Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-25/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Mark Tyson Social Links Navigation News Editor Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
alan.campbell99 Hmm, what are the odds a few starlink sats get in the way of any beams, whoops? Reply
USAFRet alan.campbell99 said: Hmm, what are the odds a few starlink sats get in the way of any beams, whoops? Why would you think that might happen? The DoD and Space Force is a direct customer of the StarLink tech. https://www.spacex.com/starshieldhttps://spacenews.com/spacex-wins-2-29-billion-space-force-contract-for-military-data-network/ Reply
Michael Pun Starlink on balloon technology wouldn't get it. They would just fly on a conventional high altitude jet to use it. They have been using these energy beams called DEWs for a long time. Us peons just didn't know about it. Reply
usertests alan.campbell99 said: Hmm, what are the odds a few starlink sats get in the way of any beams, whoops? Gotta read the article. This is not a maser or something that will light drones on fire or fry satellites to a crisp. It's an advanced jammer with spoofing and other capabilities. To be clear, Meadowlands isn’t a laser, microwave, particle, or plasma weapon. Instead, its highly targeted electromagnetic warfare abilities rely on a muscular array of directional antennas and high‑power RF amplifiers. In addition to silence zones, typical EW tasks Meadowlands will be used for include interference with enemy satellite functions, and jamming uplink and/or downlink signals. More cunningly it can change or corrupt data packets, initiate feedback loops, and spoof enemy assets. It could be so precisely targeted that there would be effectively no chance of affecting Starlink on accident. Maybe Starlink satellites can operate for a bit (as in maintaining their orbit) while being jammed, and since they are in VLEO orbits, they are getting out of the way in a hurry, unlike geostationary satellites for example. Reply
call101010 why not just shoot them down ? why allow them to get closer anyways? Reply
USAFRet call101010 said: why not just shoot them down ? why allow them to get closer anyways? More cunningly it can change or corrupt data packets, initiate feedback loops, and spoof enemy assets. Reply
qxp usertests said: It could be so precisely targeted that there would be effectively no chance of affecting Starlink on accident. Maybe Starlink satellites can operate for a bit (as in maintaining their orbit) while being jammed, and since they are in VLEO orbits, they are getting out of the way in a hurry, unlike geostationary satellites for example. We can estimate how precisely they can target it. The usual formula for the angle of the beam is lambda/D where lambda is the radiation wavelength (30mm at 10 GHz for example) and D is the diameter of the dish. Looking at the picture the dish is say around 10m in diameter, so one can estimate lambda/D=0.003. This means that after traveling up 100km the beam would be about 300m. If the frequency is lower, say 1 GHz, this grows to 3km, but still small compared to all the space even 100km up around Earth. Reply
cptjcup alan.campbell99 said: Hmm, what are the odds a few starlink sats get in the way of any beams, whoops? The Meadowlands system uses directed radio frequency technology. That is to say it uses highly targeted directional antennas and high-power RF amplifiers to essentially temporarily overwhelm the adversial system (leaving no permanent damage, BTW). The average distance between satellites in LEO is several hundred miles. I think it's safe to say it's quite impossible to accidentally hit something hundreds of miles away with a very tight, directed signal. Reply
cptjcup call101010 said: why not just shoot them down ? why allow them to get closer anyways? Because shooting satellites down with kinetic force leaves their debris trapped in orbit, greatly increasing the risk to your own satellites. This is why militaries are exploring soft kill methods. Blowing the constellations up is quite literally the very definition of a "last resort". Reply
Key considerations
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/space/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/space/space-force-gets-first-mobile-high-powered-electromagnetic-beam-weapon-to-cripple-enemy-satellites-plans-to-deploy-32-meadowlands-units-to-detect-deny-disrupt-and-degrade-hostile-space-assets#main
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