The U.S. Department of Defense is taking notes on SpaceX putting a halt to Russia’s electromagnetic warfare in Ukraine.
Pentagon officials said the U.S. government can learn a lot from private companies like SpaceX when it comes to responses against electromagnetic warfare, as detailed during the C4ISRNet Conference on Wednesday.
Director of the Air Force’s electromagnetic spectrum program, Brig. Gen. Tad Clark noted that modern wars will likely include increased electromagnetic warfare efforts as time goes on.
During the conference, the Office of the Secretary of Defense Dave Tremper detailed SpaceX swiftly blocked Russian satellite jamming efforts, ultimately keeping Ukraine connected to the internet.
U.S. Air Force Uses Starlink to Support Communications with Fighter Jets https://t.co/SdJRnELlhM
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“The next day [after reports about the Russian jamming effort hit the media], Starlink had slung a line of code and fixed it.” Tremper continued, “And suddenly that [Russian jamming attack] was not effective anymore. From [the] EW technologist’s perspective, that is fantastic … and how they did that was eye-watering to me.”
Tremper is the Director, Electronic Warfare for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, a position he’s held since May 2020.
Ukraine is now using over 10,000 Starlink dishes after Elon Musk and SpaceX donated 5,000 amidst the early weeks of the Russian invasion.
Temper added, “We need to be able to have that agility.” Tremper continued, “We need to be able to change our electromagnetic posture to be able to change, very dynamically, what we’re trying to do without losing capability along the way.”
