Self-Jamming Reveals Threats to US Satellite Communications

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

261 times this year American satellites’ communications were jammed. This wasn’t done by enemy forces or by unfriendly nations, such as Russia or China. Rather, the cause was  “almost always self-jamming,” General John Hyten, head of Air Force Space Command, told the Association of Old Crows electronic warfare conference.

“In 2015 thus far, we have had 261 cases where we have been jammed from getting information from our satellites down to the ground segment,”said Hyten. When asked how many of these instances were caused by an antagonist, he replied: “I really don’t know. My guess is zero.”

“The moral of that story is that the electromagnetic spectrum is unbelievably complicated and the smallest mistake can create huge strategic impacts,” Hyten said, “so you have to be able to monitor the electromagnetic spectrum, from the most tactical unit all the way up to the most strategic [level].”

The problem of self-jamming is one authorities are only now becoming fully aware of. “We’ve just been assuming that the RF [radio frequency] spectrum is a benign environment and nobody’s going to threaten us,” Hyten said. But it indicates a serious threat, as “you don’t have to shoot a satellite down to defeat it, all you have to do is cut off the link.” Even if no adversary has employed jamming as yet, if they choose to do so there is so far little that can be done to stop them.

The Air Force is planning to bolster its efforts in thwarting this risk. As a first step, it is changing the makeup of personnel in charge of critical satellites. Currently, experienced servicemen and women are promoted to more senior positions, “the average age of the operator operating GPS today is 23,” Hyten said. Additionally, more advanced training will be enacted for crews in charge of mission-critical satellites.

These measures should alleviate some of the risk, but alternative means of securing satellite communications need to be developed to eliminate it completely. As it stands, any attacker with the most rudimentary of equipment can shut down satellites the whole world relies on.