Thread: News Miscellany
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Old 01-13-2018, 05:16 PM
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ceptimus ceptimus is offline
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Default Re: News Miscellany

Yes - assuming the article, and the information supplied by the Russians are both accurate, it does sound as though the attackers did something more sophisticated than using cheap off-the-shelf model autopilot systems.

I don't know if this is what they're hinting at, but some military installations have GPS-jamming equipment installed that prevents any GPS receivers working properly in the vicinity. It's always a difficult balancing act to set them up as if you make your jamming signals too strong you can disrupt all GPS receivers for miles around. Most military don't want to do that as they use GPS in many of their own systems - and they want those to keep working.

It sounds as though the attackers used some clever software to mitigate the effects of inaccurate maps or jamming equipment - maybe by keeping one or more of the drones at some distance from the target and using that to relay navigation information back to the actual attack drones which might otherwise have been jammed,

The USA can switch in selective inaccuracy to the GPS system we've all used for years. They used to do this as a matter of course which meant that most users of the system only got readings accurate to tens of metres but the special military receivers could get down to single metres or better. The USA switched off the inaccuracy a few years ago and haven't used it since - but of course they could always switch it back on again in time of war - or indeed shut down their GPS system altogether.

China and the EU have already deployed or partly deployed their own independent GPS systems - probably Russia too, I guess. Most commercially available cheap equipment doesn't support these alternative systems yet though.
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