Army, Navy, Space Force Test 'Hammer of the Gods' EW System at Sea
A joint US test off southern California proved a GPS-jamming counter-PNT system called Hammer of the Gods can deploy, operate and recover from a ship for the first time.
U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Sar Paw, via DVIDS, public domain (Project Convergence Capstone 6, July 24, 2026)
A joint US Army, Navy and Space Force experiment off the coast of southern California in mid-July proved that a GPS-jamming electronic warfare system called Hammer of the Gods can be deployed, operated and recovered from a Navy ship, its first test at sea after two years of ground-based demonstrations.
What actually happened
The test took place during Project Convergence Capstone 6 (PC-C6), the Army’s flagship annual joint and multinational experimentation exercise, held in mid-July 2026 in the waters off southern California. Unlike a standard single-service demonstration, this iteration deliberately combined Army ground forces, Navy vessels and Space Force personnel in the same scenario, reflecting a broader push across the Department of War to test whether space, cyber and conventional capabilities can actually operate as one integrated system rather than three separate ones that happen to be present on the same battlefield. Hammer of the Gods itself is a counter-positioning, navigation and timing system, meaning it is built to deny, degrade or corrupt the GPS-like signals that modern precision-guided weapons depend on to find their targets. Ground-based versions of the system have been shown off at prior Project Convergence events over roughly the past two years, but this was the first time it was loaded aboard a vessel, operated at sea and successfully recovered afterward.
That distinction, ground-based versus sea-deployable, is not a minor technical footnote. A system that only works from a fixed land installation has an inherently limited operational footprint: it can protect or threaten whatever falls within range of wherever it happens to be parked. A system that can deploy from a ship can move with a naval task force into waters near a contested coastline, extending the same jamming or denial effect to wherever the fleet operates, and then be recovered and redeployed elsewhere rather than left behind. Lt. Col. Darrin Hall, Chief of Modeling, Simulation and Integration for US Space Forces Pacific, described the significance of proving that mobility in the sailors’ own hands.
“This experiment proved that counter-PNT capabilities can be deployed, controlled and recovered in real-world maritime operations while extending operational reach through resilient mesh networking,” said Lt. Col. Darrin Hall, Chief, Modeling, Simulation and Integration (S7/8), U.S. Space Forces Pacific (DVIDS, Project Convergence Capstone 6 experiments with Hammer of the Gods, July 27, 2026).
Why GPS denial is a weapon in its own right
It is worth being explicit about why a signal-jamming system counts as offensive capability rather than a purely defensive countermeasure. The overwhelming majority of modern precision-guided munitions, from long-range artillery rounds to cruise missiles to guided bombs, rely on some combination of inertial navigation and satellite positioning to correct their course toward a target. Deny or corrupt that positioning signal over a contested area, and weapons that are “precision-guided” on paper start missing by margins that make them tactically useless, without a single kinetic shot being fired. That is the operational logic Hall pointed to directly when describing what counter-PNT capability is meant to accomplish against an adversary’s own targeting chain.
“Counter-PNT effects enhances lethality by impacting the backbone for pinpoint targeting via long range artillery, guided missiles, and cruise munitions,” said Lt. Col. Darrin Hall, Chief, Modeling, Simulation and Integration (S7/8), U.S. Space Forces Pacific (DVIDS, Project Convergence Capstone 6 experiments with Hammer of the Gods, July 27, 2026).
This framing puts Hammer of the Gods in a category of weapon that has grown steadily more important as precision munitions have proliferated on both sides of recent conflicts: an effect that degrades an entire class of enemy weapons at once by attacking the signal they all depend on, rather than intercepting them one at a time. Hall also tied the capability back to the joint experimentation format itself, arguing that testing space, cyber and conventional systems together is what actually prepares forces to fight in an environment where an adversary is contesting all three domains simultaneously rather than one at a time.
“Joint experimentation is how we prepare for future fights. By integrating space, cyber and conventional forces into realistic scenarios, we strengthen our ability to operate as one joint team in contested environments,” said Lt. Col. Darrin Hall, Chief, Modeling, Simulation and Integration (S7/8), U.S. Space Forces Pacific (DVIDS, Project Convergence Capstone 6 experiments with Hammer of the Gods, July 27, 2026).
Project Convergence itself has become the Army’s primary proving ground for exactly this kind of cross-domain testing since its creation, deliberately structured as an annual venue where emerging technologies get evaluated in realistic, multi-service scenarios well before they reach a formal acquisition program. That a counter-PNT system reached its first maritime test here, rather than in a classified standalone trial, is itself a signal that the Army wants the capability’s existence and general function publicized even while withholding its technical specifics.
What the Army isn’t saying
Notably absent from every account of the test is any disclosure of Hammer of the Gods’ effective range, its manufacturer, its cost, or a target fielding date. That silence is not unusual for an electronic warfare capability still in the experimentation phase; EW systems in general tend to stay more closely held than kinetic weapons because their effectiveness depends heavily on adversaries not knowing precisely what frequencies, power levels or techniques they use. But it does mean the practical significance of this test, how far Hammer of the Gods can actually reach from a ship, how much power or crew it requires to operate, and whether it is scheduled to reach any operational unit, remains genuinely unknown outside the program itself. Readers should treat this as an early-stage, still-developing capability rather than a system on the verge of fleet-wide deployment: the test demonstrated that shipboard deployment and recovery work in principle, not that the system is ready for operational use.
That gap between “we proved it can be done” and “here is what it can do” is likely to persist for some time. Programs at this stage of maturity typically move through additional rounds of Project Convergence-style experimentation, incorporating lessons from tests like this one, before program offices are willing to release performance figures publicly, if they release them at all. For now, the confirmed fact is narrower than the system’s evocative name suggests: Hammer of the Gods went from a ground-only demonstrator to a ship-deployable one during a single mid-July test off southern California, watched by all three services that would need it to work together in a real contested-PNT environment.
Sources
- Project Convergence Capstone 6 experiments with Hammer of the Gods — Army.mil, Jul 27, 2026
- Project Convergence Capstone 6 experiments with Hammer of the Gods — DVIDS, Jul 27, 2026
- Project Convergence Capstone 6 experiments with Hammer of the Gods — Soldier Systems Daily, Jul 27, 2026
- Project Convergence Capstone 6 Hammer of the Gods — ExecutiveGov
Frequently asked questions
What does 'Hammer of the Gods' do? +
It is a counter-positioning, navigation and timing (counter-PNT) electronic warfare emitter designed to disrupt the GPS-like signals that enemy precision-guided weapons use to hit targets accurately.
What's new about this test? +
It was the system's first-ever test at sea. It had previously been demonstrated only from ground platforms, and this experiment proved it can be deployed, controlled and recovered from a Navy vessel.
Who ran the test and where? +
The US Army, Navy and Space Force ran it jointly during Project Convergence Capstone 6 off the coast of southern California in mid-July 2026.
Do we know the system's range, cost or maker? +
No. The Army has not publicly disclosed the contractor, cost, range or a fielding timeline for Hammer of the Gods.
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