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Russia Is Attacking US Forces With Electronic Weapons In Syria, General Says (yahoo.com)
john of sparta shares a report from Yahoo: American forces in Syria are increasingly facing attacks from Russian and Syrian electronic warfare weapons, as Moscow uses the conflict to test its future arsenal. General Raymond Thomas, head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, said that Syria has become "the most aggressive electronic warfare environment on the planet," Breakingdefense.com reported. Speaking at a geospatial intelligence conference in Florida, Gen. Thomas said that Russian and Syrian regime forces "are testing us everyday, knocking our communications down, disabling our [EC-130 aircraft]."
The Lockheed Martin EC-130 Compass Call is one of America's most advanced electronic warfare weapons. Based on the C-130 Hercules, the plane was developed to disrupt enemy communications, radar and command operations. The craft's presence in Syrian skies gives Russia the chance to test its weapons against the best the U.S. has to offer, whether directly or through its Syrian allies. Earlier this month, four anonymous officials told NBC News that Russia has also been regularly targeting smaller U.S. surveillance drones. One of those quoted said Russian operations were having a significant impact on U.S. capabilities. The sophisticated attacks were even successful against encrypted signals and anti-jamming devices, the official said. Slashdot reader john of sparta adds, "Well, it's war; not a surprise..."
The Lockheed Martin EC-130 Compass Call is one of America's most advanced electronic warfare weapons. Based on the C-130 Hercules, the plane was developed to disrupt enemy communications, radar and command operations. The craft's presence in Syrian skies gives Russia the chance to test its weapons against the best the U.S. has to offer, whether directly or through its Syrian allies. Earlier this month, four anonymous officials told NBC News that Russia has also been regularly targeting smaller U.S. surveillance drones. One of those quoted said Russian operations were having a significant impact on U.S. capabilities. The sophisticated attacks were even successful against encrypted signals and anti-jamming devices, the official said. Slashdot reader john of sparta adds, "Well, it's war; not a surprise..."
""are testing us everyday, knocking our communications down,"
They also knocked a moron as president down your throats.
At the same time it also gives the US a sample of the best Russia can throw at them..
Hah, keep thinking that..
This isn't (yet) a full on war between the US and Russia, both sides are *not* deploying 'the best' as they'll be needing them in the event that they do directly engage each other.
As an example, at no point (according to a ex-colleague who worked on them) have any of BMEWS systems been run at 'full capability', the point being to try 'steer' Russian tactical planning in specific directions based on observed capabilities. Now, this is not to say that the Russians don't know this, they do, so any overt display of their tactics in regards to this have to be taken with a large pinch of salt.
Ditto re this story, the Russians deploy various EW tactics, the USians bleat 'Nasty Russians, their EW degrades our ability to function..' both countries analysts then sit and try figure out by how much the other lot are taking the piss..
Oh!, the games people play....
How dare they interrupt our electronic weapons with their own electronic weapons!
If this is such a concern, I've got a strategy the US can use to combat this: Get the hell out of Syria.
It's ridiculous to be offended/upset that someone is using countermeasures against the drones being used against them or their allies.
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Sadly.. this isn't far off the mark. The thing is most of the people around me are beginning to wake up. Everyone I knew supported the original Iraq war. I haven't really spoke with anyone that supports this crap in Syria and I live in rural America. Most everyone including me is Republican.
The US actions in Syria aren't self serving, it only tried to serve Israel/Saudi Arabia and their self fulfilling paranoia vis a vis Iran. It would have been far cheaper for the US to just stay out of it and only fight Isis in Iraq (and actually fighting them straight from the start). Arming ISIS and then subsequently "bombing" them and then finally actually bombing them when their former pet dogs became a little too rabid has done nothing but bring grief to the US. It didn't even help their Sunni allies, Saudi Arabia is off worse in some ways.
In the end only Israel is laughing as it's hold on the Golan is strengthened. The US was played.
Do electronic counter measures qualify as attacks, especially when the US military are flying war planes in sovereign Syrian airspace? Oh the US military are such poor, delicate victims of these evil Syrian radio waves. Why won't the Syrian military stop?
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