Russia is trying to cut off Ukraine’s access to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, according to space warfare analysts.Since the start of the war, Russia has been using jamming systems to try and deny Ukrainian forces access to commercial satellites.It has attached jammers to its tanks to interfere with satellite signals and disrupt exploding drones, jammed Ukraine’s GPS-guided bombs, and jammed Ukrainian drones, forcing Ukrainian operators to move closer to their targets on the front lines.Access to satellites has played a critical role in Ukraine’s defense against Russia, notably access to Musk’s satellite network.Satellite internet has kept Ukrainians online and their businesses running during the war. It’s also made it easier for soldiers to communicate on the front lines and for weapons systems and drones to keep functioning.At the same time, Russia’s jamming has become increasingly better at disrupting Ukraine’s most advanced weapons, hindering Ukraine’s fighting capacity.However, Russia’s efforts to cut off Ukraine’s access to Starlink satellites have failed thus far, space warfare analysts said.Jam-proof signals”Russia absolutely would like to find a way to negate Ukraine’s use of Starlink,” said Brian Weeden, Chief Program Officer for the non-profit Secure World Foundation.”But that is much easier said than done because of the architecture of the constellation,” Weeden told Business Insider.Starlink’s signals are stronger and more concentrated because its satellites operate at a significantly lower altitude (around 340 miles) than conventional geostationary communications satellites (about 22,000 miles), per Starlink’s website.Because Starlink satellites are closer to Earth, latency — the delay between a user’s action and a response on the network — is shorter. This speeds up streaming, online gaming, video conferencing, and other activities on the Internet.
SpaceX Starlink 5 satellite seen passing in the night sky above Svendborg on South Funen, Denmark, on April 21, 2020.
MADS CLAUS RASMUSSEN/Getty Images
In the context of electronic warfare, this makes Starlink’s signals much more difficult to jam, Weeden said. As a result, Russian hackers have never been able to hack Starlink so far, he added.While there is “very little” open data to examine Russia’s electronic warfare attacks on Starlink, he said it seems Russian efforts have not yielded much success thus far.Kari Bingen, director of the Aerospace Security Project and a senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), made a similar point.”They keep trying, but they don’t seem very successful,” Bingen told BI.She said Starlink satellites are both “resilient” and “agile,” with Starlink operators constantly updating their software to overcome Russian attacks.Russia has struck satellites several times since its invasion of UkraineAccording to the Counterspace Timeline by the CSIS’s Aerospace Security Project, Russia has tried to approach, target, or infiltrate US and foreign satellite networks several times since its invasion of Ukraine.On the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russian hackers launched a cyberweapon against Viasat, an American satellite communications provider that has been offering military communications services to Ukraine.The attack hit a large number of satellite communication stations and affected hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine and Europe.
According to an assessment of the cyberattack by the US, Russia launched cyber strikes against commercial satellite communications networks to disrupt Ukrainian command and control throughout the invasion of Ukraine.In March 2022, Finnair, Finland’s largest airline, reported several instances of GPS jamming when its commercial airliners neared Kaliningrad, Russia, per Reuters.At the time, Finland’s President, Sauli Niinisto, was meeting with US President Joe Biden to discuss strengthening defense ties between Finland and NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.SpaceX, the firm that owns Starlink, also came under attack in April 2022.Its engineers fought off Russian jamming attacks by updating the system’s software, an unnamed Pentagon official told BI at the time.In a post on X a month after the attack, Elon Musk said Starlink has “resisted Russian cyberwar jamming and hacking attempts so far.”However, he also said Russian hackers were “ramping up their efforts.”So far, no other Russian jamming or hacking attacks against Starlink have been reported or made public.SpaceX declined to give BI updates on Russia’s jamming or hacking attempts on its Starlink satellites.Russia’s growing arsenal of electronic warfare systemsRussia has been developing an arsenal of electronic warfare systems aimed at jamming communication satellites, according to Space Watch Global.These are R-330Zh Zhitel, a mobile truck-mounted jamming communication station, and Bylina-MM, a system designed to suppress communications satellites, the magazine reported.They have antennas mounted on trucks or vehicles that transmit a high-power signal to try and saturate all the receivers that are tuned into Starlink frequencies.Another one is the Krasukha-4 mobile EW system, which can counter airborne early warning and control systems (AWACS) and other airborne radars within an effective range of about 186 miles, per the magazine.According to a leaked US classified intelligence document obtained by The Washington Post in 2023, Russia has also been testing its Tobol electronic warfare systems for several months, hoping to obstruct Starlink’s signals.Russia also has a wide range of counter-space weapons, like direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) missiles and powerful lasers that can physically destroy satellites in orbit.Ukraine is striking backUkraine has been targeting them.In July, Ukraine’s special forces appeared to destroy a Tirada and a “Leer-2” electronic system with drones in a video shared by the command of the forces.Last November, Ukraine’s military reported destroying multiple Russian systems, including a “Pole-21” electronic warfare system and a Svet-KU.As recently as January, the same special forces said they helped destroy a Russian Tirada-2, a portable radio-electronic suppression system designed to interfere with communication satellites, which was blocking satellite communications in eastern Ukraine.
A Ukrainian missile unit hitting Russia’s electronic warfare system Tirada-2 in Ukraine’s Donetsk region in a video shared by Ukraine’s Special Forces on Telegram on January 8, 2024.
Telegram/@Сили Спеціальних Операцій ЗС України
Bingen said it is not “surprising” that Ukrainian forces would want to take these jammers off the battlefield because they are degrading drones and precision munitions.”This genre, this area of electronic warfare, is only going to increase,” Bingen said.
