Yakima Training Center, WA - Soldiers from the 1-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team learned about the dangers of enemy interference technology during a degraded environment course held Nov. 5-7 at the Yakima Training Center in Washington.
The course focuses on identifying and notifying GPS interference while emphasizing the importance of not relying on electronic technology for navigation.
"A lot of people don't realize what our enemies are capable of in terms of jamming," said Lisa Prue, a training exercise instructor with the U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Command/Strategic Forces Command. "We're trying to introduce them to these concepts and teach them how to mitigate them in a GPS interference environment."
The training is important because in the future soldiers will likely be operating in an environment with degraded GPS, the sergeant said. 1st Class Juan Jaramillo, Electronic Warfare sergeant, has 1-2 SBCT. Reducing this training to a minimum level will help mitigate many of the risks they will face in the future.
"There are also basic techniques that we teach in the classroom, such as body masking, digging holes in the ground, using ground or metal objects to block interference signals so that you can recapture the GPS signal," Prue said. "Old-school technology is also important. It's important to have a map and a compass."
According to Prue, one of the most important things a soldier can do is report a blockage.
"Until reports are received, we will not be able to locate or target jammers," she added. "Jammers are easiest to find by people on the ground. When the information reaches the appropriate channel, we can find the signal jammers and deal with it.
Prue said anyone can get their hands on GPS jammers - which makes it all the more important for soldiers to report sources of interference.
"Anyone in the world can go online and buy a GPS jammer," she said. "If you do a Google search, you get over a million results for GPS jammers. It can be bought in the market. Our potential adversaries will have more advanced capabilities."
