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Chinese scientists appear to have found a way to jam Elon Musk‘S starlink satellite constellation spread over an area the size of taiwanA new study shows.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 showed that satellite network Play an important role in helping invaded areas maintain their communication lines.
Just days after the war began, Elon Musk’s Starlink terminal Reestablished Command and Control throughout Ukraine despite Moscow’s efforts to cut Kiev’s communication lines.
Even when Putin’s forces attempted to jam satellite communications networks, Starlink would update its systems to provide ongoing support to Kiev. Last year Musk confirmed that SpaceX was “spending significant resources to combat Russian jamming efforts”.
Beijing appears to be taking notes, with a new study attempting to simulate a similar Starlink satellite communications system disruption spanning an area the size of Taiwan.
In the research, Chinese scientists try to find a way to jam a constellation of more than 10,000 Starlink satellites that hop and adapt in real time.
The study provides insight into how Beijing might attempt to disrupt satellite communications systems in Taiwan if the People’s Liberation Army invades the island.
This suggests that the PLA can achieve this difficult task on a large scale by using about 1,000 to 2,000 specialized signal jamming drones.
Scientists from Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), who continuously contribute ChinaAccording to Defense Research, the satellites, part of the Starlink constellation, constantly change their orbital planes, moving in and out of view all the time.
He says this creates extreme uncertainty for the military trying to interfere with their signals.
The study notes that a terminal on the ground never remains connected to just one satellite, as its connection switches rapidly between multiple satellites moving quickly and creating a constantly changing web.
“Starlink’s orbital plane is not fixed, and the constellation’s motion trajectories are highly complex, with the number of satellites entering the field of view constantly changing,” the researchers wrote in the journal. Systems Engineering and Electronics,
They say, if an adversary force successfully jams even one link, the connection reaches the other within seconds, making it difficult for any interference to be sustained.
“This spatio-temporal uncertainty poses a significant challenge to any third party attempting to monitor or counter the Starlink constellation,” the scientists explained.
Their new simulations suggest that the best way to jam such a communications system is a distributed signal blocking strategy using multiple drones.
Instead of traditional methods using ground-based stations to jam communications satellites, the scientists found that jamming the Starlink constellation would require hundreds or thousands of synchronized jammers deployed in a drone swarm.
In the simulation, the researchers tested each jammer drone in swarm broadcast noise at different power levels.
He estimated that at least 935 synchronized jamming drones would be required to completely suppress Starlink over Taiwan.
However, the researchers stressed that the findings are preliminary as the exact Starlink anti-jamming technology remains confidential.
Independent Starlink has been reached out for a comment.