SpaceX Beating Russian Jamming Attack

The U.S. Military’s Electronic Warfare enterprise, needs to take a page from SpaceX when it comes to responding to New Threats, the Pentagon’s Director for Electromagnetic Warfare (EW) said today.

After SpaceX sent Starlink Terminals to Ukraine in February, in an apparent effort to help Ukraine maintain its Internet Connection amid War with Russia, SpaceX founder Elon Musk claimed.

Russia had jammed Starlink Terminals in the Country for hours at a time. After a Software update, Starlink was operating normally, said Musk, who added on March 25th that the Constellation had “resisted all hacking & jamming attempts” in Ukraine.

Assuming Musk is providing an accurate picture, a Private firm beating back Russian EW attempts with Software updates is the kind of thing that makes Pentagon EW Experts pay attention.

“From an EW technologist perspective, that is fantastic. That paradigm and how they did that is kind of eyewatering to me,” said Dave Tremper, Director of EW for the Pentagon’s Acquisition Office.

“The way that Starlink was able to upgrade when a threat showed up, we need to be able to have that ability. We have to be able to change our electromagnetic posture, to be able to change very dynamically what we’re trying to do without losing capability along the way.”

Since Russia’s takeover of the Ukrainian Territory of Crimea in 2014, the Russian Military has used EW warfare extensively in Ukraine’s Donbas region, often to great effect, using Electromagnetic Signals to uncover the positions of Ukrainian Forces and disrupt equipment such as Drones. However, the current Conflict may be exposing the Limits of Russia’s EW capability.

Tremper noted that Russia’ ongoing Invasion deep into Ukraine is “a very different scenario” to earlier Operations that were mostly contained on the Border between Russia and contested Regions of Ukraine.

“[When] you’re trying to get to the center of that country, I think EW coordination and synchronization become very challenging. To get into those urban scenarios becomes even more complicated,” he said. “And I think, what we’re seeing in the Ukraine is a resistance, where the dependence on [the electromagnetic spectrum] isn’t there.”










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