Chinese researchers studying how to disrupt Starlink satellite Internet in Taiwan during a potential cross-strait conflict found that it would take an extensive 1,000 to 2,000 airborne devices to effectively jam the system.
The study was published on Nov. 5 in the peer-reviewed journal Systems Engineering and Electronics and reported on by the South China Morning Post yesterday.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv quickly requested satellite Internet from founder Elon Musk, and thousands of Starlink terminals arrived within days, restoring command across the battlefield, despite Russia’s attempts to block communications, the paper reported.
Photo: AFP
Updates to SpaceX satellite configurations and software thwarted repeated jamming attempts by Russia, and the battlefield advantage shifted to Ukraine, the report said.
The success of Starlink in Ukraine prompted China to assess how to conduct electronic warfare should a conflict break out in the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan acquire Starlink’s assistance, it said.
In their peer-reviewed study, the team from Zhejiang University and the Beijing Institute of Technology found that disrupting Starlink across an area comparable to Taiwan is achievable only with a massive electronic warfare force.
As Starlink uses thousands of low-orbit satellites, which can shift connections in seconds if one satellite is jammed, traditional ground-based jamming methods would not be sufficient to suppress the system, the study said.
The team found that China would need to deploy at least 935 small, synchronized airborne jammers carried by drones, balloons or aircraft that could form a wide electromagnetic barrier over the combat zone.
This would be able to suppress Starlink over an area of about 36,000km², about the size of Taiwan, the research said.
If lower-powered airborne jammers were used instead, it would require about 2,000 devices, it said.
These figures do not consider backups for failures, terrain interference or future Starlink upgrades, so the actual number of jammers required may be even greater, it added.
The team also said that the results remain preliminary, as many of Starlink’s core technologies remain classified.
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