Ekipazh - Space-Based Jammer
Marcin A. Piotrowski reported "It is now under the Zeus cover name". Electronic warfare (EW) is a type of armed warfare, during which the impact of radio emissions (radio interference) on the radio-electronic means of enemy control, communications and reconnaissance systems is carried out. In Ukraine, ground-based electronic warfare systems used by the Russian Armed Forces effectively suppress modern NATO weapons, including HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS). Russian systems have proven particularly effective at jamming Ukrainian GPS and other satellite channels.
The space segment of the electronic warfare forces is also being formed on the basis of a group of spacecraft. According to the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, a constellation of satellites will be used for this purpose.
One system created at the Electronic Warfare Research Institute to counter unauthorized access to subscriber information is being tested. This system detects connections to cellular networks to listen to false messages, the purpose of which is to sow panic and disorient the population. It detects false base stations of the cellular network and blocks the information leakage channel, after which communication with the real base station is restored.
Bart Hendrickx, a long-term observer of the Russian space program, noted in 2019 that "evidence emerged in the past few years for the existence of another KB Arsenal project with the odd name Ekipazh (a French loanword meaning both “crew” and “horse-drawn carriage”).... Ekipazh officially got underway on August 13, 2014, with a contract signed between KB Arsenal and the Ministry of Defense. It has the military index 14F350, an out-of-sequence number in the 14F satellite designation system, pointing to the satellite’s unusual nature.... contractual information that appeared on the procurement website this summer provides conclusive evidence that Ekipazh is a nuclear-powered satellite and leaves little doubt that it uses the Plazma-2010 platform or an outgrowth of it...."" snippets of information strongly indicate that “Product 295” is the code name for a thermionic nuclear reactor that Krasnaya Zvezda is building for Ekipazh.
According to Hendrickx, "One military mission for Plazma-2010 that KB Arsenal is known to have considered is to perform space-based electronic warfare (EW). KB Arsenal’s director general Andrei Romanov hinted at the company’s interest in such a mission in late 2014... KB Arsenal outlined plans for nuclear-powered EW satellites in several editions of an annual publication called “Electronic Warfare in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”, a compilation of articles by military officials and companies involved in Russia’s electronic warfare program....
"The presence of a nuclear reactor would make it possible to install “jammers operating in a wide range of frequencies” and place such payloads into highly elliptical and geostationary orbits for “uninterrupted suppression of electronic systems in large areas.” The spacecraft would be delivered to their operational orbits by an electric propulsion unit and are therefore referred to in the articles as “transport and energy modules.” The EW mission would require a reactor generating at least 30 to 40 kilowatts, allowing the satellites to be launched by the Soyuz-2-1b rocket. For more advanced EW missions, the performance would have to be increased to 100 kilowatts, necessitating a switch to the more powerful Angara-A5 rocket.""
The Arsenal design bureau, part of the Roscosmos system, proposed the Ministry of Defense to create an orbital group of spacecraft with electronic warfare equipment, equipped with a nuclear power plant (NPP). The proposal is set out in the annual collection “Electronic warfare in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” where specialized enterprises formulate their ideas for the Ministry of Defense.
“Arsenal is working on the creation of universal transport and energy modules (TEM) with increased power supply with nuclear power plants,” the collection says. “The use of such TEMs is especially relevant in the interests of solving problems of electronic warfare (EW) in space and from space, which require high power levels of jammers, and, consequently, significant on-board energy. The presence of a nuclear power plant makes it possible to place high-potential, wide-range radio jamming transmitters on board the vehicle, and to use geostationary and highly elliptical orbits for electronic jamming in order to continuously suppress radio electronic equipment over large areas and in a wide frequency range.”
“TEMs are developed taking into account the use of payloads in the interests of solving problems of electronic suppression, which require the presence of a payload in the module, including transformable parabolic antenna systems,” Arsenal’s proposal says. “The presence of such platforms and, as a consequence, an increase in the power supply of the satellite allows us to raise the question of creating a truly operational space segment of electronic warfare based on electronic suppression spacecraft with nuclear power plants.”
Arsenal General Director Alexander Milkovsky told Izvestia that if the military is interested in Arsenal’s proposal, the company will be ready to implement the project. Alexander Milkovsky emphasized that Arsenal Design Bureau has extensive experience in creating devices with nuclear power plants.
In February 1998, a government decree approved the “Concept for the development of space nuclear energy in Russia,” which set priorities for the development of basic unified structures, units, and thermionic reactor-converters for spacecraft. Within the framework of this concept, Arsenal carried out design and research work to create a universal space platform "Plasma-2010" with a multi-mode thermionic power plant with a power of up to 100 kW (this almost corresponds to the power supply of the International Space Station - 110 kW, which is provided by the operation of solar panels with an area of 17 by 70 m).
In 2010, work began in Russia on the creation of megawatt-class nuclear power plants, since then the topic of flights to the Moon and Mars arose again. As of 2018, the first megawatt-class space-based installation of the Rosatom enterprise is promised to be presented by 2018, and an experimental spacecraft with it is planned to be launched into orbit in 2025.
From 1973 to 1988, Arsenal built more than 30 spacecraft with nuclear power plants for the Legend naval space reconnaissance and target designation system. “During the Soviet period, the serial production of satellites with nuclear installations was organized for a specific task: radar installations required a lot of energy, and they were provided thanks to nuclear power plants,” said Ivan Moiseev, scientific director of the Institute of Space Policy. "Electronic warfare equipment against nuclear installations is not prohibited by any laws, but you need to understand that their use is possible only in wartime. Therefore, in this case, we need to make a political decision - whether we need to deploy such means in space. And again, here we need to take into account the experience of using satellites with nuclear power plants, which we already had. Not everything went smoothly there; they sometimes fell to Earth.""
Special equipment for the promising Russian electronic warfare (EW) spacecraft is being created at the Radioelectronic Technologies (KRET) concern, Daniil Brenerman, director of Aviaavtomatika OJSC named after Tarasov (Kursk), told Interfax-AVN on 20 February 2015. “KRET initially and fully participates in the project to create specialized on-board equipment for the promising Russian electronic warfare spacecraft,” said D. Brenerman, who heads the concern’s delegation at the Aero India 2015 air show in Bangalore. He did not specify what the specialized equipment would be. “This is a closed project, so there is no detailed information available for wide publicity,” said D. Brenerman.
Steven Colbert remarked "The screaming all aps headlines say no reason to panic. Unfortunately having no reason is my favorite way to panic. All of this is because there's some alarming news from Ohio representative ... Mike Turner, who is the Republican chairman of the house intelligence committee. He released an unusual statement today warning of a serious national security threat without providing any additional details. Okay that's unnecessarily vague. It's like labeling a pack of cigarettes Surgeon General's warning "trust me you don't want to know". Now we didn't get much more than that other than reports that the threat is related to Russia. Oh my God is it a bioweapon? Is is it cyber warfare? Are they sending Steven Sagal back?
"Well whatever it is Turner wants the White House to release the details of the threat to the public immediately. Now for their part the White House said they were planning a congressional briefing for tomorrow, adding that they couldn't do it today cuz they're a little busy stocking up on canned goods. Now other congressmen on the intelligence committee have stepped forward to call for calm. Connecticut Congressman Jim Heim said "I don't want people thinking that martians are landing or that your Wednesday is going to be ruined". Martians are landing? Oh great, now my Wednesday's ruined!
"So that that was our midafternoon Panic. By late afternoon we got we got some more details from sources with access to highly classified information so anyone who used the bathroom at Mar A Lago reportedly the threat is Russia wanting nuclear weapons in space but before you get too worried the nukes would not be to drop a weapon on Earth from orbit but to possibly use again satellites reminds me of that famous quote from Oppenheimer "now I am become death destroyer of GPS - find your own way to Costco suckers!" Again I cannot say this enough there is no reason to panic. About that the only reason to panic is if you forgot it's Valentine's Day."
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