A group of researchers in China may have found a way to disrupt Starlink communications, creating a massive airborne barrier to jam signals that jump from one satellite to the next.
The new study, published in China’s peer-reviewed journal Systems Engineering and Electronics, simulates a detailed attempt to jam a constellation of 10,000 satellites across an area as large as Taiwan, the South China Morning Post reports.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are difficult to jam, and attempts to block their signals from the ground would be fruitless. Instead, the researchers suggest deploying nearly 1,000 jammers in the air using drones, balloons, or aircraft. A team of researchers from Zhejiang University and the Beijing Institute of Technology devised the newly proposed strategy.
Electronic warfare
In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, SpaceX enabled Starlink service to help maintain connectivity in areas where communications infrastructure had been damaged. The Ukrainian military used Starlink connectivity for communications on the front lines, as well as to connect drones to control centers.
The use of Starlink in Ukraine highlights the crucial role the satellite network can play in warfare. In the event that China invades Taiwan, the researchers behind the new study have come up with a way to bypass Starlink’s constantly shifting patterns.
Unlike traditional geosynchronous constellations that are parked over the equator, the orbital planes of the Starlink satellites are not fixed. The satellites, placed in low Earth orbit, are constantly moving in and out of view, and a single user terminal hops between multiple satellites rather than connecting to just one. That means that even if the Chinese military succeeds in overpowering the signal from the ground, the connection will jump to another satellite within seconds.
In order to successfully monitor or interfere with Starlink’s signal, the new study suggests deploying a swarm of jammers in the air to create a massive barrier using drones. The researchers simulated the jamming attempts, testing whether a Starlink satellite could still maintain a usable signal despite the interfering noise.
The grid of virtual jammers flew at an altitude of 12 miles (20 kilometers) and were spaced out at around 3 to 5 miles (5 to 9 kilometers) apart while emitting noise at various power levels. The researchers also tested out two types of antennas, one with a wide beam that covered more area and another with a narrow, more powerful beam that required extra precision.
The study proposes an ideal way to interfere with Starlink signals, using a narrow-beam antenna with a 26-decibel-watt jamming power that’s spaced 4 miles (7 kilometers) apart. To cover the entire area of Taiwan, which spans 13,900 square miles (36,000 square kilometers), China would need to deploy at least 935 jammers, each suppressing about 14.8 square miles (38.5 square kilometers).
The researchers note that they would need to acquire actual measurements of the radiation pattern data of Starlink user terminals for more accurate results.