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 →
15 in this beat · page 1 of 2
Radar 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.
Read the report → Report 043 · Defense Tech · 2026-07-24 · 7 minThe Drone Sensor You Can't Jam
Radar finds a drone by shouting energy into the sky, which tells the enemy exactly where you're standing. A passive acoustic array finds it by listening for the rotors and radiates nothing. A Counter-IED officer on the short-ranged, weather-limited sensor that keeps working when the spectrum is jammed, and the Army RFI that wants it.
Read the report → Report 037 · Defense Tech · 2026-07-21 · 7 minThe Jammer That Jams You
A jammer is not a shield, it's a transmitter, and a transmitter has no idea whose receiver it's hitting. The counter-IED jammers in Iraq took down the radios and GPS of the units they protected. With NATO committing $40 billion to counter-drone systems, a Counter-IED officer on why that bill is coming due again.
Read the report → Report 031 · Defense Tech · 2026-07-17 · 6 minWhy $4M Missiles Lose to $20K Drones
When you spend $4 million to shoot down a $20,000 drone, you win the engagement and lose the war one shot at a time. An electronic-warfare officer on the cost-exchange problem, why 'cheaper missiles' and 'missiles are obsolete' are both half-answers, and the one number that decides who runs out of ammunition first.
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