Yakima Training Center, Washington - Soldiers of the 1-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team learned about the dangers of enemy jamming technology during a degraded environment course at the Yakima Training Center, Washington, Nov. 5-7.

The course focuses on GPS interference identification and reporting, while emphasizing the importance of not relying on electronic technology for navigation.

"A lot of people don't realize the capabilities of our adversary in terms of jamming," said Lisa Prue, a training exercise instructor for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Strategic Command. "We try to introduce them to these concepts, and Train them how to mitigate this when they find themselves in a GPS jamming environment."

Training is important because soldiers in the future are likely to fight in GPS-degraded environments, Sgt. 1st Class Juan Jaramillo, an EW sergeant with a 1-2 SBCT. Minimizing this training will help mitigate many of the risks they will face in the future.

"We also teach some basic techniques in the classroom, such as body masking, digging holes in the ground, using terrain or metal objects to block jamming signals in order to re-acquire GPS signals," Prue said. "Old school techniques are also important, being map savvy. And compass skills are important."

According to Prue, one of the most important things a soldier can do is report a distraction.

"We won't be able to find or target the jammer until a report is made," she added. "The jammers are easiest to find by field personnel on a mission. When the information reaches the appropriate channels, we can find the military signal jammer and process them."

Anyone can use a GPS jammer - making it even more important for soldiers to report the source of the jam, Prue said.

"Anyone in the world can go online and buy a GPS jammer," she said. "If you google it, you'll get over a million hits for GPS jammers. This can be purchased commercially. Our potential adversaries will have more advanced capabilities.

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