(((This still-imaginary paramilitary gizmo definitely has a late-80s cyberpunk thriller novel tinge to it.)))
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/11/backpack-zapper.html
Link: Backpack Jammer Muzzles Cell Phones, Drones | Danger Room from Wired.com.
Backpack Jammer Muzzles Cell Phones, Drones
By David Hambling
November 05, 2007 | 4:55:00 AM
Categories: Gadgets and Gear, Less-lethal
"If you've ever felt like creating you own phone-free zone by jamming the irritating people yakking loudly on their cellphones, (((and really, who hasn't))) then you're not the only one. The Naval Surface Warfare Center has looking for suppliers for a "Man-Packable Electronic Attack System," a portable set-up which will allow you to jam any radio-based communication for a kilometer around.
(Compare that to the puny jammers that the New York Times cooed about yesterday – they can only block signals in a 30-foot radius.) (((Yeah, take that, New York Times, you electron-punk sissies.)))
It will work for up to an hour on battery power, or you can plug into a power source. And if you think they're close to locating you, you can ditch it to operate on its own in 'unattended attack mode', identifying and jamming anything you tell it to. Good-bye wif-fi, adios radios...
(((Yeah, and turn on about fifty of these babies in downtown Tallinn, Estonia, and you've got "CYBARMAGEDDON TWO: This Time It's Personal.")))
It's a powerful capability to have. Tactically, you can shut down insurgent communications and stop them from warning each other. On a larger scale, it means that commandos can disable an enemy command and control center for a specified time without having to get too close. It might also be useful for preventing UAVs from transmitting anything back, purely apart form the general chaos and disruption it can cause with civilian communications systems....
(((And it's also one of the niftiest Black Bloc cop-and-culture-jamming devices I've ever heard of. You pull in fifty anarchists with a one-kilometer radio-silence blob around each one of them? Man, it'd make Seattle 99
look like a picnic.)))
