take over, and Anwar Sadat and Col. Muammar Qadhafi are examples of why.

    130. Re:Thin ice by ajs · · Score: 1

      What I was thinking was that by broadcasting enough RF at the satellite, the s/n ratio would be low

      I'm not sure if that's practical. Sat uplinks would, I would think, need to be pretty high-powered already to overcome all of the sources of noise from the earth and Sun. Anyone else listening in who has practical experience in this realm?

      Oh, you had it alright...except it involved setting off a nuke in the upper atmosphere.

      Well, this is specifically a selective tool that's reversable. Quite different from a giant EM pulse.

  2. Way to go! by rearl · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "The device appears to have been put into service considerably earlier than had been projected by the Air Force as recently as February.

    At that time, a long-range planning document, dubbed the Transformation Flight Plan, said such a system would let the United States by 2010 "deny and disrupt an adversary's space-based communications and early warning" of attack."

    That's the way to beat the enemy to the punch - make them think you're 5+ years away from ready, then DEPLOY!

    1. Re:Way to go! by Galvatron · · Score: 3, Funny

      Now, witness the power of this FULLY ARMED AND OPERATIONAL battlestation!

      --
      "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
    2. Re:Way to go! by JUSTONEMORELATTE · · Score: 1

      Now, witness the power of this FULLY ARMED AND OPERATIONAL battlestation!

      It took some digging, but I knew I'd heard that line somewhere before.

      --

    3. Re:Way to go! by Thud457 · · Score: 1
      "You're not gonna sit there and go "Damn Microsoft" are you?"

      After twenty years of Microsoft teaching the world that bugs are normal and acceptable, I assume that the techs'll at least take time to reboot once before realizing that they're under attack.

      --

      the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    4. Re:Way to go! by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 1

      That probably happens every day.

      Heck, I even do it when coding. I keep saying I'm a few days off finishing etc. so that I've got some slack (and don't end up with a rush-job).

    5. Re:Way to go! by dodobh · · Score: 1

      That is not a moon!

      --
      I can throw myself at the ground, and miss.
  3. Hoo boy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When I see verbiage like "electromagnetic radio frequency energy" I immediately get suspicious. Someone's trying to bullshit me here.

    1. Re:Hoo boy by tgd · · Score: 1

      What, and its better when you hear "gravimetric radio frequency energy" on Friday evenings?

    2. Re:Hoo boy by Alien+Being · · Score: 2, Funny

      In other words, it exceeds the trigger threshold of your bovine fecal matter detection heuristics.

    3. Re:Hoo boy by ajlitt · · Score: 1

      Just like how these guys claim their product uses "refractive lens technology" as opposed to the other kind? (AFAIK a 'reflective lens' is called a mirror, regardless of its curvature).

  4. Yaaaaaaaar. Cyberwar == GOOD! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now we don't have to jam them like we used to: breaking into the ground stations, and hijacking the control interfaces. One step closer to the Tesla death ray!!!! Oh, another note: what would happen if we now broke into the ground based station?

  5. Hon The WiFi is down again ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just a matter of time. I like hard wire.

    1. Re:Hon The WiFi is down again ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huh Huh. He said "Hard".

  6. Interesting.. by nametaken · · Score: 1


    The article acts as if they should tell us how it works, precisely. While I'm sure many readers already have a good idea, I'm glad they're not just coming out with it.

    1. Re:Interesting.. by 59Bassman · · Score: 1

      I'm actually starting to get a bit miffed about the desire to know everything about how defensive systems work. There's a part of me that thinks we really shouldn't be announcing anything of this sort. I've got a great idea - let's let the public know exactly how each and every one of our systems operate! The enemy (pick one) would NEVER think of watching CNN or the Discovery Channel to try to gain a small clue they could turn into a tactical advantage!

    2. Re:Interesting.. by IvanD · · Score: 0

      So the karma thing is because of some US comments?? I live in the US... I like the US.. still I think they were trying to still the idea from the original attempts of satellite knock outs .

      Bad karma doesn't change minds. It just encourage people to say worse things.

      US.. vote.. because I can't... but you.. should!

    3. Re:Interesting.. by lottameez · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm pretty sure it works by spray painting anti-french slogans on the satellite gyroscope lens....oh crap, I've said too much.... :-)

      --
      Yeah? Well I think you're overrated too.
    4. Re:Interesting.. by duvie · · Score: 1

      by "hating the US" are you referring to wishing to see the junta currently in power removed by our first lawful presidential election in almost a decade? That would stem, you see, from a LOVE of this country.

    5. Re:Interesting.. by thedillybar · · Score: 1
      >I'm actually starting to get a bit miffed about the desire to know everything about how defensive systems work.

      What makes you think they're telling us about technologies that aren't already outdated? For all we know the government has had this for 20 years and now they're telling us it's new since they have something else to replace it.

      Maybe I've seen too many movies, but if you think the government is telling us everything that they are doing, you aren't very bright.

    6. Re:Interesting.. by erick99 · · Score: 1

      That's a disingenous argument and best and a logical fallacy at worst. You setup a strawman argument rgarding the "junta" and then use that to justify your stance. You need something substantative if you want to convince people of your point of view.

      --
      http://www.busyweather.com/
    7. Re:Interesting.. by duvie · · Score: 1

      mmm... and a broadbrush accusation of "hating the USA" would be...?

    8. Re:Interesting.. by nametaken · · Score: 1


      Actually I was talking about "It I hate tha USA because it is dumb and I want all US to dies plus George W. Bush cause he's idiot" posts getting modded to +5 insightful, in articles about customs violations.

    9. Re:Interesting.. by nametaken · · Score: 1


      He didn't say that the government is telling us everything they are doing. He just said that he's worried about the increasing volume of information thrown to the public. While this may be educational for many, controlling information is indeed an effective safety measure. I realize this is contrary to the opinion of most slashdot readers, but he's right.

    10. Re:Interesting.. by crazyphilman · · Score: 1

      YES, but if they cared at all about security, they wouldn't have mentioned that this even exists. They would have simply used it, and the country affected would just experience mysterious satellite outages. Then, they could have played dumb and carried out whatever plan they were working on.

      Now that they've said that they have this, and admitted that it exists, they've shot themselves in the foot.

      First of all, announcing the idea gives everyone else the idea. Everyone who has the know-how to build something like this and the money to buy parts now at least has the subconscious thought, "Hey, that's pretty neat. I wonder if I can take out DirecTV with this?" If you've ever hung around physics majors when they're bored, you know I'm not exactly reaching here. And it only takes a couple of cases of beer to get a techie to decide to start a project up. :)

      Second, and more worrying, now every time a satellite fails in a country we're not buddy-buddy with, they're going to be wondering if we're involved. Let's say we're negotiating with a country, and we haven't committed troops yet because things are still at the bargaining stage. Suddenly Nastistan's satellite fails -- maybe some space junk hits a solar panel, or a micrometeorite smacks into it. The ruler, who's probably flaky anyway, freaks out: "The Americans are going to blow us up! Everybody in the bunker!" Then all hell breaks loose. Now the damn ambassador has to coax them back out:

      "Um... Mr. Nastistan President? Can you hear me in there?"

      "GO AWAY. WE DON'T LIKE YOU ANYMORE."

      "Come on, you know we wouldn't kill your satellite. We're friends, we were talking. Come out and have a beer."

      "NO. You just want to kill me. We're not friends anymore. And we're keeping our oil too."

      "Ok, hang on there, let's not get rash, if you come out, I'll give you a snickers."

      "What? Are you nuts? I've got twenty pounds of Halvah in here. Kiss my ass."

      "What about a nice, shiny new Palm Pilot? I know you've been admiring mine... If you come out and resume talks, you can have it. I promise not to blow anything up."

      "I'm not coming out. That crazy Cheney person is probably out there with a bazooka."

      "There are NO BAZOOKAS out here. I promise. Honest. Come on, won't you come out for a few minutes? Just a few?"

      And so it goes. All because the air force can't keep its mouth shut. Sigh...

      --
      Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
  7. Sounds familiar... by Sensible+Clod · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe this was a beta version?

    --

    The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
    1. Re:Sounds familiar... by IvanD · · Score: 1, Funny

      maybe THIS was the beta version.

    2. Re:Sounds familiar... by DoctorDeath · · Score: 1

      My thoughts exactly! Probably not so much beta testing as actual usage of the final version. You know how the military won't reveal what they have until they have something better. I bet the newest version will cause blackouts in whole cities not just open your garage door.

      --
      Sig temporarily out of service.
    3. Re:Sounds familiar... by dgatwood · · Score: 1
      Maybe THIS was the beta version. :-D.

      Sir, our communications satellites are being jammed by the slashdot effect!

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  8. Confused... by D-Cypell · · Score: 1

    So, can I take my tin-foil hat off now?

    1. Re:Confused... by bot24 · · Score: 1

      While this may be slightly off topic, put the hat back on. I was drinking my Coca Cola "V"(the new spelling of vanilla) today, and I noticed some writting on the inside of the bottle. It said something about not resisting and knowing that I want it. It was in light grey writting too so that it wouldn't be too noticeable. What are they trying to do?

  9. I would have gotten 1st post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    But i suspect my wifi was temporarily jammed

  10. Yeah Right! by darth_MALL · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is another vaporware lie perpitrated by "the Man" to keep me from telling the truth about *BZZZT* [NO CARRIER]

  11. "Spies like us" by Stonent1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm having a mental flashback of the scene where the anti-missile system hits an MTV satellite and the girl's TV explodes, where she exclaims "Awesome!"

  12. Like many other technologies by xThinkx · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    The jamming technique fails miserably when the target satellites are equipped with the requisite "tin foil hat" defense system.

    --
    Let's get one thing perfectly clear, I did not vote for George W Bush, and I do not endorse what he does or says.
    "
    1. Re:Like many other technologies by mikael · · Score: 2, Funny

      ... I always wondered why satellites are wrapped in gold foil. The offical reason was that it protected against micro-meteorites, sudden temperature changes and heat stress. Now we know the real reason :)

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    2. Re:Like many other technologies by xThinkx · · Score: 1

      Flaimbait? I guess the difference between humor and flaming is lost on some people.

      --
      Let's get one thing perfectly clear, I did not vote for George W Bush, and I do not endorse what he does or says.
      "
  13. Will be a bad thing... by gmuslera · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... until SpamSat is launched, and then all will agree that is a good thing.

  14. Cool! by lottameez · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think the USAF could easily recoup their investment if they allowed people to "vote" TV channels off of satellite comms. $1 a minute to jam the signal. No more QVC, goodbye to MTV-trash - yippee!

    --
    Yeah? Well I think you're overrated too.
    1. Re:Cool! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      it's called a remote, last i checked..

    2. Re:Cool! by Bios_Hakr · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Funny, I already have that ability. It's called a remote control.

      --
      I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
  15. Oh! by pair-a-noyd · · Score: 1

    So that's why my Dishnetwork system quit working!

    1. Re:Oh! by Mysticalfruit · · Score: 1

      And that's a bad thing???? Though I'm suspecting that Al Jezzera is suddenly going be having a problem getting their Al Queda tapes aired all over the world...

      --
      Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
  16. Rasberry! by Supero100 · · Score: 5, Funny


    "Raspberry! I hate Raspberry!"

    1. Re:Rasberry! by iamstilgar · · Score: 3, Funny

      There's only one man who would dare give me the Raspberry {SCH-LUNK}.......LONESTAR!

    2. Re:Rasberry! by da3dAlus · · Score: 1, Redundant

      Only one man would dare give me the raspberry...LONESTAR!!! *thud* *crash*

      --

      Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
  17. HOLY CRAP !! by Artie_Effim · · Score: 1

    I mean to say, I though about this years ago, submitted a letter to the D0D for a RFC and they never got back to me. I'm calling my lawy ..~~!&&&&&.... .#ddh&^^ @&38....

  18. Al-Jazeera by ericdano · · Score: 1

    Can you say "Al-Jazeera"? What? Never heard of it? Oh, thats right, we started using the forementioned device to start blocking them ;-)

    --
    It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
    I moderate therefore I rule!
    --
    1. Re:Al-Jazeera by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here is a homebrew Al-Jazeera satellite jammer project:

      GBPPR Zine 8

  19. Re:Section by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But I -like- these colors =(

  20. They have been telling the EU about this. by Dersucher · · Score: 1

    Not so long ago, there was a news story about the EU comming up with, and launching their own GPS system.
    I quote from the article
    "The paper also reported that a disagreement between the US and the EU regarding Galileo at a London conference resulted in a threat to blow up the planned satellites. The European delegates reportedly said that they would not turn off or jam signals from their satellites, even if they were used in a war with the US."

    Maybe this is just the USAF Jumping the gun, and getting one up on the EU Nations, so that when they do go live with their GPS System, it won't seem that this jamming system is targeted specifically at it.

    1. Re:They have been telling the EU about this. by TykeClone · · Score: 1
      Is the EU GPS like the current one - does it require a lot of little satellites flying around to work?

      If so, I would think that it would be much harder to jam a GPS-like system than a spy or communications satellite.

      --
      A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
    2. Re:They have been telling the EU about this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
      IIRC the US has been annoyed about Galileo from the project's conception and I'm not entirely sure why.

      The main reason Europe and the rest of the world was a civil controled system as they don't like the thought of the USA switching off or degrading the GPS signal as the civilan airlines require the signal for safe flight.

      It may interest the readership to know that Russia also have a similar system as do China. Last I heard, China had been invited to join the program, had accepted, and were going to contribute their sats related equipment to the program. An invitation had been sent to Russia but the last I heard the negotiations were still on going, but a sucessful outcome was likely.

      It may interest you to know as well the Russia is the only nation on Earth to have a specific armed forces for space like other nations have an Army, Air Force and Navy. They also did (do?) have the first working anti-sat weapons.

  21. Without frying components by Orestesx · · Score: 2, Interesting

    uses electromagnetic radio frequency energy to knock out transmissions on a temporary and reversible basis, without frying components

    Is it possible to knock out transmissions on a reversible basis while frying components?

  22. Probably old school by dougmc · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Is this just another old school EM jamming technique, or something new?
    Old school jamming techniques will be quite effective. You find out what the uplink frequency band is, and hit the satellite with a few thousand watts on that band using a high gain antenna. No commands will be received while your jamming is in effect.

    Now, jamming the downlink is harder, but if you hit the satellite with enough power on any band, it'll freak out. With a highly directional antenna, you could even take out only a specific satellite.

    Satellites do have to deal with ionizing radiation and can't have enough shielding to totally block it, so they're equipped to reset themselves when they get `stuck' because some IC got hit with a stray alpha particle -- because it's not *if* it will happen, it's *when*.

    Of course, if you hit the satellite with enough power, you may actually damage it. If that happens, you just play dumb. Sure, it may have happened while the satellite was over the US (or a US base, or US ship), but that was just a coincidence, right?

    I guess a new school jamming technique might be to actually hit it with ionizing radiation (typically X and gamma rays, and high energy electrons and protons (often with some neutrons in the form of an alpha particle) but these are generally attenutated greatly by the atmosphere (and the charged particles diverted by our magnetic field), so this would be hard to do from the ground. But I guess if you can make it strong enough, or do it from a tall mountain/plane flying above most of our atmosphere ...

    1. Re:Probably old school by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now, jamming the downlink is harder...

      Not really. All you would have to do is park a satellite a few degree away and radiate on their downlink. This has occured numerous times by accident. Since most terrestrial stations have high-gain attennae, you can use a relatively low power signal. You would be surprised how low-tech most C^2 stuff is.

      Another good way to kill a satellite is to kill the power source. For solar arrays, you can degrade their performance significantly, and quickly by blasting them with high-energy charged particles. This occurs naturally in space, but a ground-based system could effect this change much quicker--even acting over Fseveral days or months. from the ground all you notice is an abnormally high performance degradation from you solar arrays.

    2. Re:Probably old school by rmsimpso · · Score: 1

      old school jamming techniques don't work against satellites with Nulling Capabilities

  23. Commercial satellites? by spooky_nerd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What's to keep people from encrypting communications, and using commercial satellite systems? In fact, you could put up a satellite system and market it for commercial use. Then, when you use it to transmit your nefarious plans, the US won't want to take it down because it would be too large of a disruption to US businesses.

    1. Re:Commercial satellites? by GeneralEmergency · · Score: 1

      National (physical) Security will always trump Economic Security.

      --
      "A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
      GeneralEmergency
    2. Re:Commercial satellites? by MemoryAid · · Score: 1
      Well, now they can be jammed. It is probably possible to jam only a certain area, such as making it impossible for the satellite to detect any signals within a certain proximity of the jammer.

      Don't think that taking out commercial communications will stop the Air Force from jamming what they want to jam.

      --
      Language students: Don't try to learn English here. This ain't it.
    3. Re:Commercial satellites? by Lord+Ender · · Score: 1

      If we were at war with an enemy capable of launching sats, I think a little disruption in US business transactions would be an acceptable price to pay.

      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    4. Re:Commercial satellites? by Eskarel · · Score: 1

      Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha . That is all.

    5. Re:Commercial satellites? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People already do this- we are behind the curve in reality

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3077303.stm

  24. tool of terrorism? by davidwr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Two relatively expensive terrorist tools I'd like to hear more about:

    1) ground-based satelite-destroyers.
    2) space-based satelite-destroyers.

    Can you imagine the damage to the American psyche if all the TV- and other-entertainment- satellites were knocked out at once? There'd be great moaning and gnashing of teeth while America waited a few months or years for replacements to go up.

    Imagine if that happened in the middle of the Superbowl?

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:tool of terrorism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Imagine if those freedom-hating Iranians took out Fox?!!!!! Oh, the humanity!

    2. Re:tool of terrorism? by Shihar · · Score: 5, Funny

      Look, when 9/11 happened the Americans went nuts. They ended up whacking off two nations. Think about it. The American response to two buildings being destroy was to take out two ENTIRE NATIONS. That is like responding to two guys getting shot by taking out two towns. So, you understand the American prepensely to overreact a little.

      Now, considering the American psyche, what kind of fucking idiot would you have to be to take out all American TV. You thought they were on a rampage after two buildings fell? Shit, if someone took out American TV, especially during the Superbowl I would go look for the nearest fallout shelter and come out 100,000 years later to open a very profitable glass business. Why glass you ask? Because that kind of nuclear holocaust, that is all that is left.

      Blow up the Statue of Liberty, the White House, and Wall Street, but for the sake of the rest of world, leave the American heart and soul intact and leave TV alone.

    3. Re:tool of terrorism? by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · · Score: 1

      wow... and if you thought most Americans were ready to nuke the entire middle east on Sept 11, just imagine their reactions on Superbowl Sunday...

      --
      A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
    4. Re:tool of terrorism? by Sensible+Clod · · Score: 1

      Do you have any idea how HARD it would be to knock out all of them at once? America alone has 1000+ sats in orbit.

      If terrorists were even going to TRY, they'd much more likely target a few of the more important ones.

      --

      The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
    5. Re:tool of terrorism? by pjt33 · · Score: 1

      Have you read "The Sum of All Fears" by Tom Clancy?

    6. Re:tool of terrorism? by Andr0s · · Score: 0

      Space-based satellite killers? Not necessarily too expensive. 99.95% of the system cost would be getting it up. Once up there... hell, most of those satellites are fragile enough that all you need to kill them is a brick on a collision course.

      As opposed to those, I think ground-based satellite killers would be far more complex and expensive, since you'd have to lob something to space every time you wanted to kill a satellite (instead of putting up a satellite of your own, armed with a brick launcher), and would need far better and more sophisticated guidance systems, since distances are larger and interference greater (lobbing a brick at a satellite in 0G vacuum does not equal lobbing a brick from surface to orbit at the same target).

      In the end, I'd say the best 'efficiency to cost' systems are air-launched, such as US ASAT missile - built to be launched from F15, if I'm not mistaken. Especially since they're not limited in deployment options like slow-moving or stationary ground systems, or expensive-to-place space systems. You can deploy them from any airport or aircraft carrier.

      --
      '...computers in the future may have only 1000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1.5 tons...' Popular Mechanics, 03/49'
    7. Re:tool of terrorism? by RandomCoil · · Score: 1
      Thankfully, someone else typed out the quote I was looking for. It clearly supports your supposition, though blowing up the other bits you mentioned would likely also be a bad idea.

      From The Boomer Bible, by R.F. Laird.

      The Book of Yanks, Chapter 107, verses 5-16

      5. After all, it hasn't ever been a good idea to make the Yanks mad,
      6. Like with the Alamo,
      7. And the Maine,
      8. And the Lusitania,
      9. Which should have tipped off the Nips that if they did something to the Yanks,
      10. Something unspeakable like Pearl Harbor, for example,
      11. The Yanks would remember it,
      12. Forever,
      13. And find a way to get even,
      14. No matter how much it cost,
      15. And now that you mention it,
      16. Remember the Lusitania?

      (The book's a little tongue in cheek -- please look past the use of "Nips".)
    8. Re:tool of terrorism? by Wes+Janson · · Score: 1

      Why was parent modded insightful and not "funny"??

    9. Re:tool of terrorism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Why was parent modded insightful and not "funny"??"

      Yeah, confused me too. Especially the use of "whacking off".

      Peter Griffin to Mafia Don: "What do want me to do? Whack a guy? Off a guy? Whack off a guy? 'Cause I'm married..."

    10. Re:tool of terrorism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now, considering the American psyche, what kind of fucking idiot would you have to be to take out all American TV. You thought they were on a rampage after two buildings fell?

      Excellent. Just let me acquire the broadcast rights, and... oh, wait.
    11. Re:tool of terrorism? by bill_kress · · Score: 1

      So I guess the trick would be to do it from within America. Set up a few safe-houses where you can build your satellite killers and pre-program them to hit the sats. at the right moment. *POOF* No more MTV and your terrorists are already back in Saudi Ariba before anyone knows it's going to happen.

      I wonder how we would counter such an attack.

      This is a much more effective form of terrorism too--less messy and would scare the crap out of a lot more people.

    12. Re:tool of terrorism? by trolman · · Score: 1
      Think about it. The American response to two buildings being destroy was to take out two ENTIRE NATIONS

      Two down; two to go.

    13. Re:tool of terrorism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Look, when 9/11 happened the Americans went nuts. They ended up whacking off two nations. Think about it. The American response to two buildings being destroy was to take out two ENTIRE NATIONS. That is like responding to two guys getting shot by taking out two towns.

      Damn....I didn't think we had invaded Canada yet! But I guess we need those flu shots....

    14. Re:tool of terrorism? by Technician · · Score: 1

      Look, when 9/11 happened the Americans went nuts. They ended up whacking off two nations. Think about it. The American response to two buildings being destroy was to take out two ENTIRE NATIONS. That is like responding to two guys getting shot by taking out two towns. So, you understand the American prepensely to overreact a little.


      Please don't treat 9-11 as a single event unrelated to anything else.. If it was just a couple bad guys pulling off a job, I see your point. However 9-11 was just the icing on the cake of a string of events that would continue forever if not discouraged.

      Marine barracs, the basement bombing of the world trade center (9-11 wasn't the first attempt to destroy it!) and the attack on the USS Cole come to mind. We finaly said enough is enough.. Please don't think a couple terrorists got lucky with a few box cutters. It was part of a larger orginazation and not just a lucky shot.

      Bush understands it. Too bad much of America and Kerry don't get it.

      Time to put on my asbestous underwear..

      I explained it to my kids as firemen are horrible people. They break windows, bust doors, chop holes in roofs, and get everything wet including your family photos and computer.

      They understand if the fire isn't stopped, everyting will be destroyed.

      Bush decided to apply some oposition to the source of the destruction. Bush understands it.

      Flame on.... Yea yea it's all lies... ....maybe..

      --
      The truth shall set you free!
    15. Re:tool of terrorism? by KontinMonet · · Score: 1

      We remember the Lusitania specifically because it had nothing to do with the US entry into WWI.

      The Lusitania was sunk in 1915, the US entered WWI in 1918. What precipited US entry was the Zimmerman telegram. For details, I cannot recommend highly enough the late Barbara Tuchman's (IMHO, the US' finest historian and a superb writer) 'The Zimmerman Telegram' Ballentine 1966.

      --
      Did he inhale?
    16. Re:tool of terrorism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dont forget cheap fuel for their cars too. Imagine if they had to walk a mile now and then or maybe take the bus. A sure recepie for revolution.

    17. Re:tool of terrorism? by Shihar · · Score: 1

      9/11 was an event independent of all others. If 9/11 had been the first thing Al-Qaeda had ever done, the US would have responded in exactly the same way. I am not saying that the US response should have been in line with the crime. On the contrary, I agree that whacking a nation or two a fine response.

      Personally, as an American, I like the image the US has when it comes to defending its home territory. The popular belief is that the US response to getting attacked on its home soil is the for the nation to go completely bat shit and beat the living piss out of anyone looks even a little guilty. If nations believe that the consequences of selling a nuke to terrorist that is used to blow up an American city is that the US turns your nation into glass, good. That fact might not mean much to a terrorist, but it certainly means something to the leaders of nations with nukes.

      I might poke fun of the US response to 9/11, but at the end of the day it doesn't bother me much. The message is clear. Anything you do on US soil comes back times a thousand. If you are sane, you will keep your WMDs out of terrorist hands, because when the US comes knocking, the technicality that you didn't pull the trigger isn't going to matter. If you assault US soil, the US doesn't come looking for justice, it comes for vengeance.

      I should point out that this is very much the policy of all US presidents. Kerry and Gore would just as quickly glass over a nation as Bush would. In this one things, Americans are very much united.

    18. Re:tool of terrorism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Y'know, over half the the terrorists were from SAUDI ARABIA. SAUDI ARABIA supported terrorism. IRAQ didn't.

    19. Re:tool of terrorism? by Technician · · Score: 1

      Y'know, over half the the terrorists were from SAUDI ARABIA. SAUDI ARABIA supported terrorism. IRAQ didn't.

      You are joking, right?

      Umm, Am I miss-inoformed?

      Wasn't the terroist training camp with the 747 airplane in IRAQ?

      Where was the other half of the terrorists from?

      Who was funding the training and buying weapons?

      PLease, don't tell me there were no Iraq connections. The overwhelming evidance seems to indicate some strong connections.

      Let me guess, all the RPG's, Mines, and supplies for all the imporvised bombs just happened to be in the shed next to the shovels and tools in the shed.. Outside of our millitary, we don't have access to RPG's, gernades, and large ammounts of high explosives as civilians. Iraq seems to have lots of explosives per person.

      --
      The truth shall set you free!
  25. I'm not sure this is a great idea by HangingChad · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Definitely some cool technology, but lets think about who would be most threatened by it? I don't think Crapassistan has any satellites to threaten, but the Russians and the Chinese would.

    For the moment the Russians have a far more capable space program than we do and the Chinese have a bigger industrial base. We can eventually beat the Russians with technology, but not in the short term. But with all our collective money funding the war in Iraq, we would not be able to out-produce or out-spend the Chinese.

    I think all it will end up doing is spurring Russia and China into matching the threat. Hopefully we don't find out the hard way that their space capabilities have improved beyond our ability to catch up.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
    1. Re:I'm not sure this is a great idea by redKrane · · Score: 0, Interesting

      I wouldn't conclude with such confidence that the Russians have a more capable space program right now. Everyone agrees we had the superior program until the disaster over Texas; only now we're hesitant to send our shuttles back up due to safety concerns. However, in a crunch situation, I believe we wouldnt hesitate to use our shuttles once again, considering the overall safety record of the shuttles.

      --
      that's my word, holla...
    2. Re:I'm not sure this is a great idea by Kiryat+Malachi · · Score: 1

      For the moment the Russians have a far more capable space program than we do

      Insert a 'manned' in between capable and space, and you are correct. Its only our manned program that's FUBAR. Our unmanned space program is arguably superior and certainly not massively inferior to the current Russian space program.

      --

      ---
      Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
      (I read with sigs off.)
    3. Re:I'm not sure this is a great idea by BigFire · · Score: 1

      While terrorists cannot afford to launch their own satellite, it is cheap enough for them to buy satellite phone that's difficult to jam.

      If US want to hit a target with air and ground assault, they can use this new piece of technology to nullify satellite communication. The US troops will probably be using alternative method of communication.

    4. Re:I'm not sure this is a great idea by bot24 · · Score: 1

      Bush: China is producing weapons of mass destruction! These soda cans and radio transmitters prove it!
      Bush: Russia is helping them! Look at how many trucks are crossing the border and going into these large buildings!
      Vote for Kerry.

      (the buildings are grocery stores)

  26. Possible scenario by PornMaster · · Score: 4, Funny

    Michael Powell: You've got to jam the Sirius satellites, Scotty, Howard Stern is corrupting the youth of America!
    Scotty: I'm givin' er all she's got, Chairman...

  27. Egahds! by Kazrath · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is just another way for bible thumping goverment agents to control my Pr0n surfing!.

  28. That's great!!!! by dfn5 · · Score: 1, Funny
    U.S. Deploys Satellite Jamming System

    Cuz I've got cable.

    --
    -- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
    1. Re:That's great!!!! by da3dAlus · · Score: 1

      Uh huh, and as far as cable TV goes, how do you think they get THEIR signal? Ever wonder why there's an array of dishes at major cable provider sites?

      --

      Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
    2. Re:That's great!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And where does your cable come from? The cable company and their gigantic sattelite dish.

    3. Re:That's great!!!! by iamstilgar · · Score: 0

      Where do you think the cable companies get their broadcast feeds?

    4. Re:That's great!!!! by udowish · · Score: 1

      mm, to bad that won't help. Where do u think your Cable company gets its feed from?

      --
      when in doubt press enter and we'll figure it out later..
    5. Re:That's great!!!! by NotoriousQ · · Score: 1

      Yeah. We enjoy it too. Your cable bill is now $150 a month.

      -- Your Cable Company mgmt.

      --
      badness 10000
  29. pakistani paper carried story Oct 30 by museumpeace · · Score: 1

    http://www.dawn.com/2004/10/31/int7.htm What else does everybody but americans know about america?

    --
    SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
  30. If I had to design one... by Dr.+Zowie · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ... I'd use a radiotelescope to identify the wavelengths that the satellite was transmitting, then use the same radiotelescope to send a lot of noise in the same band back at the satellite. Since ground-based radios have essentially infinite power, one could overwhelm any transmission from the satellite with junk signal, reflecting off the satellite itself.

    Since satellites generally use a few watts to a few tens of watts, and generally use low-gain antennae, it wouldn't take more than a couple of hundred reflected watts to do the job. Say a hundred kilowatts of transmission at the ground.

    The chilling implication here: you can only really jam satellites that use low-gain antennae -- e.g. comsats and "cheap" satellites. Anyone who anticipates this type of jamming for a point-to-point communicating bird can just use a high gain antenna to send all their transmitted power straight to the ground station. Another way around, especially for a comlink bird or something that can't use a beam to punch through the noise, would be to use "stealth" planar-panel technology on the satellite. If the satellite presents a flat face to the Earth, the jamming signal will be coherently reflected and probably won't affect the transmission much (except for an unlucky receiver who is in the reflected beam).

    So, er, this is probably good for knocking out comsats and academic satellites -- but foreign spy satellites will probably be pretty hardened against it before too long from now.

    Note: I'm not a military space insider -- just an astrophysicist. These ideas occurred to me in about 30 seconds, so you can bet anyone with his/her own space program already thought of 'em too.

    1. Re:If I had to design one... by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      Say a hundred kilowatts of transmission at the ground.

      your RF power drops off as distance increases... higher frequencies experience greater spreading loss based on their shorter wavelength. Given the typical sattelite is using microwave frequencies your hundred kilowatts leaving the dish at the ground will be barely 20 watts when it reaches that geostationary bird.

      The amount of power which a satellite transmitter needs to send out depends a great deal on whether it is in low earth orbit or in geosynchronous orbit. This is a result of the fact that the geosynchronous satellite is at an altitude of 22,300 miles, while the low earth satellite is only a few hundred miles. The geosynchronous satellite is nearly 100 times as far away as the low earth satellite. We can show fairly easily that this means the higher satellite would need almost 10,000 times as much power as the low-orbiting one, if everything else were the same.

      some of the older Geosync sattelites have close to 200 watts of output power into their antennas.

      so your 20 watts hitting that bird, then suffering massive losses from a innefficient reflection and then return path .... will do absolutely nothing but maybe raise the noise floor by a couple of DB.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    2. Re:If I had to design one... by Dr.+Zowie · · Score: 1
      Hmmm... I agree about the spreading of the beam -- I was implicitly hoping for a pretty tight beam coming from the distortion station. Let's see... suppose you had a 0.05-degree beam (not unreasonable in the X band; barely feasible in the Ku band), and the satellite is 300 miles away, and it's 3 meters in diameter. Then a 10MW transmitter would hit the satellite with about 1 kilowatt of energy (to be reflected or scattered), assuming you have pretty good steering on your beam.

      So, er, I agree -- passive reflection jamming is probably marginally feasible for LEO satellites, and not at all for GEO satellites. I was wrong about comsats. Thanks!

    3. Re:If I had to design one... by Soporific · · Score: 1

      Would it be possible to do it using multiple ground stations?

      ~S

    4. Re:If I had to design one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah....
      and what about imaging satelites? I remember they had some satellite-killer laser test over somewhere in the southwest that hard-killed a satellite (some professor got really pissed off because nasa said no-one was using the satellite anymore.. but this guy really was) anyway this was the leverage that the US used to get comercial french imaging satellites to "shutter" themselves at certain sensitive times/places (the US still paid for "exclusive" time)... I just don't see how this works for hi-gain downlinks like that... maybe this is the "kinder gentler" version....
      still, how would it work for uplink? would the device have to be in the satellites broadcast footprint?? isn't that basically traditional jamming? I guess one thing to point out is that its tough for a satellite to use Direct sequence/frequency hopping spread spectrum and hide it under the noise floor since there's very little noise in space and the location of the satellite is obvious.... /end ramble/

    5. Re:If I had to design one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Better to find out the uplink frequency being used. eg Intelsat was using a 4GHz uplink and 6GHz downlink last time I was involved. (Others are used as well...) Anyway, if you interfere with the uplink, the transponder in the satellite will happily amplify it and send it back down the downlink. It used to be that the transponders were not clever, eg no demodulation occurred in the bird, so all you have to do is provide enough power in the passband of the transponder and you will prevent its use. This does get harder if you are not in the coverage pattern of the antennae, but should not require too much power.

      Of course the most subtle attack would be to take over the control channels and turn the transponders of interest off. That would require decrypting the control signals, an interesting problem....

    6. Re:If I had to design one... by chr1973 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The uplink and the downlink are typically at quite different frequencies, say 11 GHz v.s. 14 GHz. so knowing the frequency of the downlink doesn't really help you... yes, I'm work with civilian satellite communications although I'm not an RF expert.

    7. Re:If I had to design one... by theLOUDroom · · Score: 1

      Note: I'm not a military space insider -- just an astrophysicist. These ideas occurred to me in about 30 seconds, so you can bet anyone with his/her own space program already thought of 'em too.

      Actually, you can take your idea afurther using "phased array" technology.

      By having a bunch of seperate radiating elements what adjustable phase shift, the direction and directivity of the beam can be adjusted on the fly. One antenna can even be used to transmit high-gain signal to multiple, geographically-disparate receivers (TDM of course).

      Additionally, filtering techiniques could be deliberately employed to block reception from certain areas.

      Of course, it seems like even this setup could be beat with enoguh power, but it might come down to their antenna designer against yours.

      It's interesting to think about anyways.

      Anyways, at some level you probably WANT your satellite to be jammed, because it's still better than having it rendered inoperaable or blown to little bits.

      --
      Life is too short to proofread.
  31. oh boy by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Funny
    Oh wow is this going to piss off DirecTV.

    Or maybe this is the govt's answer to all those people hacking satellite cards.
    No TV For YOU

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  32. Re:Section by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 1

    Because it has to do with (GET READY FOR THIS!)... Information Technology??? Communications satellites, and all.

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  33. Metal Gear Solid it up.. by TheAvatar666 · · Score: 0

    Just fry them all..
    Compton effect to make a huge EMP

    A lot more fun, and it will save us from the Patriots

  34. Part of Galileo threat by Zaffle · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is part of the threat the senior US official made at a London conference on Galileo.

    The senior official promised that in the event China used the Galileo system against the US, the US would attempt what they called reversible action, but, if necessary, they would use irreversible action, to knock out the Galileo system.

    Article on the threat

    --

    I use to have a funny sig, but slash cut it off, and I forgot what the punchline was.
  35. Most likely old, conventional tech by mercuryresearch · · Score: 2, Informative

    Anyone remember Captain Midnight and the HBO incident?

    Tracking dish, knowledge of the frequencies in use, signal generator and amplifier and you're pretty much there.

    Of course if they're using DS spread spectrum and they don't have the spreading code, it could be considerably harder, though turning up the power sufficiently would probably desensitise the front end of the satellite enough to stop it from working.

  36. We've seen this before! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's the government's souped-up version of the keychain that will turn off any TV. It just scans through all of the satellite remote power off codes.

    Of course it's reversible! Usually the same code turns it both ON and OFF.

  37. Space Balls by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 1

    RADAR TECH. Sir. The radar, sir. It appears to be.... Jam starts dripping down the screen. RADAR TECH. ....jammed. HELMET Jammed? (takes a taste of the jam) Raspberry. There's only one man who would dare give me the raspberry. (pulls down mask) Lone Starr!

    --
    Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
  38. Likely just a receiver overloading device by LM741N · · Score: 4, Informative

    Have you ever gotten those places on your FM dial, where it sounds like 10 different stations are coming in at once? That is intermodulation distortion. Very large signals competing with other very large signals. This is most likely what this "weapon" does. Just overloads the telemetry, data channels, etc of a satellite receiver. It takes alot of current to produce overload resistant receivers, and current is always at a premium on satellites, so I would expect weak receiver front ends that are subject to this ground interference.

  39. Sprint Networks? by gandell · · Score: 0

    When Al Qaeda operatives are heard around the world asking the age old question: "Can you hear me now?" I'm not sure which is worse: The political implications, or the fact that I'd be annoyed once again by that idiotic slogan.

    --
    Mercy was given to me by Christ...I must give the same to others.
    1. Re:Sprint Networks? by trongey · · Score: 1

      Funny thing about those commercials - I never hear anyone answer.

      --
      You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
  40. I don't care how, tell me "why" by DataDragon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    *sighs* Okay, so all this "homeland security for terrorists" stuff has developed a critical and highly expensive need for us jamming their SATELLITES?

    Ya know, I'm not really any form of conspiracy theorist, but when I do see something capable of blocking communications by the government on domestic ground, I want to go re-read the Constitution. The only certainty about such a thing was that it was funded for a purpose, so would someone explain to me what a valid purpose for such a thing would be?

    1. Re:I don't care how, tell me "why" by trongey · · Score: 1

      Hey. I'll sleep a lot better knowing that all of those terrorists and rogue states can't use their highly developed satellite systems to - um - do - uhh - stuff to me.

      --
      You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
  41. Can we use it.... by swb · · Score: 1

    ...on Al Jazeera and all the other Islamofacist propaganda satellite channels?

    Yes, this is a troll, but I don't exactly see where giving publicity to people who behead civilians is doing anything to contribute constructively to reconstructing Iraq or Islamic terrorism generally.

    1. Re:Can we use it.... by mr100percent · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Then we should also ban CNN too, they ran the Bin Laden tape. Seriously, Al Jazeera is like an Arabic CNN. It's not like they were pro-Saddam or anything. Yeah, they mentioned the beheadings, they also had Iraqi politicians and Iraqi clerics on to condemn it. Even Israel does interviews on Al Jazeera, think about that.

    2. Re:Can we use it.... by back_pages · · Score: 1
      Yes, this is a troll, but I don't exactly see where giving publicity to people who behead civilians is doing anything to contribute constructively to reconstructing Iraq or Islamic terrorism generally.

      Irony, meet swb. swb, Irony.





      Sure, Al Jazeera isn't protected by a Consitutional right to free speech, but on the other hand, they broadcast from some other sovereign nation. They might as well be covered by the First Ammendment, huh? Well, I'll let you an Irony get to know each other. I'll be over here bearing arms and stuff.

  42. Just in time ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... to obfuscate, cover up, and otherwise prevent the US population from knowing the true election results as they stream in ** BAM ** and get scrambled.

  43. Mucho Silly by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 1
    Hmm, sounds very silly:
    • "Ground based".... so it can only jam satellites above it's horizon. Not terribly useful.
    • How can this be new or newsworthy? All it takes to jam a satellite is a few watts of power. Any TV station uplink truck could do the same, given the coordinates and frequency. I suspect the military has had this capability for oh, 40 yrs or more.
    • "without burning it up". The range between blotting out a receiver and burning it up is probably at least a factor of 1,000,000, or much more if the satellite designers took any EMP precautions. Shame on them if they didnt.
  44. No. by Sensible+Clod · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not unless you can manage to fry ONLY components that the sat doesn't need for communication, and there are, oh, say, zero to few of those in comsats.

    --

    The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
  45. Tactics and strategy in electronic warfare by Sai+Babu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Jamming is a traditional tactic in electroninc warfare.

    The capability of locating an uplink based on signals received from a satellite is of much greater strategic value then destruction of the satellite. This is true for all engaged parties.

    So why jam at all?
    Suppose something like a cruise missle with partial guidance from a satellite is on it's way to your ship. Ideally you would want to co-opt the satellite and take some control. However, when the time comes, the last thing you want is the correct information to reach the missle. Here jamming makes sense. Without jamming capability a situation might arise in which the strategic value
    to you, of your oppositions satellite, is greater than the value of your ship!

    Come on /.ers You guys play strategy and tactics games all the time...

  46. Have they actually thought this one through ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    I'm trying to work out just which country this could be used against where it wouldn't cause a bigger problem that it was trying to solve.

    After all there are quite a few countries around with the capability to launch satellites: Russia, China, various EU, India, I even seem to remember Brazil having a sat. These are all reasonable technical adept countries - who would get VERY pissed off, and even consider it an act of war, for the US to start zapping satellites (even reversibly).

    And why would you attempt to zap a satellite? To hamper comms, to stop remote sensing, maybe because you don't like them overflying? What would be the reaction of the country concerned?

    If you get the stage where you might think of using such a weapon, you've reached the stage where you never should - the temperature would go way up and there are a hundred and one ways of making the temperature go up to several million degrees without the use of satellite technology.

    A relic of cold war thinking that would hurt those pulling the trigger more than those who owned the satellite. The world's too connected a place for it to be used against a country, and its worthless against asymetric threats.

    1. Re:Have they actually thought this one through ? by Firethorn · · Score: 1

      1: Having the capability doesn't hurt if you find a need for it. Military people want all options available.
      2: Can be used as a bargaining point. It's one more item in America's arsenal.
      3: It's less destructive than our previous system which involved a missile, possibly with a nuclear warhead.
      4: Can save troops in an AOR if the enemy is trying to use guidance from the system for munitions, etc. We have the capability to mess with GPS so that if the enemy doesn't have the encryption and other devices, we can tell their devices whatever. With more and more foreign communication satellites as well as the possibility of a foreign GPS type system, we need more options.
      5: If we use this system, the country in question probably has more to deal with than just us disabling/jamming a few satellites.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
  47. What's that? My signal is "restricted"? by tilleyrw · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    My wife had a special satellite dish installed at our house so she could receive broadcasts from the Phillipines (Pinoys are wonderful wives!).

    I mention this only to illustrate that our household receives information from other countries, something that this project might prevent.

    Yes, my neck is bending from the weight of tinfoil on my head. Bush & Co. may attempt to put a strangehold on the mass media in the U.S. by blocking all outside information.

    The internet renders such fantasies almost null and void except for the possibility of instituting filter controls on all network connections entering/leaving this country. Impossible? China has a head start on such a system.

    ...

    ... In a dark alleyway, a young child appearing no more than seven or eight years old scrambles among the trash.

    ... As a seagull attracted to the deadly shine of a fish hook, he notices a glint of light from the darkness. Cautiously approaching, he nears the source of luminescence.

    ... "Lea' me 'lone..." a voice moans from under a pile of rain-soaked newspapers. "I don' need your help," Kerry screams as he rises in drunken fury. "It wash Florida! Whol' damn Bush fam'ly is bed t'gether. Just leh'me drink mysel' ta death."

    ... "He's over here, Sir!" Whipping his young head around, the boy stared as one of new Stormtroopers came around the corner wearing infrared goggles, took aim and fired a 'warning shot' into the leg of the drunken hobo.

    ... Striding nearer, confident the escapee would no longer evade his fate, the 'trooper raises his automatic until a tiny green dot is centered on the forehead. "This'll teach you to talk about the 'affliction' of Commander Cheney's daughter."

    ... and all goes dark.

    ...

    I need to leave this topic before this posting degenerates into a story of a dark future that rivals the fiction of Neal Stephenson.

    --
    This post encoded with ROT26. If you can read it, you've violated the DMCA. Handcuffs please, sergeant.
  48. Easily Overcome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Posting AC here as I am still under the Official Secrets act.. But I have worked on a system to overcome this sort of jamming quite easily. Um... So I'm moving along here... :)

  49. RHPS rip-off? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Doesn't this sound like a line from the Rocky Horror Picture Show?

    Dr Scott: This sonic transducer - it is, I suppose, some kind of audio-vibratory, physiomolecular transport device

  50. Line-of-sight... by orion41us · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It seems that this ground-based device is "temporary"... does this mean the the DOS is only active while the radio "beam" is activly engaged on the SAT. Would this mean that only geo-sync sats could be targeted 100% of the time, and others would be Off-line only when in the line of site...

  51. Re:What's that? My signal is "restricted"? by dustinbarbour · · Score: 1

    A little paranoid, eh? Seriously.. you tin-foil hat guys need to give it a rest.

  52. Never happen... by eth1 · · Score: 1

    The terrorists know it would ultimately be better for everyone if TV went away... Mindless sheep are easier to terrorize.

  53. Re:Always fighting the last war... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, someone actually watches CNN. "Mowed down" is hardly the right term. The best they can do is kill 1 or 2 of our troops a day, countrywide. Or on a really great day for them 8 or 9. Meanwhile, the insurgent yahoos, as you call them, are getting the bejesus kicked out of them by our troops on a daily basis, by the hundreds and thousands in fact.

    Moron.

  54. strange by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You do know that you don't need something nearly large and expensive as a radio telescope (2 words) to identify EM radiation? And that radio telescopes are passive devices, and that they cannot transmit.

    And also, if you want to take advantage of a radio telescope's reflector for producing collimated EM waves, then you'd be very limited to the certain wavelengths for which the telescope was build to observe.

    1. Re:strange by Dr.+Zowie · · Score: 1
      Nah, a radiotelescope (in the context I'm using) is just a big high-gain antenna. Most of 'em are just parabolic dishes made of wire mesh. Anything longer wavelength than the size of the holes in the mesh gets reflected and either colimmated or focused (depending on which way you point it).


      I said "radiotelescope" rather than "dish antenna" because one might want to use phased arrays rather than a physical antenna, these days...

  55. WTF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i don't know why anybody cares about this... on any given day im sure the military is at least 5 years ahead of us with there tech... while we're making apc's ..they're using tesla coils and mamoth tanks....

  56. Readable version of this article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  57. Techno babble by Wapiti-eater · · Score: 1

    Electromagnetic Radio Frequencie Energy.

    Well, I for one love to know of some type of Radio Frequencie Energy that wasen't Electromagnetic.

    Basicly, this is the same idea as me parking my Toyota with it's Radio Shack CB radio next to some trucker and transmitting while he is. Unless he's runnign some kinda 'shoes' - no one's gonna hear either of us. Just some loud, anoying screechie, whiney sounds like what may be used for a bad Sci-Fi movie.

    Kinda like this 'gee whiz' article....

    --
    Senior NCO in the fight against entropy. I've seen things, man. Things no one should have to see.....
  58. Heh, way behind the Russians again by melted · · Score: 1

    IIRC, about three or four years ago Russians have successfully tested a system to permanently fry satellites from the ground using a high intensity laser beam. AFAIK US military still don't have anything along those lines.

    They've also been known to have GPS jamming equipment for years.

    How do they manage to do this every time? They build superior weapons while operating within the constraints of their shoestring budget (relative to the US military R&D budget).

    1. Re:Heh, way behind the Russians again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't you mean high intensity "laser" beam? ;-)

      As far as the Russians outdoing us, I am not sure about that. First of all, they do have some reliable technology, the Soyuz being one of them. It's drawbacks: Slower than a shuttle and has a smaller crew capacity than a shuttle. There are many examples like this, I am not sure that the Russians are ahead of us in anything but Vodka. And even then the French don't do half bad.

      The only way they kept pace with us during the cold war was by convincing everyone to work for nothing for the good of the Party. Once the people learned the party only included the common man and not the government officials, that sort of went out the window.

    2. Re:Heh, way behind the Russians again by Firethorn · · Score: 1

      IIRC, about three or four years ago Russians have successfully tested a system to permanently fry satellites from the ground using a high intensity laser beam. AFAIK US military still don't have anything along those lines.

      AFAIK indeed. Given that we're testing an aircraft based anti-missile/plane laser, it doesn't seem hard to believe that we have a laser for that purpose already, it's just that we've kept more quiet about it.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
  59. IT IS for Homeland Security by hirschma · · Score: 1

    Think about it. If you needed to pacify your own population, what better way than to squelch all information flow, except from Government approved sources?

    Seems like the likely target is the American people, and no one else.

    1. Re:IT IS for Homeland Security by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why squelch the flow? These days journalism is a joke anyway.

  60. Double standards by keeboo · · Score: 1

    I wonder what would be said if the Russians or Chinese announced such technology.

    I guess that US gov't has a superior moral to attack foreign communication systems while being exempt of being called as "terrorist nation", "pariah" or "axis of evil".

    1. Re:Double standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course, you don't announce your really advanced stuff.

      The government's purpose is to do whatever is necessary to protect its citizens.

  61. Where do I sign up? by feltmarskalk · · Score: 1

    "The system is operated by the 76th Space Control Squadron[...]"

    I'm sure there's room for me in one of the other 75 squadrons. Just give me a x-wing, and I'll be on my way.

    --
    In Soviet Norway, the møøse bites you.
  62. Re:Always fighting the last war... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    "on a daily basis, by the hundreds and thousands in fact"

    If that was the case then the country would have been depopulated by now (genocide).

    Tens of people is more likely.

    Can't blame them for being pissed at having an occupying army in their country. We call them "insurgents" to hide the fact that it is a popular fight against us by mainstream iraqis.

  63. The Russian Jamming Approach - Old School by BenEnglishAtHome · · Score: 1

    I was always intrigued by something I once read on the way the Soviets had planned, back during the cold war, in negating our satellites. We had a huge lead in satellites and their satellites were of negligible worth to them, so they came up with a plan to simply wipe the sky clean. Using their heavy-lift rockets (and they've always had good ones), they would launch a giant pod of, essentially, BBs. Millions of little ball bearings. By dispersing a cloud of these things, everything orbiting at the same altitude would eventually get punched full of holes and ultimately knocked out.

    After doing a quick google, I see that this sort of simple anti-sat concept is still seriously considered; lots of on-point URLS turn up when you search on "Soviet "ball bearing" anti-satellite."

    1. Re:The Russian Jamming Approach - Old School by MonkeyCookie · · Score: 1

      I wonder how long it would take to knock out all the satellites. I assume that if all the satelites are orbiting in the same direction, ball bearings going the opposite direction could destroy them in a matter of hours.

      But do all military satellites orbit in the same direction? If not, then I guess you would have to launch two sets of ball bearings, heading in opposite directions for a particular altitude.

      It's certainly an interesting idea. It sure would make Earth orbit a complete mess for years to come.

  64. One could do it themself by billsf · · Score: 1

    It wouldn't take that much brains to jam sattelites from home dishes. 2m dishes are more common in Southern California than swimming pools! (and far more common elsewhere) It may take quite some power, but pulsing a magnetron tuned to the right frequency would do the trick. EXTREME care must be taken to not burn out the mixer and/or LNA of the satellite itself. In the US, one must be mindful of the FEDS but they certainly have better things to do. Feeding more than about 100W to a 5m dish is pushing the safety of the satellite. With some very simple arithmetic, that is 625W in a std 2m dish and 2.5kW in a 'monster 1m' European dish. Pulsing a magnetron (kind of like the thing in your nuker) it is possible to get a mega-watt or more, so be VERY careful if you try this at home.

    Alternately if 1000 people put a watt into their 2m dish from many areas, a similar effect would be acheived and there would be no possibility of tracking down the signals.

    Certainly if you are to do this stuff, know what you are doing and know the laws against it! Ofcourse this is old hat. In an election year, everything is marketed to look new.....

  65. Re:Always fighting the last war... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow. A small minority of people in a few cities are representative of an entire country? You are sadly mistaken, and have a very dim understanding of what is happening. Keep listening to your fearless leaders though. Oh yeah, and there is a draft about to happen. And Bush is going to take away Social Security too.

  66. "Old school?" As opposed to WHAT? by csoto · · Score: 1

    The only ways to jam a signal is to emit another signal, or alter the incident wave. There's no "new" method to jam a signal. There might be new systems or new emitters, but otherwise, when dealing with EM, these are your two options.

    --
    There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
  67. Still quite worthwhile by complexmath · · Score: 1

    Even if the jammer costs as much as the satellite and its destruction is guaranteed, the venture would be worthwhile. While it's quite easy to keep a bunch of these jammers in reserve somewhere and deploy them rather quickly, the satellite-owner would be hard-put to get another satellite in orbit promptly (assuming they don't have a sufficiently redundant system already in place). If time is everything in warfare, this seems like an effective tactic to neutralize enemy technology.

    That said, the guy with the jammer has to be able to find and target the satellite for this to work. Do we have enough information to be able to accurately target the satellites we'd care about neutralizing?

  68. Well... by Firethorn · · Score: 2, Funny

    Technically it was 2.2 buildings(don't forget the pentagon wing) and four planes.

    So we still have to take out a chunck of Libya or Iran.

    If you take out the Statue of Liberty (even though it was given to us by the French), the White House, and Wall Street I'd expect nothing less than the invasion of three countries, not including the invasion of france to grab some artists to replace the statue. (I'm kidding)

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
  69. Hmmmm... That might be useful by krunchyfrog · · Score: 1

    Does that mean cops wont't be able to see my radar detector with their radar detector detecteor? I mean, at least for that 1 in 100000000000 chance it ever happens at the right moment?

    --
    printf($randomline(sigs.txt) \n "-- "$randomline(authors.txt));
    -- myself
  70. electromagnetic radio frequency energy? by AyeRoxor! · · Score: 1

    Must they use electromagnetic radio frequency energy?

    That's the kind of RF energy EVERYONE uses. I think the US should be different...

  71. Re:de facto cold war by l3v1 · · Score: 1

    Some day when there is a federal Europe, they could quite easily become militarily hostile. We will then whip their ass like we did in WW1 and WW2.

    G, no smiley in the whole post.

    I'm scared. No, really, I'm scared. If a new generation like this (being junior) is risen in the States, then I'm truly scared.

    --
    I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
  72. The Nazis didn't invade Europe, they STARTED there by BigChigger · · Score: 1

    Better check your propaganda before you spew it. BC

  73. Middle Man by Renraku · · Score: 1

    The middle man is what you have to do to destroy something they own. Want to destroy a building in Iraq in a non-nuclear way? Well, you have to move a ship close enough. Then you have to launch a plane, or launch a missile. Other nations get slightly disturbed whenever someone moves to within missile/plane range of their country. ICBMs weren't so much feared for their nuclear capability as they were feared for their range. Push a button, something goes boom. Same thing with this. It'll be a race. We build them, the Russians build them, the Chinese build them. We destroy one of theirs, they destroy all of ours. Mutually Assured Satellite destruction.

    --
    Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
  74. Re:The Nazis didn't invade Europe, they STARTED th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They invadeed the _rest_ of europe, starting out from germany. Europe wasn't unified at that point.

  75. USAF MASERs VS ... by quarkscat · · Score: 1

    Some up-and-coming third world country's
    version of Reagan's "Brilliant Pebbles"
    weapon (like a 12 gauge shotgun loaded
    with "00", but in space.)

    Somehow, I think a "mesh network" of low
    tech satellites sporting shotguns in space
    will win out over a hi tech MASER weapon.
    They could actually be small enough to get
    lost in a lot of the other space "junk" up
    there.

  76. That's nothing! by LilMikey · · Score: 1

    We have a missile defense system that uses 'advanced rocketry techniques' to shoot inbound nukes out of the sky...

    ... at least 1 in 48.

    For some reason I don't think this has the rest of the world shaking in their boots. I'd say the outcome of tomorrow's election is more scary than some phantom 'we can stop your rays but we ain't saying how' technology.

    --
    LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
  77. Yeah, you test your lasers by melted · · Score: 1

    None of them will be able to intercept Satan nuclear warhead that Russians have anyway. And given that they can shut down stealth planes from 250 miles away using their current anti-aircraft systems that plane won't even be able to come near to use his overpriced laser. :0)

    1. Re:Yeah, you test your lasers by Firethorn · · Score: 1

      The plane is a modified 747. No stealth capabilities, low speed and manuverability. It depends on staying in safe areas and the ability to destroy anything guided that breaks it's horizen.

      It's intended use is against SRBM's at most. Of course, a SRBM is still a hard enough target that fighters and anti-air missiles are easy targets.

      The Satan is an incredably advanced MIRV. We're mostly worried about nutsos with hopefully limited resources. Hidden ground based lasers of uber power might have a shot with a good enough tracking solution.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    2. Re:Yeah, you test your lasers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      It's intended use is against SRBM's at most.

      It's intended to kill during boost phase. If the US has air superiority (not unlikely) it can loiter over enemy territory and shoot down pretty much any type of ballistic missile during boost.

  78. Insightful? by dunc78 · · Score: 1

    I must have been reading a different comment.

  79. Knocking out My Car Alarm! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Every time they fire this thing up, my car alarm goes on the blink for 3 days!-((

  80. How do they "target" their jamming ? by mekanizer · · Score: 1

    How can they target specific satelite(s) ?

    1. Re:How do they "target" their jamming ? by DragonTHC · · Score: 1

      they aim.

      --
      They're using their grammar skills there.
  81. I disagree by Barlo_Mung_42 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If fights are fair they are also infrequent. Of the three countries in the "Axis of Evil" we went into Iraq because Iran and N Korea would have been fairer fights. Don't get me wrong, if you are going to pick a dog to kick I'd pick the chihuahua over the pit bull too.

  82. Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean they actually use Electro-Magnetic Radio waves to jam satellite transmissions? That's so much more high tech than firing swiss cheese at those nasty satellites.

  83. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  84. Where is the first radar and jammer hunter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ie a missile that takes out both by locking on to there signal. It ie could be verry silent in the air for that target is attracting the missile.

  85. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  86. Re:The Nazis didn't invade Europe, they STARTED th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Europe still isn't, and have never been "unified"... EUROPE IS NOT A COUNTRY FFS#(/

  87. Alright, We jammin! by macdaddy357 · · Score: 1

    Ooh, yeah! All right! We're jammin': I wanna jam it wid you. We're jammin', jammin', And I hope you like jammin', too. Ain't no rules, ain't no vow, we can do it anyhow: I'n'I will see you through, 'Cos everyday we pay the price with a little sacrifice, Jammin' till the jam is through. We're jammin' - To think that jammin' was a thing of the past; We're jammin', And I hope this jam is gonna last. No bullet can stop us now, we neither beg nor we won't bow; Neither can be bought nor sold. We all defend the right; Jah - Jah children must unite: Your life is worth much more than gold. We're jammin' (jammin', jammin', jammin') And we're jammin' in the name of the Lord; We're jammin' (jammin', jammin', jammin'), We're jammin' right straight from Yah. Yeh! Holy Mount Zion; Holy Mount Zion: Jah sitteth in Mount Zion And rules all creation. Yeah, we're - we're jammin' (wotcha-wa), Wotcha-wa-wa-wa, we're jammin' (wotcha-wa), See, I wanna jam it wid you We're jammin' (jammin', jammin', jammin') I'm jammed: I hope you're jammin', too. Jam's about my pride and truth I cannot hide To keep you satisfied. True love that now exist is the love I can't resist, So jam by my side. We're Jammin' (jammin', jammin', jammin'), yeah-eah-eah! I wanna jam it wid you. We're jammin', we're jammin', we're jammin', we're jammin', We're jammin', we're jammin', we're jammin', we're jammin'; Hope you like jammin', too. We're jammin', we're jammin' (jammin'), We're jammin', we're jammin' (jammin'). I wanna (I wanna jam it wid you) - I wanna - I wanna jam wid you now. Jammin', jammin' (hope you like jammin' too). Eh-eh! I hope you like jammin', I hope you like jammin', 'Cause (I wanna jam it wid you). I wanna ... wid you. I like - I hope you - I hope you like jammin', too. I wanna jam it; I wanna jam it.

    --
    How ya like dat?
  88. And now for something completely different by rocjoe71 · · Score: 1

    ...In response to this news, a reggae group point out they've been jamming for much, much longer than the U.S. Military.

    --
    Height: 38U, Weight: 0 Newtons, Eyes: #0000FF, OS: Gray Matter 1.0 (Alpha)
  89. Hardly secret by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Is this just another old school EM jamming technique, or something new? Of course they won't say, citing "operational security" concerns.

    Nonsense! They just send it a Goatse image.

  90. Fucking retards by WasterDave · · Score: 1

    Because jamming satellites is going to stop suicide bombers in Baghdad, right?

    Or maybe there's a bigger picture involving raising the quality of living for those living in drug torn inner cities?

    Or perhaps stopping world hunger?

    Dave

    --
    I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
  91. Re:de facto cold war by Erwos · · Score: 1

    There's not. Stop fucking assuming the worst.

    The Europeans have no enemies, and instead of worrying about the people who HAVE been killing them, they go and start getting paranoid about their closest ally. Tell me who's crazier again?

    -Erwos

    --
    Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
  92. A confession by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  93. Hallowe'en's over. It's All Souls Day now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm still feeling haunted.... QUOTES FOLLOW: --- http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=113502&cid= 9615153/ Stratcom Jamming (Score:5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 05, @11:33AM (#9615153) I used to work with an engineer who was a former air force tech on the Looking Glass. The Looking Glass missions were a group of USAF command/control aircraft ... ... one of their amusements was lowering a long antenna and jamming garage door frequencies and other civilian applications (e.g. keyless door locks). I couldn't imagine why the air force would want to interfere with garage doors and he never had a good explanation other than they were told to do that and the crew always found it amusing.... ----http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthtribun e/news/opinion/7306797.htm?template=contentModules /printstory.jsp/ ... the National Transportation Safety Board's own simulations of the plane, the pilots and the weather were unable to bring the plane down. ... An abrupt cessation of communication between the plane and the tower took place at about 10:18 a.m., the same time an odd cell phone phenomenon occurred with a driver in the immediate vicinity.... ... Carol Carmody, a former employee with the CIA, the head of the team, announced the day after that the FBI had found no indications of terrorist involvement.... So how could the FBI possibly know? ... a team of FBI agents was quickly on the crash site about noon, less than an hour after ... the (fire) chief had first located the site and found a way to access the wreck. This FBI team had come ... from the FBI office in Minneapolis." I calculate that this team would have had to have left the Twin Cities at about the same time the Wellstone plane was taking off. -----

  94. Blocking Certain Movies? by giminy · · Score: 1

    Funny, I just read an article saying that MM's movie is going to be aired on satellite television tonight. Coincidence?

    --
    The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
  95. Aspect of Diplomacy by Hunter-Killer · · Score: 1

    The key factor here isn't the ability to disrupt communications, but to do so temporarily. From what I gather, most of the Middle East relies on European commercial satellites for communications. Knocking a $500 mil bird out of the sky tends to piss of your coalition allies. Perhaps their contribution to the next war effort will be to endure a minor disruption in service while ground/air operations commennce. The people who should be outraged are the corporations who put the satellites up in the first place. Now that we have the equipment to "harmlessly" disable a satellite, the inclination to do so will likely rise as well.

  96. This is for Al Jazeera by BagMan2 · · Score: 1

    Isn't it obvious this in intended to knock Al Jazeera off the air in the middle east?

  97. Correct me if I'm wrong... by AndyChrist · · Score: 1

    But wouldn't space-warfare eventually pretty much render itself impossible? I mean, eventually you'd get so much junk whizzing so many different directions sending a craft into orbit would be like sending it into a gigantic sand blaster. Or ball mill.

    I do seem to recall someone, Scotty, I think on Star Trek referring to a scow cleaning space junk from earth orbit, though...

  98. Panama anyone? by tqft · · Score: 1

    "That is like responding to two guys getting shot by taking out two towns."

    What tipped the US prez (Bush The Elder?) over the edge on Panama? At least the prima facie excuse - a (one)US Marine killed.

    One source:http://www.military.com/Resources/HistorySu bmittedFileView?file=history_panama.htm
    (I am sure there are more/better)

    Result: invasion

    yes there was a lot of history and plenty of other reasons (can anyone else say control of the canal) but the tipping point was two people

    --
    The Singularity is closer than you think
    Quant
  99. Re:Thin ice-- Ichi the Arrogance Slayer? by davidsyes · · Score: 1

    This bullshit deployment is in response to the EU deploying their alternative to the US' monopolistic GPS and data-denial choke-point.

    See:

    http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/ 20 04/10/29/200410290010.asp

    I wish I could summon up Ichi. I'd have him take out ALL the military satellites and just "level the playing field" to see just what happens next. Governmental arrogance at that level pisses me off, and turns me into even MORE of a root-man for the underdog--or for those not wanting to be "controlled" by the US, my place of birth by happenstance.

    Maybe it's time for preemptive strike on makers of destabilizing technologies. Hmm, I guess that would invite charges of sedition, treason, and such. But, the atmosphere now makes me feel that certainly, humans don't deserve to get past 240,000 miles of Earth until the/we resolve the crap going on here (war, famine, control by some certain greedy corrupt politicians and certain wealthy types...). Hmm, I guess god will continue to be an absentee landlord...

    Seems to me that ANYone arrogant enough to deploy a system intent on bossing the world into submission deserves being struck (down or counter-jammed). Sounds monopolistic, imperialist, manifest destinist, conquistatorist, and more. Sounds like the very thing this country holds antithetical to freedom. Surveillance and info-gathering are one thing, but...

    Now, if this is used to prevent an active, direct threat or attack UPON US satellites, it's one thing. But, to deploy and use the system just to prevent people from transmitting news from non-US soil... well, that's tantamount to declaring war upon the target, or whomever sponsors or supports the target.

    It's not as if this deployment is to neutralize a bin-laden-owned satellite. But, if say, Japan, or Taiwan or France are just leasing or renting out a channel and the US decides to block it for its own convenience, then there should at a minimum be lawsuits, and at a next level some "direct action" to get the decision "undone". I dare say it's time for our so-called allies and buddies to re-think just what could happen to THEM if they run afoul of the cozy, current relationship.

    Some governing and weaponeering humans have a shitload of arrogance to perpetuate conflict and claim to be engaging in "conflict resolution".

    By the way, see JSA: Joint Security Area and check the reviews on IMDB. Rent it if you can, likely from your local CN/VN video outlet.

    I wonder how much intel the US will pass on the Koreans in the South:

    http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/ 20 04/11/02/200411020006.asp

    See:

    http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/oped/index.asp

    (At the national level my vote was already bought and paid for by corporations.)

    --
    Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
  100. Ridiculous by 40ozFreak · · Score: 1

    The "..and to deny an enemy any similar benefits" sounds very elitist. Since when did we inherit the right to control everything? What if England wants unhindered access to space? Do we tell them no, they have to write a formal request to enter our beloved space? Do we own space now? If any other nation tried to form a similar project, we would shut it down on the spot, or strike them pre-emptively. I want to know who elected us supreme world rulers. I am personally sick of this crap. Star Wars, this shit, everything. We continue to give ourselves new powers and privileges because we know that no one else is going to stand up to us out of fear. Is this really the image we want to project? How is this supposed to improve international relations, when we have satellites in space prepared to cut off anyone's communications on a whim, or in the name of "national security". It's like a PATRIOT Act for the human race.

  101. Sorry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... but i was nuking my dinner.

  102. They are still ahead in some places by melted · · Score: 1

    Anti-aircraft systems, fighter jets, attack helicopters, portable anti-tank weaponry, anti-ship missiles, high-speed torpedoes, nuclear weapons, electromagnetic bombs, etc. The list is pretty long.

    Every time Russians demonstrate something the US military are shocked. Last time this happened when Iraqi rebels punctured the armor of US Abrams tank with an "unknown" portable weapon: http://www.navytimes.com/print.php?f=1-292236-2336 437.php

  103. Re:The Nazis didn't invade Europe, they STARTED th by mrph · · Score: 1

    ..and it still isn't.
    We're all separate countries, pretty much the same way as 60 years ago.
    The EU doesn't unike states the same was as they're united in the US (yet). It was found to stop further wars after WW1
    and has since expanded but Europe is still not a nation of it's own.

  104. Spaceballs jamming scene. by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

    Lone Star: Listen, we're not just doing this for money. Barf's ears prick up. We're doing it for a shitload of money!
    Barf: Oh, you're right. And when you're right, you're right. And you, you're all ways right. OK, we save her, but how? The minute we move in there, they'll spot us on their radar.
    Lone Star: Unnn uhh
    Barf: Unnnh haa
    Lone Star: Unnn uhh
    Barf: Unnnh haa
    Lone Star: Unnn uhh! Not if we jam it!
    Barf: Ahh ha! You're right.
    Lone Star: Down scope!
    Barf: Down scope. Radar about to be jammed!
    Jar of jam flies at radar. Cut to SB1 radar console. Console goes on the fritz.
    Radarman: Shit. Picks up microphone. In a funny voice: Sir?
    Sandurz: What is it.
    Radarman: Can I talk to you for a minute, please, sir?
    Sandurz and Helmet approch.
    Sandurz: Well?
    Radarman: Still into mic. I'm having trouble with the radar, sir.
    Sandurz: Putting away microphone. You don't need that, private, we're right here, now what is it?
    Radarman: Without mic, but still in funny voice: I'm having trouble with the radar, sir.
    Helmet:Rips mic out of holder and throws away. Now what is it!?
    Radarman: Back in normal voice: I'm having trouble with the radar, sir.
    Helmet: What's wrong with it?
    Radarman: I've lost the bleeps, the creeps, and the sweeps.
    Sandurz: The what, . . .
    Helmet: The what, . . .
    Sandurz: And the what?
    Radarman: You know, the bleeps; Makes 'bleep' noises. The sweeps; Make 'sweep' noises. And the creeps; Makes 'creep' noises.
    Helmet: To Sandurz: Thats not all he's lost. . .
    Radarman: Sir. The radar, sir. It appears to be . . . jammed. Jam drips down sceen.
    Helmet: Jammed. . .Tasting some of the jam. Raspberry. There is only one man who would DARE to give me the raspberry. Pulls down helmet. Lone Star.

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
  105. i'll take 2... by zxflash · · Score: 1

    only a matter of time before kids start building their own jamming equipment in their basements...

    --

    All the torrents you could want.
  106. It's simple by satguy · · Score: 1
    Having seen the wide range of speculation and misinformation in this thread, but having no wish to get involved in US politics, I'll be vague on details ... but after a number of years of designing and operating a wide variety of commercial earth stations, I'm here to tell you that jamming others' services is simple and easy to do, given a certain amount of infrastructure.

    The "remarkable" ability of the military to accomplish their objective years ahead of plan sounds like the all-too-frequent result of a plan dreamed up in isolation by marketers, board members, and managers working with no real technical input, once they finally present their vision to an engineer.

    Translate the commercial job functions listed above into their military/gov't equivalents, adding "spooks" to taste.