The US is about to deploy a new ground-based jammer system designed to blunt Chinese or Russian satellites from transmitting information about US forces during a conflict, said the Space Force, according to Bloomberg.
The Pentagon’s space service branch tested the system for the first time in 2024. In several months, the first 11 of 24 Remote Modular Terminal jammers will be deployed at undisclosed locations.
The Space Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office said that the terminals “are small, transportable and low-cost satellite communications jammers that can be deployed in austere environments to protect” US forces.
Earlier, the US warned that Russia was developing high-altitude electromagnetic pulses that would take out satellites and disrupt entire communications networks. Meanwhile, US officials say their weapons are “responsible” ones and won’t destroy satellites but only disable them temporarily.
The new terminals are an additional technology to a larger jamming weapon called the Counter Communications System and a mid-sized one called Meadowlands.
China has “hundreds and hundreds of satellites on orbit designed to find, fix, track, target and yes, potentially engage, US and allied forces across the Indo-Pacific,” said General Stephen Whiting, head of US Space Command, at the annual Aspen Security Forum.
Previously, the top US commander, Gen. Chris Cavoli, said at the Aspen Security Forum that European countries, the US, and its allies must continue to supply Ukraine with arms and other assistance and work to increase their contributions.
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