When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works .
(Image credit: SpaceX, Starlink) A Chinese study has outlined how the nation could jam Starlink access across the entirety of the island of Taiwan. It would require around 1,000 to 2,000 specially adapted electronic warfare drones for this hostile act to pay off, reports the South China Morning Post (SCMP). The research, taken in tandem with recent news about China’s advanced internet cable-cutting capabilities , ratchets geopolitical and world semiconductor ecosystem tensions even higher.
Zhejiang University & Beijing Institute of Technology ran simulations to determine how the CCP-controlled People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could deny their democratic foe’s access to Starlink. Musk’s constellation of 10,000-plus satellites has been a source of consternation among CCP strategists ever since Ukraine effectively made use of it to resist the Russian invaders. Access to tech like Starlink is just one of the speed bumps that have made Putin’s 3-day "Special Operation" extend towards a grueling near-four-year campaign.
According to the Chinese scientists, the complex, ever-changing satellite mesh networking coverage provided by Starlink could only be countered by a broad distributed jamming strategy. “Hundreds or thousands of small, synchronized jammers would need to be deployed across the sky – on drones, balloons or aircraft – forming an electromagnetic shield over the battlefield,” reports the SCMP.
Taiwan increases defensive patrols around 24 undersea cables
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/networking/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/networking/china-simulated-a-starlink-blockade-over-taiwan-ccp-scientists-say-around-1-000-drones-would-be-enough-to-cut-satellite-internet-to-the-island#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 vs Intel Arc B580 Face Off: $249 graphics cards duke it out for budget gaming supremacy
- Delivering AI-Ready Enterprise Data With GPU-Accelerated AI Storage
- Get a leg up on the competition with Razer's Huntsman V3 Pro TKL keyboard, now on sale for just $148 — score a 33% discount on one of the best analog gaming key
- The Largest Digital Zoo: Biology Model Trained on NVIDIA GPUs Identifies Over a Million Species
- Steam Deck and Lenovo Legion Go S see sales for Black Friday — SteamOS handhelds get holiday price cuts
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.