Russia has managed to seriously affect U.S. military operations in Syria by jamming its drones, according to four American officials, NBC News reported on Tuesday.
Concerned that the U.S. might retaliate for a number of recent suspected chemical weapons attacks on civilians in Syria, Russia began jamming U.S. drones several weeks ago, according to the officials
Dr. Todd Humphreys, the director of the Radionavigation Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin, has warned that such jamming could cause the American drones to malfunction or even crash, or at the very least create a great deal of confusion for the drone operator on the ground.
Although the Defense Department refused to say whether the jamming is causing drones to crash, citing operational security and the Pentagon told NBC that "the U.S. military maintains sufficient countermeasures and protections to ensure the safety of our manned and unmanned aircraft, our forces and the missions they support," one official confirmed the tactic is having an operational impact on American military operations in Syria.
The officials said that the equipment being used in Syria was developed by the Russian military.
They added that the equipment is very sophisticated and has proved effective even against some encrypted signals and anti-jamming receivers.
At this point the officials said that the larger Predators and Reapers that often operate in combat environments and can be armed have not been impacted by the Russian technique, but the smaller drones have been.
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