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Comment by TeMPOraL | Hacker News Reader

Based on the title, I expected to read that the Russians are installing missile launchers on cellphone towers...

The article doesn't make it explicit, but the Pole-21 system seems to be (at least in part) a satellite navigation jammer[0].

[0] - https://www.sott.net/article/327171-New-Russian-hi-tech-jamm...

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From the OP's article-First stanza: "...the Pole-21 anti-missile jamming device..." Further down: "...Russia will be virtually impenetrable to missiles using satellite navigation."

wouldn't it more be like: missiles will not hit the designated target, but something near by

Shouldn't that really be using only satellite navigation? Anything with a backup (e.g. inertial, celestial, terrestrial) should still be viable, though perhaps degraded in accuracy. But hardly impenetrable.

I wonder about it too. From what I read, military-grade inertial navigation is pretty damn accurate.

Onboard precise clock, very accurate ground/airspeed gauges, heading tracking would get you pretty close. Maybe not laser-guided close, but hey what are cluster-bombs for?

or nuclear warheads.

The terrain following guidance in cruise missiles had an accuracy of a few meters in the early 80s. The only place that tech doesn't work is over the ocean... where there aren't any Russian cell towers.

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a110286.pdf

Right. This would specifically inhibit things like GPS guided cruise missiles, not laser-guided or maybe even radar-guided munitions.

None of American missiles and smart munitions uses GPS as a sole guidance method. Those that do use it as an enhancer to the primary inertial system.

Yeah but all the backup stuff is still expensive to develop/build with good quality. I can buy a good GPS for a few hundred bucks. I don't think this is to defend against American missiles.

Celestial Nagivation? Do you mean missles can navigate by, like, finding the North Star? Are there cameras mounted on the sides that can track stars? That is fascinating!

Not just the North Star, of course, but yeah, they know where certain stars should be and compare what they see.

The Trident Missile (sub launched missile) uses it in conjunction with inertial nav to correct its course mid-flight.

Yes, and the article I linked names "GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou" directly. That's what I consider stating something explicitly :).

Fair enough :)

> Russia will be virtually impenetrable to missiles using satellite navigation

Wow, that's one wishful thinking, especially considering lame attempt to disrupt them when missiles basically already approached their target.

Who needs jammers when there is INS.

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