Ultimate Radio Deathmatch: US Navy missile-defence radar vs 4G mobile mast On Monday the US Navy will fire up its mighty, six-megawatt AN/SPY-1 raygun radar while academics run an LTE mobile-data base station in the same band, so both sides can establish if coexistence is a workable proposition. AN/SPY-1 is used as part of the Aegis anti-missile system mounted on, amongst other platforms, the US Navy …
Call me stupid, but since this is a shipborne radar system unless the US Navy is planning on mooring their ships in Downtown Washington DC, New York harbour or San Diego where is the conflict ?
Last time I looked, radar and mobile phone transmissions are virtually line of sight, I just don't see the conflict unless the Navy does plan on using these radars in the above locations. Further, since these radars are anti-air and anti-missile radars, if the Navy do need them in say the upper reaches of the Potomac then there may be more immediate worries than a lack (or excess !) of phone signal.
Chris Cosgrove
Aegis in its missile defence capability is intended to be moored close offshore during flareups (and have the radar on).
Also, a minor correction to the article - Ticonderoga is not the missile drednaught of the 21st century (should be 20th as it is 40 y old design). While it has a BIG armoury, it can launch a fairly limited amount of it in a given interval. After that it has to reload. The title of biggest and baddest "missile gunboat" fare and square goes to Peter the Great (Kirov class) nuclear missile cruisers.
The operative word there is "virtually." If you throw enough power out there, it will reflect/bend over the horizon. I've done it with just 20,000 watts. [Guided a B-52 bomber that _just_ took off from Colorado while we were sitting in a tincan, err destroyer, off the California coast. Got a hell of an "attaboy" from the Air Farce.] A/N-SPY-1 tosses out megawatts. Frankly I'd be interested to see what they come up with. Zorching millions of cellphones when we have any Aegis equipped ship pulling ABM duty nearby would be a hell of a class action suit.
The radar and its associated weapons are sufficiently powerful that they can reach into space itself.
"Yes Admiral! We now have the weapons to fight WARS IN SPACE! Unfortunately our proud nation has not managed to build any spaceships as of yet, so we decided put the weapons onto a blue water hull instead. Looks nearly as good, but... you know."
"Intolerable! Get me one of those Japs on the phone!"
RV Jones wrote a good book ("Most Secret War") about radio wars in World War 2. Much more exciting than a radar vs cell network.
One of the funniest parts concerns the air surveillance radar British had on Malta vs the large jammer the Germans deployed to ruin it. The Germany jammer was highly effective, completely ruined the radar's picture. But the British just left the radar running and this puzzled the Germans, who eventually concluded that their jammer had to be useless and switched it off and didn't try it again.
RV Jones had the pleasure of explaining this to the German commander responsible after the war...
Because we wouldn't want people tweeting about their imminent annihilation to be interfered with by efforts to defend against it.
As to the 4G signals interfering with radar returns, doesn't this open up an opportunity for jamming? Record and broadcast some wireless chit-chat to mask the returns from incoming warheads. Time the attack to coincide with some football* championship playoffs and the increase in traffic won't look suspicious.
*Whichever type you prefer, of course.
That's what it sounds like when you live next to an international airport and a low flying airplane momentarily reflects high power radar down at your electronics. The TV goes, the FM radio goes, your phone says Ø, and I've even had my digital car stereo lock up dead a few times.
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