It is capable of drowning out Ukrainian signals—or even striking satellites
. The satellites that power it are around 20,000 kilometres from Earth, but their transmitters are no more powerful than a car’s headlight. Their weak signals can be drowned out by radio transmitters operating on the same wavelengths. Some are harder to jam than others. Militaryreceivers may use “M-code”, a military-only signal. Some receivers have electronic filters to separate signals from noise, and directional antennas to pick up only signals from satellites.
A high-powered jammer is the radio equivalent of a lighthouse, making it a very visible target. Some Russian forces may even be using, their own equivalent technology. Britain’s defence minister, Ben Wallace, has said that some Russian pilots are taping commercialThe Kremlin may have decided to limit jamming to avoid disrupting its own forces.satellites completely useless, either using a cyber or physical attack.