UK military jamming other nations' satellites to defend itself, BBC told

The British military has been employing a ground-based system to jam or block satellites belonging to other nations, with the aim of defending against potential hostile threats, according to the BBC. This system, used by the RAF for the past year, has reportedly been effective in deterring adversaries. The capability may be utilized to prevent hostile nations' satellites from tracking UK nuclear submarines or other sensitive military operations.

As the RAF's leader indicated, the UK is currently facing unprecedented threats from adversaries in space, prompting the establishment of a new RAF unit dedicated to safeguarding British satellites. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting emphasized during a speech at the UK Space Conference that our dependency on satellites for everyday conveniences like mobile phones, banking apps, weather forecasts, energy supplies, and financial transactions makes us vulnerable to attacks, which could cost the UK economy £1.4bn daily.

He warned that the loss of these conveniences would undermine our daily freedoms and trust in institutions, noting that the challenges in space mirror the geopolitics on Earth. Both the US and China have also deployed weapons in space to defend their satellites, leading to condemnation from Russia and China, who view it as an escalation of an arms race in space.

Amid this escalating tension, the RAF has tracked Russian satellites exhibiting dangerous maneuvers near Finnish commercial satellites, and the RAF's Air Chief Marshal acknowledged a Russian satellite constellation causing disruptions to GPS signals across Europe and Canada.