Starlink in Ukraine: Russians propose balloon-based disruption

Starlink, the satellite internet service provided by Elon Musk's company, is as crucial to Ukrainians as weapons. The communication, which is difficult to disrupt and intercept, is a thorn in the side for the Russians. Consequently, they proposed an unusual method to deactivate Starlink.

Starlink, the satellite internet service provided by Elon Musk's company, is one of the pillars of effective resistance that Ukrainian soldiers have maintained against Russian aggressors for over two years. At the beginning of the conflict, nearly 10,000 terminals arrived in Ukraine, with half of them financed and operated by the Polish company Orlen.

Thanks to Starlink terminals, access to the Internet is possible even in remote areas. According to the Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, Starlink has become a critical communication infrastructure.

From the very beginning of the conflict, the Russians (who also use Starlink) have been making efforts to disrupt this service. It is possible, but the area of interference is small.

Recently, the Russians presented an unusual idea to effectively "turn off" satellite internet over a large area. They aim to use balloons for this purpose, a concept elaborated in a paper published by the Russian Siberian Federal University in Krasnoyarsk.

According to the Russians, the jamming of satellite signals so far has been ineffective and, with the growing Starlink constellation, increasingly difficult. Therefore, their solution is to disrupt the operation of the terminals.

In practice, this is supposed to be achievable using spherical balloons as passive radio reflectors to reflect and evenly distribute the signal transmitted from below by the jammer.

According to the Russians, using a balloon with a diameter of around 10 meters (33 feet) and placing it at a height of about 300 meters (984 feet), a jammer with a power of about 150 W would disable Starlink within a radius of 5 kilometers (3 miles). The entire jamming system is supposed to be light and small enough to fit on a pickup truck.

It is worth noting that the idea, regardless of its effectiveness, is only a proposal at this stage. Moreover, the Russians themselves realize that in a combat environment, a balloon would not last long, which is why they propose using this solution not on the front lines, but to secure the rear of the fighting units.