Quote:
Originally posted by Undertoad
[b]Still, I was very amused to hear that yesterday they blew up GPS jammers with GPS weapons. I bet that was a strategic statement...
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Or a practical test. Of course, they didn't give details... it could be the "GPS weapons" were made to target the jammers once they lost their GPS fix. My personal guess is that the Iraqis got cheated -- they probably got some old obselete (Russian? Chinese?) jammers which knocked out the C/A code but not the P(Y) code.
Technical digression:
The C/A -- coarse/acquisition -- code is the unencrypted code used by civilians and used by some older precision equipment to help acquire the P(Y) code. The P(Y) code is more precise and uses encryption (called A/S, Anti-spoof). The higher code rate and the encryption both make jamming more difficult, as well as making spoofing (without cracking the encryption) near-impossible. The military has been working on ways to directly acquire the P(Y) code without the use of the C/A code; I assume they've succeeded. Though it wouldn't really matter for a cruise missile fired from friendly territory, as it could acquire the code before launch and hold on to it.