The conflict in Ukraine has highlighted western reliance on GPS, the role of satellite earth observation and the importance of satellite communications provided by Elon Musk’s Starlink constellation, the commander of UK Space Command says.
Air Vice Marshal Paul Godfrey told ADM at Avalon Airshow that Ukraine showed how modern warfare was being conducted, especially by a nation like Russia.
“We can learn and awful lot from them and determine where we need to build our capability for the future,” he said.
Godfrey said the conflict in Ukraine highlighted three aspects of modern warfighting which UK Space Command had been following very closely.
“One is how much we rely on precision systems these days, primarily in the west GPS, for position, navigation and timing,” he said.
“We see an awful lot of disruption to GPS in that area. That is one thing our space operations centre does – it liaises with the US Navigation Warfare Center to determine whether GPS is lower in precision in various areas of the planet and why that might be.
“We are seeing GPS jamming in all parts of the world. You don’t need a huge amount of technology to be able to jam that signal.”
The second aspect is space-based intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).
Satellite imagery provided by US company Maxar proved that Russia was really responsible for atrocities which it blamed on the Ukrainians.
“There is a deterrent effect on that as well in terms of the Russians trying that again,” he said.
“Earth observation has been incredibly important to Ukraine. It’s not just images. There are companies out there as well that do radio frequency monitoring.”
Godfrey said the final aspect was satellite communications.
At the outbreak of the conflict, Russia launched volleys of missiles and a cyber attack, taking out much of Ukraine’s communications.
“It is has been really interesting to watch the role of Starlink in reconnecting the country, enabling the Ukrainians to be able to tell their story to the outside world and to communicate with each other inside as well as how rapidly that was rolled out,” he said.