UK military jamming other nation's satellites to defend itself, BBC told
The head of the RAF says the UK faces "unprecedented threats" from adversaries in space, as a new unit is created to defend Britain's satellites.
The British military has been actively jamming or blocking satellites from other nations in order to safeguard its own territories from potential hostile threats, according to the BBC. The Royal Air Force (RAF) has been utilizing a ground-based system for the past year, which a defense source revealed had already been put to use to deter adversaries.
This system is believed to be capable of preventing a hostile nation's satellites from tracking the movement of the UK's nuclear-armed submarines or other sensitive military operations, such as those involving special forces. The threat of space-based adversaries is growing in scale, speed, and sophistication, according to Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, who spoke at the UK Space Conference.
He emphasized that our dependency on space for everyday technologies like mobile phones, banking apps, and even Amazon deliveries makes us increasingly vulnerable to threats. The UK has a limited number of military satellites in orbit for surveillance and military communications, but it closely collaborates with the US Space Force, which operates a larger fleet.
Recently, the RAF tracked a series of dangerous maneuvers by five Russian satellites moving close to two Finnish commercial satellites, as well as a Russian satellite constellation causing disruptions to GPS signals across Europe and Canada.
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