UK Military Jamming Adversary Satellites for Defense, BBC Reports

The British military has been jamming or blocking satellites belonging to other countries to defend itself against hostile threats, the BBC has learned. The Royal Air Force (RAF) has utilized a ground-based system for approximately one year, which a defense source indicated has already been used "to deter our adversaries."

This capability is understood to be capable of preventing adversarial satellites from tracking the movement of the United Kingdom's nuclear-armed submarines or other sensitive military operations, such as those involving special forces.

This development coincides with statements from the head of the RAF, who asserted that the UK faces "unprecedented threats" from adversaries in space. Concurrently, a new RAF unit has been established to defend Britain's satellites. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) stated that the new Space Effects Squadron will focus on "disrupting, degrading and denying hostile threats in space."

Defense Secretary Wes Streeting emphasized the critical role of satellites in daily life, powering technologies like mobile phones and banking applications. He noted that the loss of GPS alone would cost the UK economy an estimated £1.4 billion per day. "Our dependency on space is precisely why it is increasingly under threat from our adversaries," Streeting said, highlighting that satellites are essential for everything from weather forecasts and energy supplies to financial transactions and navigation systems.

Streeten further cautioned that the threat from Britain's adversaries is escalating in "scale, speed and sophistication," and that "the challenges in space increasingly mirror the geopolitics on Earth."

Several nations are believed to possess similar ground-based satellite jamming systems. The former head of the UK's Space Command reported last year that Russia was attempting to jam UK satellites with ground-based systems "every week."

The defense source described the UK's terrestrial electronic warfare capabilities as "world leading, and more."

Last week, the United States confirmed for the first time that it had deployed an unspecified "weapon" in space to defend its own satellites. Both China and Russia condemned this action, warning of a potential arms race in space. However, Washington has previously accused both Russia and China of developing their own space weaponry, including electronic jammers, lasers designed to blind other satellites, and projectiles that can be fired from orbiting satellites.

In May, the RAF tracked a series of "dangerous manoeuvres" by five Russian satellites that moved in close proximity to two Finnish commercial satellites. Air Chief Marshal Sir Harv Smyth stated in June that a Russian satellite constellation had caused disruptions to GPS signals across Europe and Canada.

The UK operates a small number of military satellites for surveillance and communications and collaborates closely with the US Space Force, which manages a larger satellite constellation.

Air Chief Marshal Smyth also warned that without satellites, many technologies people rely on would be lost, rendering every sector "less efficient, less prosperous and less secure." He added that "sat-nav systems would fail, congestion on our roads would be severe and our emergency services would take longer to help those in need," underscoring the necessity of satellites for monitoring weather patterns and the impacts of climate change.