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  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Boeing demos ground-based anti-jam system for satellites

(2022/04/05)


Boeing has hit a milestone with its anti-jam satellite communications.

According to the aircraft maker, it demonstrated successful integration of its Protected Tactical Enterprise Service (PTES) software elements with an industry partner's user terminal.

The ground-based military satellite communications system allows Boeing-built Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellites and terminals to transmit data using the US military's jam-resistant waveform, the Protected Tactical Waveform (PTW).

[1]

Its intent is to make satellite communication possible in hostile environments, dodging and mitigating both interference and jamming from adversaries, potentially from a battlefield.

[2]

[3]

Initially the tech is being designed for the space service branch of the US Armed Forces, Space Force, but is eventually expected to appear in commercial satellites as well.

"Making use of WGS military-unique features in conjunction with its wide bandwidth for PTW spread spectrum hopping, PTES-over-WGS provides the US Department of Defense with crucial fleetwide protected communications anywhere on the globe," said Boeing in a [4]canned statement.

[5]

The demonstration Boeing is celebrating validated the system's ability to interface with a PTW ground terminal, in the process proving that the network management software and virtualized mission planning components were also working properly.

Validating the integration is just one step in a series of milestones. The last one was in August 2021, when the PTES program had its first over-the-air forward-link with a PTW modem demonstration. The next over-the-air demonstration will include forward and return links later this year. The whole system is expected to be operational in 2023.

[6]Expect 'long tail of cyber retaliation' from Russia for sanctions, says ExtraHop CEO

[7]Photon fantastic: James Webb Space Telescope spies its first starlight

[8]Starlink's latent China crisis could spark a whole new world of warcraft

[9]Modem-wiping malware caused Viasat satellite broadband outage in Europe

Boeing is also building a space-based PTW hub for sensitive and classified information, which will be known as the Protected Tactical SATCOM Prototype (PTS-P).

Satellite jamming is considered typical warfare activity. [10]Reports surfaced this week that Russia's military has disrupted commercial airplanes' routines by jamming their satellite navigation systems as the country continues its invasion of the Ukraine.

China has pursued its own [11]jamming technology , presumably as a more practical alternative to its [12]spacecraft grappling arm , as has the United States with Space Force's L3Harris-built [13]Counter Communications System (CSS) .

[14]

CSS appeared on the scene in 2004 and has faced many updates since. The satellite jamming system is said to provide "reversible offensive space control effects applicable across the full spectrum of conflict." ®

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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Ykxns8EsGG5qvu6KoseX5AAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ykxns8EsGG5qvu6KoseX5AAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Ykxns8EsGG5qvu6KoseX5AAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[4] https://boeing.mediaroom.com/news-releases-statements?item=131031

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ykxns8EsGG5qvu6KoseX5AAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/31/extrahop_russian_sanctions/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/05/jwst_photon/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/15/starlink_china_crisis/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/01/sentinelone_wiper_viasat/

[10] https://www.businessinsider.com/russias-military-jamming-satellite-navigation-commercial-planes-2022-4

[11] https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3140634/chinese-space-technology-capable-jamming-satellites

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/21/the_legit_real_star_wars/

[13] https://www.l3harris.com/all-capabilities/counter-communications-system

[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Ykxns8EsGG5qvu6KoseX5AAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



An eternal game of whack-a-mole...

ShadowSystems

You do something to harden your stuff, the enemy does something that renders the hardening less/non-effective, you do something else to further harden your systems, & the wheel continues round & round & round & r...

Unlike my plan to simply catapult politicians into orbit on intentional collision trajectories to impact their stuff & knock them both off into solar destruction.

Since the world will never run out of political idiots, that means we'll never run out of ammunition to fling!

I've brought the popcorn, someone else bring the pints. =-)p

Re: An eternal game of whack-a-mole...

Doctor Syntax

"You do something to harden your stuff, the enemy does something that renders the hardening less/non-effective"

So you love it or you hate it. Anti-jam? Sounds like Marmite.

The one with a jar of something in the pocker.

Re: An eternal game of whack-a-mole...

Anonymous Coward

Oh, the wheel does stop eventually.

It happens when one side runs out of money to keep going (see the Soviet Union in 1991) at which point that side stops, and the other side moves a generation ahead and then stops, and the other side if it knows what's good for it refrains from starting a war.

The Romans used to consider "Pax" or "Peace" as we now translate it as a temporary state while the nations around them were battered down and it'd take a couple of decades of rebuilding until they'd be ready to have another go at them.

Eying up Russia's behaviour, I'm having a bit more sympathy for this concept of peace at the moment.

spread spectrum hopping

Alan J. Wylie

Courtesy of [1]Hedy Lamarr

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr#Inventor

Re: spread spectrum hopping

Neil Barnes

"She rode a blazing saddle..."

The one with the sheriff's badge, obv! -->

If reporters don't know that truth is plural, they ought to be lawyers.
-- Tom Wicker