Ukrainian Armed Forces find a way to protect Starlink from Russian jammers: how it works (video)
“If the Orlan UAV starts “shitting from above” on the 1.5 GHz GPS frequencies, the mesh will protect Starlink,” the expert believes.
Ukrainian radio technology specialist and Armed Forces officer Serhiy Flesh (pseudonym) wrote on his Facebook page about how the Ukrainian military manages to protect Starlink satellite Internet terminals from Russian electronic warfare.
According to the expert, Ukrainian and Russian specialists are aware of the vulnerabilities of Starlink equipment. The satellites of this operator operate based on the GPS navigation system, which can already be considered a vulnerability, so it is quite logical, writes Serhiy, that the Russians “immediately tried to suppress and spoof” it. “Therefore, there can be no ‘secrets of the court’ here,” the author emphasizes.
In his post, Flesh notes that there are other factors surrounding the “secrets” surrounding the jamming of Starlink with the help of electronic warfare equipment of the Russian Armed Forces.
For example, such a factor as the scale of the problem created for the Armed Forces. The author emphasizes that this should not be discussed at all, as the Russians will be able to draw conclusions and understand how to behave in the future. But left without feedback, “they will not understand whether there is any result at all.”
The second mystery is the solution Ukrainian engineers have come up with to counter Russian electronic warfare. Serhiy says that the solutions are both hardware and software. He does not disclose the details so that the Russian Armed Forces do not take countermeasures.
Having conducted field tests of some solutions, according to Flesh, Ukrainian experts have come to several conclusions.
The Starlink system works with fully suppressed satellites, although registration takes place with some delay, but not critical.
“For 2 hours, the channel has never ‘dropped’. We “blew” 20 watts at it from 20 meters. All GPS units were within a 1 km radius. We made various combinations of turning it on and off. Conclusion: Starlink is not afraid of simple jammers,” says Sergey.
Deep digging is also a countermeasure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“One meter below ground level – and from 500 meters you can’t see any electronic warfare anymore. However, I’ve been told by guys from the East (of Ukraine – ed.) that in urban battles there is often nowhere to bury,” the statement said.
As a solution for urban battles, it is proposed to use a metal mesh, wrapping the terminals with it.
“We bought 3 meshes in a hardware store with a spacing of 2-5 cm. The results are as follows:
- one-layer mesh – 30% EPR suppression
- two-layer mesh – 60% EPR suppression
- three-layer mesh – 100% EPR suppression
We hammered in several reinforcements and tried to ground the mesh, but it did not give much result,” the author said.
Nevertheless, the Russian Armed Forces use GPS jammers and spoofing devices installed on Orlan UAVs. The expert suggested covering the Starlink terminal with a net from above.
“Since the terminal works with the satellite at frequencies above 10 GHz, this grid step does not interfere with it. The signal passes through the mesh without the slightest loss. But if Orlan starts “guessing from above” at 1.5 GHz GPS frequencies, the mesh will protect Starlink,” Flesh writes.
Sergey Flesh believes that Starlink is probably hampered not just by electronic warfare, but by electronic warfare spoofing. But ways to counteract it have been found.
