Starlink - May 2022 - Jamming
The Ukrainian military faced problems with the much-lauded Starlink communication system. Reports suggested that Starlink had stopped operating in some parts of the Ukraine conflict zone. According to the Western press, SpaceX owner Elon Musk had repeatedly restricted his Starlink Internet access in some cases for the Ukrainian military, eventually under-mining Kiev's battlefield strategy.
However, there was yet another possible explanation for the difficulties haunting Ukrainian military servicemen. "Based on the analysis of the [intercepted] chatter by Ukrainian militants on the line of contact, they had difficulties using the Internet via Starlink satellites [in the Lugansk tactical direction – Sputnik]," retired Lieutenant Colonel of the Lugansk People's Republic Armed Forces Andrey Marochko told Sputnik on 31 July 2023. "Many attribute this to Russia using electronic warfare equipment to jam communications provided by SpaceX."
Starlink is operated by American aerospace company SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk. While most satellite Internet services are provided by single satellites that orbit the planet at an altitude of 35,790 km (22,240 mi), Starlink is a constellation of thousands of spacecraft which orbit the planet much closer to its surface – at about 550 km (340 mi) – and cover the entire globe.
On 11 May 2022, Elon Musk claimed on Twitter that "Starlink has resisted Russian cyberwar jamming and hacking attempts so far, but they're ramping up their efforts." On April 18, 2023, The Washington Post reported that it had obtained a classified intelligence document – part of the so-called Pentagon leaks – saying that Moscow had experimented for months with its "Tobol electronic warfare systems" in order to disrupt Starlink's transmissions in Ukraine. The document in question, dated March, and provided no further details about the alleged tests.
In April 2023 a source familiar with the situation told Sputnik that Russia had developed a new electronic warfare (EW) system capable of disrupting spacecraft communications in geostationary orbit. The source specified that "this [geostationary orbit] is approximately 36,000 kilometers (about 22,300 miles) above sea level." They did not provide any details about the new Russian EW system, only saying that "the power of its emitters at short range allows not only to suppress, but also to permanently disable enemy electronics."
The Russian Army is equipped with a variety of sophisticated EW systems, besides "Tobol." Among them are "Krasukha," "Moskva," "Infauna," "Leer," and "Triad." Some of them are used in Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.
Satellite communications used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine came under attack from a large land-based electronic warfare complex 14Ts227 «Tobol» complex. According to available information, development work with the Tobol cipher started at the beginning of the last decade. The lead contractor was the Russian Space Systems company (Moscow). Also, some other participants in the work are mentioned in foreign materials. The development of "Tobol" was carried out by organizations of the rocket-space and radio-electronic industries. The preparation of the project took several years.
Seven stationary Tobol complexes have been built in different parts of Russia. The objects closest to Ukraine are located in the Moscow region, the Krasnodar Territory and the Kaliningrad Region. It is assumed that they were involved in the Special Operation. Reportedly, the experiment began in September 2022. The main task was to suppress satellite communications in the area of ??the city of Artemovsk (Ukrainian Bakhmut). According to the plan, 25 days were allocated for the experiments. However, in fact, the events continue for several months. What results the Tobol complex showed, how the experiment is going and why it was extended, American intelligence does not know.
"One must bear in mind that any satellite communications can only be jammed in a small local area," Dmitry Kornev, military analyst, founder of the “Military” Russia portal, told Sputnik. "A sufficiently powerful complex can cover an area of maybe hundreds of square kilometers."
At the same time, one cannot completely nix communications in the chosen area; EW systems could be only used to interfere with an adversary's communications, explained the military expert. There are several types of Russia's EW complexes capable of accomplishing these tasks, but there has been no official information in this regard so far, Kornev noted.
"No one will tell you specifically [about the jamming of Starlink – Sputnik], because this electronic warfare equipment is top secret," Pavel Kalmykov, analyst for military and political analysis bureau, lieutenant colonel in reserve, told Sputnik. "In general, everything related to them is secret. Nobody knows the exact characteristics of these systems."
Still, Kalmykov hinted that judging from some information he had earlier obtained, the assumption that Starlink has been suppressed in Donbass could be real.
For his part, Viktor Litovkin, a military analyst and retired Russian Army colonel, assumed that Russia could "turn off" just some part of Starlink's satellite network system. "I don't think we have such powerful electronic warfare systems that can disable all 4,000 Elon Musk satellites," Litovkin told Sputnik. "Do we really need to do this? So it all depends on the specific situation and the decision is made by the [Russian] command."
In the United States in April 2023, they already expressed concern that Russia had created a means to suppress the satellite communications system provided to Ukraine by SpaceX. The Pentagon's secret data was posted on the Web that this is the Tobol electronic warfare system. Head of the Department of Political Science and Sociology of the PRUE Plekhanov, Andrey Koshkin, expert of the Association of Military Political Scientists, told IA Regnum that Tobol is most likely not the only development of Russian scientists capable of jamming Starlink signals. He noted that Russia has traditionally been at the forefront in this area.
The Russian army learned how to effectively jam the communications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine through the Starlink satellite system. This was announced on 30 July 2023 by an officer of the shock drone company of the Ukrainian army with the call sign Magyar. According to him, in Russia they are testing means to suppress Starlink communications and are preparing for industrial production. He urged Ukrainian experts to look for ways to counter.
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