Russia's Starlink Jammers Are Getting Blown Up By The Same Drones They're Supposed To Jam

The Volna Kupol Garant jammers are easy to locate

A Volna Kupol Garant system burns. 422nd Unmanned Systems Regiment capture

This story was commissioned by Euromaidan Press. Since Substack pays only around a fifth of my bills, I have no choice but to take on a lot of freelance work. I still want my Substack audience to know where to read those freelance stories, however. Hence this excerpt.

Without warning back in February, trillionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink firm bricked thousands of stolen and smuggled satellite terminals used by Russian forces in Ukraine. But Ukraine’s own Starlink terminals kept working just fine.

The move abruptly handed Ukraine a major communications advantage. Ukrainian drones can navigate and communicate; Russian drones are struggling. It’s no coincidence that, in the months following the Russian Starlink shutdown, Ukraine was able to massively scale up its medium-range drone strikes on Russian supply lines in occupied territories. Hamstrung in the electromagnetic spectrum, Russia hasn’t been able to match these counterlogistics strikes.

The catch is that the link Russia is paying to sever is one Ukraine’s most advanced drones no longer need. A growing share of Ukrainian strike drones carry onboard A.I. that locks onto targets without a live connection to a pilot—so a $1.5 million jammer built to break that connection has nothing left to break.

Nevertheless, the Russians are trying to even the aerial balance of power by jamming Ukraine’s Starlink terminals. There are just two problems. The jammers aren’t foolproof defenses. And they’re also big, expensive targets for the same drones they’re trying to defeat.

Read the rest at Euromaidan Press.