back to article Russia tests sat jamming

Russia is reportedly testing weaponry to jam US communications satellites. Russian broadsheet Izvestia reports the Ministry of Defense has developed the technology to jam low-orbit satellites operated by the likes of GlobalStar, OneWeb, and Iridium. The Ministry did not confirm the report. Jammers would be placed in the …

  1. Nolveys

    A Question

    How do the trucks get the jam into space?

    1. Martin Summers Silver badge

      Re: A Question

      Oh come on. With a giant spoon.

  2. Your alien overlord - fear me

    How would they jam the rest of the space i.e. over the equator ?

    1. Mage Silver badge

      the rest of the space i.e. over the equator?

      Same gear on a sub or ship or aircraft.

    2. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      Not so necessary as a lot of satellites only dump to polar sites (and receive telecommand updates as well). Given how much harder it is to support the Antarctic compared to, say Fairbanks in Alaska, you could cause serious pain-in-the-ass for all operators by interfering with even just S-band TTC there.

      There are other options like TDRS to avoid dependency on dumping to a polar site (and the delays in getting data that way) but a lot of folk depend on that region.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Jamming by definition causes radio noise

    Making it easy for cruise missiles to home in on the source. I don't think this is something we should worry about too much, because it makes little sense to actually deploy. Unless they can actually damage the satellites by sending really high powered signals to them, I suppose...

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: Jamming by definition causes radio noise

      Yes and no. In theory, you can hit it.

      In practice US anti-radar missiles have the tendency to fail to hit the source if the approach terrain has hills even if they have not lost the GPS track.

      Example: https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/apr/30/richardnortontaylor.kateconnolly

      This was not "rogue". It was actually fired at the Sofia Airport Gematronic 5GHz met radar (same one as used by quite a few Nato countries). The trigger happy monkey at the controls of the USA Elint aircraft at the time pressed the button immediately after the met radar lit it up as a part of its normal day-to-day operations (they programmed an exclusion zone in the scanning after that until the end of the bombings).

      The missile failed to hit a civilian airport in the middle of daily operations only because it was dumb enough to fail to avoid an apartment block on the way. Thanks god for small miracles as the radar is right in the middle of the air ambulance and if memory serves me right, the nearby repair workshops and the crop dusters were also still active at the time (they were relocated ~ 2000-something). It was also thankfully on the other side of the field and unattended (the operators are on the other side of the airfield). Imagine if it hit the terminal...

      So as you see, a correctly deployed jammer will probably suffer no consequences while the HARMs are blowing up on the nearby hills.

    2. Adam 52 Silver badge

      Re: Jamming by definition causes radio noise

      To copy Yes Prime Minister, when are you going to attack the jammer and start a shooting war? As they jam a couple of fishing boats? As they jam Al Jazeera? As they block cell phones in Syria? As they block comms to your not-really-there surveillance drone?

      No? So when are you going to attack short of an all-time,out world war?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Jamming by definition causes radio noise

        They're talking about jamming communications satellites, not a couple of fishing boats. Obviously the response has to be proportionate, but jamming can be considering an "attack" depending on what is being attacked. If it took out the satellites that connect emergency responders across the nation, that would be considered fairly significant, and worthy of a counterstrike. If it takes out CSPAN, well, maybe we send them a thank you note instead :)

        Now maybe cruise missiles won't work well as pointed out, but there are other options, like drones carrying smart bombs that can attack from above and terrain features like hills or apartment blocks aren't a concern. Of course they could have SAMs to defend it, but those will run out if you send enough drones.

        Or heck, forget the smart bomb and use the drone itself in a kinetic attack on the dish that's sending out the jamming signal... I've always thought they should develop a line of drones cheap enough that kinetic attacks are viable.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So the USA

    *thinks* that the Ruskies hacked em and *thinks* that the ruskies were complicit in downing that flight.

    The ruskies logical response would be "prove it!" and until such time as the USofA does so, it hasn't got a let to stand on.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There is a lot of FUD

    HAARM missiles are relatively short range (150KM) - the ant-artic is feckin huge. as pointed out they are not terrain following either (must be launched from a high alt to get that range). You are used to air superiority - this isnt a guranteed thing with, outside the ME. Knocking off enemy comms probably defends the jammer too.

    As to MH downing mentioned.... Well as Ukraine is on the panel and the evidence is mostly 2 social media posters - what can you expect? Given also that Ukraine also has BUK, and active fighters in the area and Russia claims to have accounted for all theirs, how will we ever know the truth?

  6. whoseyourdaddy

    Globalstar is a bent pipe.

    I think they'll need to set up in Texamexico to pull that off.

  7. Suricou Raven

    Counter-researching time.

    Time to launch some really directional antennas.

    1. KG6EAR

      Re: Counter-researching time.

      It is relatively new tech, but two-way electronically steerable flat antenna arrays for satellite coms already exist commercially. Forget what it's called but I saw a demo online of an octagon shaped flat antenna about 1 meter wide that can be chained up to.60 deep for more bandwidth. If this technology were deployed universally jamming would be an awkward art at that point because jamming would now require nearly overlapping the authentic original transceiver or being close enough to interfere directly with the electronics of the ground station with a signal powerful enough to prevent proper operation of the electronics of the satellite uplink itself.

    2. KG6EAR

      Re: Counter-researching time.

      There are already electronically steerable satellite communications antennas developed for commercial use. And they are flat octagons believe it or not about 1 meter square. Steered communications would be much harder to jam being they would require the jammers signal to virtually overlap the legitimate source would would be somewhat awkward!

  8. Trigonoceps occipitalis

    placed in the Arctic

    Only in the winter then, 'cause Global Warming.

    (Note to Joint Chiefs: Attack in Summer Only!)

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