The US Army awarded $192,000 (£122,000) in contracts in
2002 to a Russian company identified in news reports as a supplier
of Global Positioning System (GPS) jamming equipment to
Iraq.
The reports said Moscow-based Aviaconversiya has denied selling
the jamming equipment to Iraq.
On Tuesday, President Bush personally complained to Russian
Premier Vladimir Putin about the sale of Russian military equipment
to Iraq, according to White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
In a press briefing that day, Fleischer said the White House was
"concerned" about reports "of ongoing co-operation and support to
Iraqi military forces being provided by a Russian company that
produces GPS jamming equipment ... We have credible evidence that
Russian companies provided the assistance and the prohibited
hardware to the Iraqi regime.
"The President raised with President Putin our ongoing concerns
about support [that] would be provided for Iraqi military forces by
Russian companies that produced the equipment."
Fleischer said Putin had promised to look into the issue.
Iraq evidently tried to use those jammers against US forces
after the US-led coalition began strikes against Iraqi targets last
week. "We have noticed some attempts by the Iraqis to use a GPS
jamming system that they obtained from another nation. We have
destroyed all six of those jammers in the last two nights'
airstrikes. I'm pleased to say they had no effect on us," Air Force
Major General Victor Renuart of the US Central Command, said on
Wednesday.
USAF Lieutenant Colonel Ken McClellan, a US Defense Department
spokesman, acknowledged that the Army had awarded contracts to
Aviaconversiya. The company is included on an online list of all
Defense Department contracts worth more than $25,000 that were
awarded in 2002. But he declined to provide any details.
GPS experts said the Army most likely bought equipment from
Aviaconversiya to test its capabilities which, in turn, would help
US forces avoid jamming or attack jammers being used against
them.
But GPS consultant James Hasik said he doubted that the jammers
would have much effect on GPS-equipped smart weapons used in Iraq,
such as the Tomahawk cruise missile or Joint Direct Attack
Munitions, because they have backup guidance systems such as
gyroscope-based inertial navigation systems.
Hasik said jamming of civil signals could be detrimental if
pilots of ageing aircraft like the Air Force A-10 or the Navy F-14
have bought handheld commercial receivers to make up for those
planes' lack of built-in GPS. Jamming could interfere with critical
navigation functions of the receivers.
GPS receivers are susceptible to jamming because of the weak
nature of the signals as they travel to receivers on earth from 24
satellites in space, Hasik added.
This week's warning about the sale of Russian GPS jammers to
Iraq and the subsequent attack on them illustrate the Pentagon's
concern about interference with one of the core technologies of its
smart weapons systems.
Earlier this year, McClellan said the Pentagon had a "somewhat
serious concern" about an online article in hacker magazine Phrack
that detailed how to build a homemade GPS jammer.