Ukraine has destroyed a £12 million Russian electronic jamming system used to disrupt Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite signals.
Starlink is vital to Ukrainian forces, who rely on it for internet and connection to the outside world.
Russia’s Zhitel jammer has been used to disrupt Starlink – but with only limited success. Now, a £12 million truck-mounted jammer has been completely destroyed in a pinpoint strike from Ukraine.
Video footage shows a flash as the weapon directly hit the R-330Zh Zhitzel system in an unknown area.
The successful operation was conducted by Ukraine’s Black Forest 15th Separate Artillery Reconnaissance Brigade.
Starlink gives a satellite-based Internet connection with a clear sky view—which is essential to Ukraine’s command posts, drone operators, and fire direction teams.
The Zhitel mobile jammer has also been used to disrupt Ukraine’s drones by transmitting high-powered signals to confuse receivers tuned into Starlink.
In December, the jammer is believed to have confused Ukrainian drones aimed at the Russian city of Kazan.
Instead of hitting their programmed military target, the jamming directed the drones at a high residential tower in the city, causing significant damage.
The 37-floor Azure Skies elite residential tower was seen ablaze after an unmanned plane struck the 399ft building and exploded.
Another tower block – the 23-floor Manhattan residential building in central Kazan – was also hit.
How do Starlink satellites work?
Each Starlink satellite is equipped with four powerful phased array antennas that are capable of an enormous amount of throughput when it comes to radio waves.
Therefore, an internet signal can be communicated up to a satellite and spread out through the network before being fired back down again to any location on Earth.
More Trending
Delivering internet via satellite is much more efficient because the signal travels 47% faster as a wave through the vacuum of space than it does being channelled along a fibre optic cable buried in the ground.
From an infrastructure perspective, it also means there’s no need to lay vast amounts of cabling across parts of the world.
Current satellites sending internet signals are around 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above the Earth.
This results in a time delay in sending and receiving data. Starlink satellites are smaller and orbit closer, meaning they can carry and triangulate data much faster.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: Ukraine and Russia agree to Black Sea ceasefire deal after Saudi talks
MORE: Mystery of glowing spiral dubbed ‘alien space portal’ spotted above UK revealed
MORE: Elon Musk wears new MAGA hat exalting Trump at Cabinet meeting
