I have been watching what has been happening in the Baltic Sea and that region over the past few years, from the bombing of the Nordstream pipe line, the destruction of undersea power and communications cables to the sinking of (Russian) ships in ports with limpet mines.
The latest development (which seems to have been kept quiet up till now) is GPS jamming. www.maritime-executive.com/article/polish-researchers-detect-ship-based-gps-jammers-in-baltic-sea
If anyone is interested you can get information from
Marine executive www.maritime-executive.com/
What is going on with shipping
There was a book written by a threat analyst a few years ago called Ghost Wars.
He proposed exactly what is unfolding now. The finale of the book was that the conclusion of the escalation of this type of hybrid (behind the scenes) warfare could be the destruction of orbiting communication, navigation, broadcast weather and spy satellites. Which would send those orbits into flying junkyards that could never be used again.
I bit over the top I admit, bit things can get out of control very quickly.
A snippet from Marine Executive on Limpet mines.
Without specifying which particular incidents, three sources confirmed to Reuters that at least two blasts were likely caused by limpet mine attacks. One source said that the munitions used were Soviet BPM-type limpet mines, a time-delayed shaped charge with a magnetic casing that can be hand-placed by divers. The time-delay fuse can be set for durations as long as a month, according to open-source data, allowing the vessel to transit far from the point of placement before detonation. The BPM has a small main charge of just seven pounds of tritonal, but placed directly on a ship's hull it is enough to be effective. When activated, it has an anti-removal plunger that detonates the mine if another diver tries to pull it off. Like all Soviet munitions, BPM mines were exported to third countries linked to Russian expansionism. The design has changed little over decades, they remain in production, and they continue to crop up in modern conflict zones - making attribution difficult.
I don't think its over the top at all. Because we dont live in Ukraine and Australian media considers football, tennis and movie stars more important no one actually realizes how serious things are getting. Especially now the leadership of the USA which we have depended on for defence is switching sides.
The bloggers reporting on Ukraine show clips of Russian media, in which they confess that they are at war with us/ this is WW3, but our side doesn't admit this yet. (I do hope this doesn't infringe on the ban on politics). It is starting as a hybrid and cyber war, with psychological (propaganda), and will develop into the traditional battlefield.
From my perspective the trust that we as Australians have traditionally placed in the US in the defence and associated arena's has now been demonstrated to be nothing more than wishful thinking. As a non gambler I would be willing to bet that we will never see a submarine, be it secondhand or new from the us, despite the substantial cash injection recently made to them. They have shown their true nature to the entire world.
Fellas. I posted this because of the ramifications of GPS jamming and where that might leave us (sailors)
No other reason.
gary
Select to expand quotegarymalmgren said..
Fellas. I posted this because of the ramifications of GPS jamming and where that might leave us (sailors)
No other reason.
gary
No worries, Oopps I don't have a boat anymore ??
Is that a radar detector? When I learnt to sail I had to use two of them at night in the English Channel. A rough one that would let you know something was there and a more precise one that you could take bearings and plot them. Due to my colour blindness I relied on it rather a lot to establish whether ships were converging or not!
Select to expand quoteJonE said..
Is that a radar detector? When I learnt to sail I had to use two of them at night in the English Channel. A rough one that would let you know something was there and a more precise one that you could take bearings and plot them. Due to my colour blindness I relied on it rather a lot to establish whether ships were converging or not!
Its an RDF. Radio Direction Finder. Back in the day every lighthouse had its own morse which was shown on admiralty charts so pointing the RDF at the lighthouse loom or where you think it is the morse could be heard . Actually you would rotate the rdf until you got the null then by reading the compass you would get the magnetic bearing you were from the lighthouse. Some airports used by pilots and radio stations still emit .
People used to buy and use the Dick Smith radio with the rdf antenna on top to do the same. I wish I had kept mine.
Its a radio direction finder. Its looks like a old Seafix. If you get one that tunes as high as the AM broadcast man you can shoot your bearing on a AM radio station. Once I came through the heads in fog sailing on a RDF beacon Az tuned to 774 ABC, with no issues. Practice makes perfect! You can still use it on the Aeronautical beacons, most airports still have the beacons. It can really save your skin if your navigation and GPS system dies and you in the middle of a ocean with no land references for a fix.
Sailors should download the free GPS Anti-s**** APP from Reed Navigation.
reednavigation.com/GPSAntiS****/ (anti s p o o f)
You can do a simple sun sight and compare it to the GPS anti s**** app. Just make sure you clock is set to GMT you can also cross check it with the Almanac HC value for the GMT time. You will know very quickly if the GPS is being jammed. You dont have to do a full celestial noon sight LOP. I have just been using my Barker pocket box sextant and I can shoot the sun within 1minute to few seconds and compare it to the anti s**** app. Its also a good training app if you are a bit rusty with your sextant, You can quickly see how accurately you are shooting the sun. Even a Davis Mk3 is good enough for a quick anti-s**** and sun sight. I have a Freiburger sextant however I just use the Davis MK3 or Barker pocket sextant since its accurate enough for government work.
