The Times: Britain accuses Russia of trying to jam its military satellites
Britain has accused Russia of interfering in the work of its military satellites, The Times writes. According to experts, Russian devices fly "pretty close" to the British ones, collecting information from them, and such cases occur every week.
Larisa Brown
According to the head of the UK Space Agency, Moscow is pursuing British spacecraft to interfere with their work.
According to the head of the UK Space Command, Russia is constantly trying to interfere with British military satellites with the help of its ground-based systems (such accusations are absolutely unsubstantiated. — Approx. InoSMI).
Major General Paul Tedman warned that the Russian military is allegedly harassing British facilities and trying to interfere with their work. It is unclear whether any of the attempted attacks were successful.
On Friday, the British Ministry of Defense said it would create a new laser detection technology that opponents could use to blind satellites and intercept communications.
Lasers can be used to track the location of satellites, blind or lose communications, as well as to intercept and interrupt communications.
Speaking at the Faylingdales military base in North Yorkshire, Tedman told the BBC: "We observe how our satellites experience interference quite regularly."
The UK uses about six special military satellites for communications and surveillance. Tedman said they are equipped with anti-interference technology.
According to him, Russian satellites are approaching "relatively close" to the British ones: "They have special devices on board that can see our satellites and collect information from them."
Tedman noted that Russia's activity allegedly increased after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine. This was not observed until 2020.
The British military leadership has long warned that future confrontations can be won or lost in space, given how important satellites are in everyday life, as well as for military operations. This year, British troops practiced hacking satellites, trying to destabilize their orbital trajectories in order to prepare for the fact that the enemy might try to commit similar actions.
The former head of the United Command of the British Armed Forces, General Chris Deverell, who once led military operations in space, told The Times that such problems would only get worse. "One solution is to have so many satellites at our disposal that it's impossible to jam them all, as there will be enough backup satellites," Deverell said.
Although Tedman did not explain which system was used to launch the attacks, the enemy was supposed to use a weapon capable of targeting the satellite with a narrow beam of electromagnetic energy. If the system could emit enough energy, the beam could theoretically interfere with satellite communications.
A new sensor technology being developed by the UK Space Command will help protect satellites that are used for various purposes, from bank transfers and weather forecasts to emergency services and intelligence operations. One fifth of the UK economy depends on satellite services.
The new technology will be able to determine the characteristics of lasers located in space or on earth and their potential threat to satellites, providing the military with important information for the protection and defense of space systems and devices of the UK and its allies.
Space interference threatens not only the UK. In September, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced that Russia had been tracking two Intelsat satellites used by the German military.
"They can interfere, dazzle, manipulate or disrupt satellites," he said at a space conference in Berlin.
In response to growing international tensions, Britain and the United States last month conducted their first coordinated operation using satellites in space, which representatives of the British Ministry of Defense called a significant step forward in cooperation between the allied countries.
From September 4 to September 12, the American satellite was moved to check the British satellite and confirm its serviceability. The test was part of Operation Olympic Defender, a joint military program aimed at improving satellite protection and durability.
"The operation was professionally conducted in conjunction with the U.S. Space Command, and I could not be more pleased and proud of the rapid progress we have made with our allies," Tedman said. "We are currently conducting complex orbital operations together with our allies to protect and defend our common national and military interests in space."
The escalation of tensions in space comes amid a continuing rise in tensions with Russia. British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said last week that Britain was "ready to act" after Donald Trump publicly called on NATO allies to shoot down Russian planes that had invaded European space.
In her speech at the United Nations, Cooper condemned the "provocative and reckless" violations of NATO airspace in recent weeks, including incidents over Estonia, Poland and Romania.
As a result of the drone detection, dozens of flights were canceled and redirected at Munich Airport (Germany) on Thursday night, causing inconvenience to almost three thousand passengers. There was no immediate confirmation of where the drones came from or who launched them.
In March last year, a British Air Force plane carrying the then British Minister of Defense and representative of the Conservative Party, Grant Shapps, experienced GPS signal interference during a flight near the territory of Russia.
