DRDO Develops Jammer to Counter AI-Guided 'Smart' Military Radios

India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is developing an advanced system called the Smart Communication Jammer System (SCJS) to counter "smart," or cognitive, radio networks that use artificial intelligence to evade detection and jamming.

Cognitive radios and mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are advanced wireless communication systems that sense their surrounding environment and automatically adjust their settings to use the radio spectrum more efficiently. They continuously scan for unused or underused frequency channels and rapidly switch between them, making them difficult to monitor or intercept using conventional jamming systems.

The SCJS will be a large vehicle-mounted platform capable of detecting, analyzing, classifying, direction-finding, monitoring and jamming tactical MANETs. According to DRDO's requirements, the system must monitor and jam radios operating in the 30 MHz to 6,000 MHz frequency range, with 360-degree detection coverage and a range of 20 kilometers, and must be able to counter radios that change frequencies at rates of up to 2,000 hops per second. This wide frequency range covers several tactical communication bands used by modern military systems, including drones, loitering munitions and software-defined radios.

The Defence Electronics Research Laboratory, a DRDO establishment, is the nodal agency executing the project and is seeking Indian industry partners for its design and development.

Cognitive radio networks also have civilian applications, including reducing spectrum congestion and improving the efficiency of wireless communications.