The Signal Report // DEFENSE TECH
Defense Tech.
Drones, jamming, GPS spoofing, and counter-IED, read by an electronic-warfare officer who operated the kit. All reports →
18 in this beat · page 1 of 2
The Ground Decides What Your Detector Finds
In May 2005 near Benkovac, four detectors and four Croatian deminers worked four lanes. Two held magnetic soil from Obrovac, two held neutral soil from Sisak. The operators showed no measurable spread. The dirt did. Ground compensation is a trade, not a fix, and there is a whole part of an international standard devoted to characterizing the soil before you grade a detector.
Read the report → Report 097 · Defense Tech · 2026-08-20 · 10 minYour Mine Detector Finds Metal, Not Mines
A metal detector responds to metal. Ground-penetrating radar responds to a change in the ground. Neither one responds to explosive. In Cambodia that gap meant 191,737,707 pieces of scrap dug up to clear 89,327 mines, and a 2026 machine-learning benchmark just restated the same warning.
Read the report → Report 091 · Defense Tech · 2026-08-17 · 9 minWhat the Army's Drone Doctrine Puts First
The Army republished its counter-drone doctrine in May 2025, approved for public release, free to download. One sentence states the priority: passive air defense measures are the first line of defense against UAS. Hiding gets more pages than engaging, the equipment is an appendix, and defeat is gated behind a permission no vendor can sell you.
Read the report → Report 085 · Defense Tech · 2026-08-14 · 9 minRadar Can't Tell a Drone From a Bird
Similar size, similar speed, similar altitude, similar radar cross section. What separates a quadcopter from a hawk is micro-Doppler, and the discriminating feature sits 20 to 40 dB under the return that got your attention. Detection range and classification range are different numbers.
Read the report → Report 079 · Defense Tech · 2026-08-11 · 9 minRemote ID Is a Beacon, Not a Sensor
The FAA's drone rule requires a one-per-second broadcast on unlicensed spectrum, accurate to 100 feet at 95 percent, from aircraft that choose to comply. It also writes in the places where no broadcast is required at all. An electronic warfare officer on why identification has never been how anyone finds anything.
Read the report → Report 073 · Defense Tech · 2026-08-08 · 9 minThe Spoofing Doesn't Stop When You Leave
The FAA revised its GNSS interference guide for pilots in March. It says a spoofed receiver can look healthy and report false position for hours after the aircraft flies clear, and that RAIM was never designed to catch spoofing at all.
Read the report → Report 067 · Defense Tech · 2026-08-05 · 9 minWhat a Counter-Drone Trial Actually Proves
Britain's defence lab put 13 suppliers' counter-drone equipment in front of light infantry in Germany and Poland. The trade press reported new capability arriving. The case study says the point was to find out what does not work, and the only published scores came from the vendors.
Read the report → Report 061 · Defense Tech · 2026-08-02 · 9 minWho Can Legally Stop a Drone?
Federal law defines an aircraft as any contrivance designed to fly in the air, which is why shooting down a quadcopter runs into a statute carrying twenty years. But that is one of four counter-drone techniques, and the other three trip three different laws. The one that catches people out applies before you have touched the drone at all.
Read the report → Report 055 · Defense Tech · 2026-07-30 · 8 minWhat a Jammer Can't Stop
Counter-IED jammers worked exactly as designed. They made radio receivers deaf, and the bombs stopped using radio: command wire, pressure plates, switches with almost no metal in them. A countermeasure is a bet about a mechanism, and the bet can be entirely correct and still stop paying.
Read the report → Report 049 · Defense Tech · 2026-07-27 · 7 minNavigating With No GPS, by the Rocks Below
The answer to GPS jamming that shipped in 2026 isn't a better GPS receiver. It's a passive sensor that reads the magnetic pattern of the Earth's crust and matches it to a map, sold as unjammable, unspoofable and undetectable. All three hold up. An EW officer on the two dependencies underneath them, and why 22 meters and 0.3 nautical miles are both true.
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