New Anti-Jamming System Tested

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

Jamming and interference, whether intentional or unintentional, can seriously degrade GPS position, navigation and time availability-even to the point of total solution denial. Jammers create excessive noise, overpowering the low power GPS signals and saturating the electronics in a GPS receiver front end.

The Canadian Army has recently completed testing NovAtel’s GPS Anti-Jam Technology (GAJT) in live-firing conditions on the M777C1 Howitzer.

The trial was conducted under the Build in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP) of Public Services and Procurement Canada, the company said in a statement. According to defenseworld.net, the BCIP helps companies to bridge the pre- commercialization gap by procuring and testing late stage innovative goods and services within the federal government before taking them to market.

GAJT protects GPS-based navigation and precise timing receivers from intentional jamming and accidental interference. According to NovAtel’s website, GAJT mitigates interference by creating nulls in the antenna gain pattern in the direction of jammers, providing significant anti-jam protection even in dynamic multi-jammer scenarios.

It is a Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) product, and comes in versions suitable for land, sea, fixed installations and smaller platforms such as UAVs. Military vehicles and platforms, networks and timing infrastructure also benefit from the protection that GAJT provides.

There is no need to replace GPS receivers already installed, as GAJT works with civil and military receivers, and is ready for M-Code.

The M777C1 lightweight 155-mm towed Howitzer provides close fire support without sacrificing range, stability, accuracy or durability. It is equipped with a Digital Gun Management System which enables the crew to engage targets, particularly when employing precision-guided munitions that use location data from GPS satellites.