It has been reported that Iranian dissident TV programmes being broadcast into Iran via satellite from the USA are being jammed… from Cuba! Of course I have no doubt that the Communist Cuban government will deny they are responsible.
Fair enough. As a result, it would be really… interesting… to see some equally non-governmental action to stop them. I wonder how much it would cost to lash up ‘private sector’ anti-radiation missile with just enough range to reach the jammer in Bejucal, (near Havana) from not-too-far-into Cuban airspace? Let’s call it a ‘Rattlesnake’ (as in Don’t Tread on Me)
As tactical surprise would be complete, the ‘Rattlesnake’ would not need to be fast (more akin to a cruise missile than a Shrike or HARM), just so long as it had enough range. A simple aluminum airframe with little wings to minimize the propellant requirement, perhaps a stripped down off-the-shelf GPS unit for cruise guidance and a tuned passive homer for terminal guidance (you know, the sort of gear the US government pays hundreds of thousands for and which can be bought in Radio Shack for a few hundred bucks). If the weapon was accurate enough, a small 10 lbs improvised pre-fragmented warhead would probably be sufficient. If the whole thing could be kept under 250 lbs, it would be easy to modify all manner of private airplanes to carry it.
A 15 mile engagement envelope for a Hi-Hi-Lo stand-off attack would probably be adequate: skirt Cuban airspace, suddenly turn in for the attack, shallow dive for speed to maximise range of the missile, release the ‘Rattlesnake’, then dive for the deck at just under the speed your wings will fall off and run for Key West (or elsewhere) at wave-top level long before you develop any MIG or SAM ‘problems’…but obviously the longer the range of the weapon, the better.
Key West, Mexico and a zillion little islands are only a few minutes flight time away for a low flying private airplane and, as I am sure any trafficker in ‘herbs and spices’ in that part of the world will tell you, there are an awful lot of small airfields in the Caribbean.
It is just an idea, of course… pure fantasy…I would not dream of actually inciting anyone to do this. That would be bad. I mean, if people started doing that sort of thing, folks might get it into their heads that it is okay to shoot at tyrants wherever they are found… and we wouldn’t want that now, would we?
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An EVIL mind is a terrible thing to waste; the described concept is beautiful !!
Don’t use a fragmentation bomb – someone could get hurt (or Castro would ensure that someone was hurt, and blame the Rattlesnake), and the backlash would terrible. Use an EMP bomb – nobody gets hurt, the jammer goes kerphlooey, everyone’s happy (except the bad guys, and who cares about them?).
You would think that jamming another nation’s satellite transmissions would be a violation of some international protocol or other. Where’s the UN on this one? Oh, I forgot, too busy passing out committee chairmanships to Kaddafy, Mugabe, and their pals to worry about an actual violation of the rights of both the US and the Iraqis.
T. Hartin,
I think some of the Farsi-speaking programmes emitted from the US, which were uplinked on TelStar 12 (an Anglospheric satellite?), are now being rerouted via a HotBird satellite, the owner of which is EutelSat (a communist, Islamic, bloodthirsty, Eurocratic dying company).
What’s the coallition of the willing waiting for?
There’s an imminent, ominous threat against the US disinterested interests in Iran !!!
Kodiak, surely you can’t be saying that it is the sovereign right of any nation to jam any satellite broadcast going into or out of any other nation, can you? Unless one takes this position, it is hard to see how Cuba’s action is “legal.”
Even if “legal”, it surely constitutes a violation of the rights of the Iraqis who might want to view the transmissions, not to mention the Iraqis and others who might want to broadcast over these channels. This is prior restraint, by Cuba, of the free speech of individuals who are not even Cuban sefs, I mean citizens. Is this defensible in any way?
An EMP warhead is going to be too heavy for a realistic ‘roll-your-own’ Radio Shack tactical missile… and who gives a flying f**k if some of the people working at the Cuban EW facility end up eating some fragments? Those people are directly involved in a communist regime and now in helping to perpetuate a theocratic one in Iran. Legitimate targets all.
T. Hartin,
I don’t know what’s the international legislation about satellite transmissions. IMO it should be illegal to jam audio & video transportation just because you want to do your opponents harm.
That said, there’s little doubt that any big country’s army takes the pain not to jam a rival’s programmes when needed. That’s guaranteed.
It would probably work. The electronics are very doable. Like you say, Radio Shack and maybe $1500 would do it for a cheap GPS (which only has to get the Rattlesnake within the general area) and the passive homer (the uplink freq must be registered somewhere, so setting the target freq should not be too hard) and a cheap custom on-board computer that I could make from spare junk in my ‘old computers box’… hell, I could probably put it all together myself in a week or so.
The airframe? Easy. The rocket? Now for me at least, that is the tough bit. I know jack shit about rockets… but I guess you would want a solid fuel one. Anyone here know about rockets and how to make ’em in your basement without spending millions and attracting too much attention?
…Some of you have expressed interest in the feasability of constructing and using a “Do-It-Yourself” guided missile…Of course someone is already working on that problem:
>”A DIY Cruise Missile – Watch me build one for under $5,000″
“So how do we feel about cruise missile control?”
…I know this is probably old information for most of you…I just thought you might find this useful or interesting if you haven’t been lurking around this site as long as some of us…
I’m an ex rocket engineer, and I’ve believed all along that a private strike against Cuba from Miami would be a no-brainer. As was said, surprise would be complete, so speed’s not required. Use an old ultralight as the airframe. It’s almost radar invisible, and cheap to boot. Top speed = about 50 mph. Launch from a boat halfway to Cuba, and flight time is about an hour. Launch at night, and probability of detection falls to near zero. Standard anti-aircraft missiles wouldn’t be able to see it, and gunfire would largely pass through it without hitting anything vital.
If the price is right, launch several. The US military, for example, pays about 30K$ for a stinger missile with a 95% chance of hitting its target. The same missile, built with Radio Shack components, would be about $3K$ and have an 80% (estimated) probability, so launch 2 of them!
The big drawback would be what happens to you at the hands of the US govt. if you get caught at it. The involved agencies seem to have completely lost whatever sense of humor they once might have had.
…Damn…My HTML/links are kind of funky…
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…Sorry…Well, you get the idea…
🙂
Let the record show that Kodiak and I agree on something.
Bummer about the EMP, though. I don’t care if the Commies running the jammer get fragged, personally, but a nice clean strike will be play much better in the press. I suppose upgrading our missile to an unmanned drone aircraft that could carry an EMP warhead wouldn’t work – too expensive, too likely to get spotted and shot down.
Bill: the reason I prefer an airlaunched attack with a rocket based missile if I were to do this (which of course I would not, I mean, that would be, like, illegal) is that you can ‘get outa Dodge’ a whole lot faster than in a boat… even a fast cigarette boat. Also, a cigarette at speed is beaucoup visible, even at night.
The engagement envelope for an air attack is just a whole lot smaller, even if a boat launch of a drone style attack would for sure be nice and stealthy for exactly the reasons you point out.
But if it all does go wrong, I would rather be 30 mins from US airspace at 50 feet off the wavetops than 3 hours away on the wavetops! I’d rather take my chances with the US Justice system if worse comes to worse than the seriously pissed off Cuban Navy or Airforce.
Illum:
Well heck, launch it from the Keys. Flight time is 2 hours, and by the time it hits, you’re on your 3rd after-dinner Marguereta.
🙂
This might sound naive but why use a warhead at all. The airframe itself is likely to destroy the radar dish in question. You are less likely to cause additional damage and the message is sent loud and clear. This also makes for a lighter and cheaper missile and its less likely to attract governmetn attention as you put it together.
The airframe itself as a weapon, wotta concept… 😉
I thought that was what I was suggesting.
I think Saddam had the right idea here. Forget air launches or boat launches, or missiles entirely. Built a large model plane of the sort you can buy at a hobby store and power it with a weed whacker engine. Control it with a palm pilot and steer it by GPS. Launch it after dark from one of those loooong bridges out near Key West and set it to fly at treetop level on whatever course you desire. Range limited only by the amount of fuel it could carry and weight of guidance and warhead (if any). Estimated cost ~$2000. Sort of a poor man’s cruise missile. . .
The airframe-as-weapon only works if you score a bullseye and even then, only if it is moving fairly fast…and is expecting a direct on the nail hit realistic with a roll-your-own missile? That is why I suggested a 10 lbs pre-fragmented warhead… that should give a fairly certain ‘kill radius’ of about 15 yards and some chance of a functional frag kill if you get lucky from maybe three times that distance. Also, I assumed the jammer itself might be in a building so you are probably going to need some explosive to have a chance of success.
Of course launching several missiles would give an even better chance of a kill 🙂