Kenyans ushered in their 5th president, William Ruto on Tuesday. Since then he has begun using the official presidential motorcade in the company of his aide-de-camp Brigadier Stelu Lekolol.
He first used the presidential escort vehicles on Tuesday 13th after his swearing-in ceremony while headed to Statehouse for lunch.
Whenever he travels, his motorcade is expected to form an arrowhead defense mechanism as security protocol. Within the motorcade is a big vehicle that carries a radio frequency jammer and has several antennae on its roof. This is known as a Convoy Radio Frequency jammer.
Convoy RF jammers are usually installed in cars that are used to carry personnel who require high security. The vehicle’s presence in the presidential motorcade is to interfere with all forms of radio signals of different frequencies.
The convoy jamming system for convoy security consists of several electronic warfare ECM jammers.
These jammers are placed at various points on select convoy vehicles to increase the coverage of RF jamming efficiency. This is why when the president’s motorcade is around, you may not be able to make or receive a phone call or access the internet via cellular network.
The device is usually used when there is a necessity to block anyone from tracing a vehicle and at the same time to make it impossible for anyone to make use of a GPS which enables bombs and other devices.
When convoy safety is a priority, the ECM is recommended to reduce threats involving remote-controlled IED attacks caused by cellular-based cell phone IEDs, satellite phone IEDs and radio-triggered weapons.
An IED is a simple bomb made and used by extremist terrorists. To set off homemade explosive devices, terrorists have long capitalized on cell phones mostly.
“The jamming signal is generated by Multi-VCO chain which results in very high sweeping rate along the bands hence create high RF density in each part of the protected frequency band,” Phantom Technologies, one of the device manufacturers, described its working process.
The Convoy RF jammer has over 50 different jamming profiles.
Jammers are installed on vehicles that are manufactured to withstand ambushes and attacks with improvised explosive devices.
These trucks utilize the most reliable and effective RF jamming technology and are outfitted with a fully integrated broadband clogging system to safeguard VIP convoys.
It continuously encrypts communication tracks that terrorists oftentimes exploit to set roadside explosives off.
These armored vehicles have an increased level of ballistic protection and can withstand everything from explosions and bomb blasts to M60 machine gun fire.
In addition, they contend with having a shock alarm, blackout blinds, a fire suppression system, and police lights. They also have a base that is grenade-proof and bulletproof glass.