Electronic Weapons: April 27, 2003

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While Iraq's use of GPS jammers did not succeed in the recent war (the jammers were quickly located and bombed), three years earlier, one of Iraq's allies did make successful use of GPS jamming against U.S. and British troops. In the Summer of 2000, American, British and French tanks were competing for a $1.4 billion contract to equip the Greek army. For some reason, the GPS gear in the American and British tanks never seemed to work correctly during the tests. It was later discovered that the French had brought a small GPS jammer to the tank evaluation area and rigged it so a French officer could turn the jammer on and off remotely whenever the American or British tanks were moving about. Eventually, Greece selected German tanks for its army.