DHS Science and Technology Directorate working with first responders to address electronic jamming issues

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is collaborating with first responders to prevent, detect, and mitigate illegal jamming of communications systems through exercises, data collection, outreach and education campaigns and proposed new tools.

In July, S&T held a week-long exercise in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where approximately 100 federal, state, and local public safety and private organizations tested strategies and technologies to identify, locate, and mitigate illegal jamming.

Many participants from the 2016 exercise, where first responders evaluated jamming vulnerabilities in communications systems, returned to the 2017 First Responder Electronic Jamming Exercise (JamX 17) to gather more data.

“We’ve been able to use the information and data gathered from last year’s exercise to create a training program for our responders on how to identify signal interference,” Rodney Reed, assistant chief of operational support for the fire marshal’s office of Harris County, Texas, said. “With the data we collect this year, we hope to help responders use the tools they carry every day out on the field to help stop communication interference.”

S&T’s First Responders Group (FRG) and JamX17 participants are now analyzing and compiling data to produce reports and recommend tools for DHS as well as state and local public safety components. FRG is also conducting an outreach and education campaign across the entire country.

“We will be developing training and best practices and sharing them with communities across the country,” Sridhar Kowdley, FRG’s JamX17 exercise director, said. “We want first responders to understand that we are providing them another tool in their tool belt and helping improve their communications resilience.”