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Mark Borgerson

In article ,
says...
Jack Linthicum wrote:
[snip]

I think that a spread spectrum burst type transmission can be
intercepted and given a rough bearing. The money to do this is
miniscule in comparison with making Trident missiles into hand
grenades.

The command post does not move between transmissions. Spread
spectrum/frequency hopping systems return to previous frequencies every
few seconds. Just use several bursts to home in on the transmitter.

Why are you assuming that the command post does not move? I see no
reason that a mobile command post and multiple mobile transmitters
could not be used.

Spread spectrum and frequency hopping systems do use a finite number
of frequencies---but the sequence of freqencies used may not repeat for
many hours. That leaves you with a broadband collection problem
and having to sort out multiple emitters on the same bandwidth with
different hopping schedules. I suspect that is a problem handled
offline and after-the-fact, and not in real time. However, the
technology has probably advanced a bit in the 30 years I've been
out of the sigint world. ;-)

Mark Borgerson