China has deployed special vans equipped with sophisticated electronics designed to jam U.S. GPS (global positioning satellite) satellite navigation signals. The fear inside the Pentagon is that China will deploy large numbers of these vans to jam GPS signals over large sections of its territory.
Intelligence officials are watching the vans carefully to assess their capabilities and to see whether China moves to export the technology to other nations like Iran. The U.S. intelligence agencies have photos of the vans, taken from space and on the ground, but are not sure how capable they are in jamming GPS-guided weapons in the American arsenal.
Iraq deployed similar technology during the Gulf war but was unable to exploit its capabilities because the U.S. quickly modified GPS bombs to home in on the jammers.
Pentagon officials are concerned that U.S. bombs and missiles may not have that same capability against the Chinese GPS systems.
Defense analysts noted that the recent Chinese anti-satellite missile test demonstrated a capability to destroy GPS and low orbit reconnaissance satellites. The weapons demonstrated by Beijing are aimed at destroying or degrading the U.S. GPS system. These weapons include the jamming vans, anti-satellite missiles, and cyber-warfare attacks against computers and communications systems.
Submitted: Nov 21, 2007
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From China - with love...
Posted: Nov 21, 2007