- A team of researchers in China discovered that Starlink’s emissions can be used to detect the position of a fighter jet.
- Traditional radar pulses can give away the location of the source as well. However, if third-party emissions from Starlink are used, the Chinese military can effectively detect its enemies without compromising its own troops.
- Although there are several obstacles between this discovery and actually using the technique on the field, it looks like China already has a plan in place.
Chinese researchers recently revealed that they can use Space X’s Starlink satellite network to detect stealth fighter jets.
The conclusion comes from a recent experiment conducted by Professor Yi Jianxin from Wuhan University’s School of Electronic Information and his team. The experiment was supervised by the Chinese government’s State Radio Monitoring Centre.
For the experiment, the group launched a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone off the coast of Guangdong. The drone was small (almost the size of a bird) and had a radar cross-section just like a modern F-22 fighter.
When the drone started moving through electromagnetic waves emitted by Starlink satellites, it caused a disturbance in the pattern, which in turn gave away the drone’s location.
Traditionally, identifying a stealth fighter would require hitting it with radar pulses from the ground. However, in case there’s war, doing so will give away the location of the ground crew as well, resulting in a counterattack.
Thanks to Starlink’s satellites, though, they can now locate fighter jets simply by noting how they reflect off the emissions of Starlink satellites.
What Does This Mean for China’s Military Future?
If the findings of this experiment are really accurate and China can use the phenomenon in real-life situations, then theoretically, it will gain a huge advantage militarily.
Now, it’s worth noting that this isn’t really a new technology. Passive radar systems have existed since the Second World War.
The only things that are new are:
- The presence of Starlink, which, according to China, will help them cover a much larger area.
- Modern chips, which will make the interpretation of those signals easy.
“Low-orbit satellite signals have the advantages of [being] all-weather, cross-regional, and low-cost, which can be perfectly combined with covert forward scatter radars,” the team said.
Researchers also added that they can build a Starlink antenna (since SpaceX doesn’t serve Chinese users and Starlink’s signals are encrypted) to use this on a directional basis to follow the stealth jets with the help of custom-designed signal processing software and “an undisclosed high-performance chip.”
Now the reason we say the advantage is “theoretical” at the moment is because there are a lot of things to consider.
- The first is that this experiment was conducted on a commercial drone, which can easily bounce off emissions. However, fighter jets are usually built to absorb emissions.
- Secondly, even if they manage to find the location of a fighter jet using this technique, it won’t be enough to lock it in as a target and launch a weapon because jets like these are lightning-fast and can change their position in the blink of an eye.
- Lastly, if this is truly a major breakthrough for the Chinese military, why did they decide to go public with this information? China is not on good terms with many countries in the West, especially the United States.
Giving away such crucial information would mean that the US will get enough time to enhance its own defense strategies, which China would, of course, not want. So, it doesn’t look like this revelation is going to result in any material benefits for China.
