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The US is about to receive a new system to jam satellites of China and Russia

The United States will receive a weapon designed to jam Chinese and Russian satellites in the early stages of a potential conflict next year, the US Air Force told Bloomberg .

The technology – an electronic warfare system developed by L3Harris and called “ Meadowlands ” – was originally expected in 2022.
Meadowlands can jam transmissions from orbiting satellites using ground-based radio frequency units.

Characteristics

The United States currently operates 16 L3Harris Counter Communications System (CCS) mobile platforms, capable of disrupting an adversary's satellite connection, strategically positioned and operated by the Space Force and the Air National Guard.

An upgraded version of the CCS, Meadowlands, could be deployed and used in battle scenarios, disrupting links to adversary satellites overhead that could be surveilling or targeting U.S. forces on the ground.

Its reversible functionality allows operators to temporarily halt satellite operations and resume them when necessary. In this way, adversaries would be deprived of the ability to communicate rapidly over long distances via satellites and would have to revert to the use of other, less efficient radio systems.

Satellite communications jamming system – how it works

CCS update

The $124 million contract to upgrade CCS at Meadowlands, signed in 2022, “will double capacity and upgrade units already in the field in the U.S. and international locations,” L3Harris said at the time.

The upgrades aim to improve mission effectiveness, reduce size and power requirements, and increase automation.
The U.S. Space Force plans to evaluate between January and March next year when the first five of 32 planned systems can be declared operational, the service told Bloomberg .

Chinese and Russian satellite networks

Amid rising tensions between China and Taiwan and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the United States is focused on protecting its communications systems from potential threats, including GPS signal interference.

Both Russia and China operate extensive satellite networks. China launched its BeiDou global navigation satellite system in 2015, which now includes more than 30 satellites, while the Russian system called GLONASS, launched during the Soviet era, currently includes 24 satellites.

In 2020, the US Department of Defense released a report indicating that China was allegedly developing missiles capable of hitting satellites in both low and high orbits. A very deisive tool in the battle of the orbits.


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The article The US is about to receive a new system to jam the satellites of China and Russia comes from Economic Scenarios .


This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/gli-usa-stanno-per-ricevere-un-nuovo-sistema-per-disturbare-i-satelliti-di-cina-e-russia/ on Wed, 30 Oct 2024 10:00:01 +0000.