SCMP: Chinese Research Team Simulates Large-Scale Electronic Warfare Against Musk's Starlink
The study shows that it is technically feasible to completely suppress Starlink within an area equivalent to the size of Taiwan, but it would require thousands of drones, making the scale massive.
In the Ukraine-Russia war, Russia initially successfully interfered with Starlink, but after SpaceX updated its software and reconfigured the constellation, many Russian jamming devices became ineffective, changing the battlefield situation. This event shocked the global military community, especially China.
For the People's Liberation Army preparing for a possible Taiwan Strait operation, a core issue is: how to achieve electromagnetic superiority under the coverage of tens of thousands of satellites that can frequency hop, adaptively resist interference, and constantly change orbits?
A simulation study published by Chinese researchers in "Systems Engineering and Electronics" provides the most detailed public analysis to date:
To suppress Starlink within an area equivalent to the size of Taiwan, 1000–2000 electronic warfare drones need to be networked.
Why is Starlink difficult to suppress?
Complex orbit, large number of satellites, and rapid movement
User terminals quickly switch between multiple satellites
Use of phased array antennas and real-time frequency hopping
Many core functions are remotely controlled by SpaceX in the United States
Traditional ground-based high-power interference methods are almost ineffective, so the research team proposed the use of distributed interference:
Forming a "chessboard grid" at about 20 kilometers altitude using drones, high-altitude balloons, or aircraft, and synchronously outputting interference.
The research team used real Starlink constellation data to simulate satellite positions, signal strength, ground terminal reception, and the cumulative effect of multi-point interference, and tested wide-beam and narrow-beam antennas.
Main results:
Under optimal conditions (26 dBW power, narrow-beam antenna, 7 km spacing):
Each interference node can average 38.5 square kilometers
To cover the entire Taiwan (about 36,000 square kilometers), at least 935 interference nodes are required
If lower power but cheaper 23 dBW equipment is used, the number of nodes needs to increase to about 2000
The team stated that the study still has limitations, as some technical data of Starlink is not publicly available.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1849632337782784/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.