January 21, 2005

The Army hires a Warlock

Strategypage.com has a article about a device called "Warlock." It is a device is used to jam the electronic triggers on roadside bombs in Iraq.

So far, over a thousand Warlock electronic bomb jamming devices have been sent to Afghanistan and (most of them) Iraq, where they have proved very successful. Originally designed to prematurely detonate proximity fuzes in approaching enemy artillery shells, the system was rapidly modified (in 2003) to work on the various types of wireless detonators used for roadside bombs and boobytraps. There are actually two models of Warlock; Red and Green. The Warlock Red model, the most common one, costs only $10,000 and is used mainly to defeat roadside bombs. The Warlock Green model can jam a wider array of frequencies at longer ranges, and costs $50,000. Both models work off a trucks electrical system. Warlock equipment is constantly updated, as the enemy adapts new types of wireless equipment for their roadside bombs. Warlock has been around for some twelve years, and never received a lot of funding. It was always an orphan program, a “relic of the Cold War,” because the army did not see any opponent around the corner who would be using a lot of proximity fuzes (which are actually little radar sets in the nose of the shell, which enable the shell to detonate when it was a certain distance above the ground.) Then came Iraq, and lots of roadside bombs. The army won’t say how many roadside bombs have been defeated by Warlock, lest they give useful information to the enemy. In fact, many troops traveling convoys through Iraq don’t know about Warlock, because of the importance of preventing the enemy from gaining any technical knowledge about it. The enemy does notice their bombs not going off, or going off prematurely, and continues to try new wireless devices for their remote control bombs. The army has ordered over 2,000 Warlock units so far, indicating some degree of user satisfaction.
Posted by Ted at January 21, 2005 8:12 PM