THE GOVERNMENT has tweaked its policy to bar Defense forces from buying electronic jammers as per the new “jammer policy” issued by the Cabinet secretariat on Thursday.

Good Morning India.....

The Cabinet Secretariat Babus have done it again. Being a Corps of Signals veteran and very much involved in EW activities during my service I was shocked to the core to read this bit of news in today's Indian Express.

THE GOVERNMENT has tweaked its policy to bar Defense forces from buying electronic jammers as per the new “jammer policy” issued by the Cabinet secretariat on Thursday.
The policy, revised after the last one was issued in July 2015, leaves out Defense forces from the list of institutions allowed to procure or use jammers with prior approval of the Secretary (Security) of the Cabinet Secretariat.
The list includes such bodies as state police forces, jail authorities and central agencies like IB and RAW.

Everything is same in the two versions of the policy — the 2015 one and the one issued Thursday — except the mention of Defense forces, settling a long debated question on whether the Army can use them in India.
The decision to keep Defense forces out of the list of authorized agencies is seen as a fallout of the Army’s now-defunct Technical Support Division (TSD) having procured jammers in the past.

The TSD was set up during the tenure of the former Army chief (now Union minister) General V K Singh. The jammers imported by the TSD for evaluation purpose could not be accounted for after the government decided to close the unit.

“Jammers can be procured only by states’ police department and jail authorities, and central government security agencies like RAW and IB,” says the new policy issued by Cabinet Secretariat.

Private firms, schools and colleges cannot use jammers. In fact, inviting open bid tenders for jammers is also illegal.

Governed through the Cabinet Secretariat, the policy seeks to control the use of jammers – which render mobile, wireless communication ineffective by blocking, jamming or interfering with the frequencies – for a variety of reasons.
PSUs ECIL and BEL are the only authorized manufacturers of jammers allowed to be used in India.

"All other kinds of jammers are illegal. The jammers are evaluated for use by the SPG and the IB, as per this policy."

Among other use, public examination conducting bodies deploy jammers to safeguard exams against cheating by use of wireless communication.

“The statutory examination conducting bodies are allowed to deploy low powered jammers to prevent cheating during examinations. They would be given permission only to take it on lease basis and would therefore have to pay only for using jammers on the specific date of examination,” the policy says.

Electronic warfare systems can effectively change the flight paths of enemy missiles, misinform enemy administrative and troop control divisions, as well as paralyze entire armies.

In effect, electronic warfare denotes a series of well coordinated operations to destroy or suppress electronic troop control systems and weapons, and to protect similar friendly unit systems.

In the past, electronic warfare was called radio warfare, antiradar operations and radio direction finding. The assertion of electronic warfare confirms the dialectical law of unity and struggle of opposites, implying that the invention of new weapons and other military systems simultaneously facilitates the creation of other systems for offsetting their threat.

The US electronic warfare force has special units for suppressing the work of military and civilian administrative divisions.
Electronic warfare systems are, in fact, highly effective multirole complexes, making it possible to quickly assess the radio-electronic situation on battlefields, to jam enemy reconnaissance, troop control and weapons control systems.

Electronic Warfare complexes can emit powerful electromagnetic impulses to disable any electronic device ranging from cell phones to fifth-generation fighter avionics and weapons control systems.

Samyukta, is a mobile integrated Electronic Warfare system. It is the largest electronic warfare system in India, it was developed jointly by DRDO, Bharat Electronics Limited, Electronics Corporation of India Limited, and The Corps of Signals of the Indian Army. The System is fully mobile and is meant for tactical battlefield use. It covers wide range of frequencies and coverage of electromagnetic spectrum is handled by the communication segment and the non-communication segment. Its functions include various ELINT, COMINT and electronic attack (ECM) activities.

Each system operates on 145 ground mobile vehicles which has three communication and two non-communication segments and can cover an area of 150 km by 70 km. System has the capability for surveillance, analysis, interception, direction finding, and position fixing, listing, prioritizing and jamming of all communication and radar signals from HF to MMW.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/…/Samyukta_Electronic_Warfare_Syst…)

The Electronic Warfare System are force multiplier systems which need high level of secrecy for maintaining surprise against adversary actions. In such a situation, it is essential that the system design, architecture and deployment knowledge is generated within the country and maintained as a closely guarded information by the services. This is essential to ensuring tactical and strategic advantage for our armed forces during an operation. Therefore a tremendous amount of research and development has gone into and ongoing in India, to manufacture EW systems domestically and keep out foreign suppliers.

With this policy change it appears that Babus are gunning for The Indian Armed Forces. As there is no mention of use of jammers by the Defense Forces aka Army in wartime nor any clarification given thereto, means that all Indian Army Electronic Warfare capability has to be disbanded.

These babus are out of their minds. I think this has gone a bit too far. At every step these Government of India Babus are whittling away the Indian Army capabilities and trying to castrate its efficiency at the cost of National Security. I am sure the Babu who signed this policy was very well aware of its implications. The politicians running the Government are totally clueless and at the mercy of the Babus. Was this change of policy reviewed by the Defense Ministry and Chiefs of all three arms specially the Chief of the Army Staff? If not why? Answers are required here Mr. RM. Not only that but the Babu who signed such a policy should be tried for treason for endangering National Security.

The RM must revisit this policy and bring in necessary changes in consultation with the Chief of The Army Staff.

I reproduce her some extracts of the Government of India Jammer Policy of 16 July 2015

(http://cabsec.nic.in/showpdf.php…)

The new policy issued for 2016 is exactly the same except the Indian Armed Forces (aka Defense Forces)have been excluded in the permissions to use jammers as per the news in the Indian Express of today (22 Jan 2015).

Extract:- (Jammer policy 16 July 2015. The new 2016 policy excludes the defense services. Rest remains same)

PROCUREMENT OF JAMMERS
For procurement and use of jammers by State/Union Territories, Defense Forces and Central Police Organization(CPOs), norms have been evolved by the O/o Secretary (Security), Cabinet Secretariat.

Private sector organizations and or private individuals cannot procure/use jammers in India. These norms take into account the need to guard against random proliferation of jammers as well as to ensure that jammers installed do not unduly interfere with the existing mobile phone networks and with the equipments being used by security agencies.

NORMS FOR PROCUREMENT OF JAMMERS -

1. Secretary (Security), Cabinet Secretariat is the nodal authority for
granting permission/clearance for procurement of jammers.

2. Prior permission of Secretary (Security), Cabinet Secretariat must be
obtained in the prescribed Performa, duly filled in all
respects, before procurement of jammer(s).

3. Jammers can be procured only by Defense Forces, State Police
Departments, Jail authorities and Central Govt. security agencies.
4. The permission for procurement of jammer is granted in consultation
with concerned security agencies who maintain a database of
available jammers.

5. Jammer models manufactured by M/s ECIL 8b M/s BEL are
evaluated by concerned security agencies. Only those models can be
procured, which have been found suitable by the concerned security
agencies. List of currently approved make/model of jammers can be
found here(link).

6. Central/State PSUs, desirous of manufacturing jammers, can apply to the Secretary (Security), giving details of the
model, the source of technology and other relevant details.

The request would then be processed in consultation with security
agencies.

Corps of Signals Samyukta Electronic Warfare System, 26 Jan RD Parade....