If this were such a big deal, would the Chinese be talking about it?
According to a Chinese state-sanctioned study, signals from SpaceX Starlink broadband internet satellites could be used to track US stealth fighters, such as the F-22.
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The research details how the academics were able to recognize the rough location of a commercial drone by observing disturbances in electromagnetic signals from Starlink satellites caused by aircraft passing through them. The system could "provide significant advantages in detecting small and stealth targets," the team claimed.
The academics, led by professor Yi Jianxin from Wuhan University's School of Electronic Information, launched [paywall] a commercial DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone and sent it over the coast near the Chinese city of Guangdong. The researchers chose the drone as they estimated it has the same radar signature as a modern F-22 fighter.
They reported being able to detect up the drone – not by hammering it with easily identifiable radar pulses (which would invite a counterattack in a war situation) but by identifying where the drone reflected the signals from a Starlink satellite orbiting overhead. The test was overseen by the Chinese government's State Radio Monitoring Centre.
This looks to be pretty similar to a system of passive radar that the Germans used in World War II.
You would think that if this were effective (or if the Chinese thought it could be made to be effective), they wouldn't say anything about it.
Didn't the Serbs do this with cell phone signals during the US bombing campaign.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the movie "Battleship". If I remember right they used the VLF undersea stations or something like that, to track the movements of the alien ships.
ReplyDeleteAt that level of technical aptitude I’d imagine it’d be common knowledge now BP. We live in an age where there can literally be no surprises.
ReplyDeleteCall me crazy, but it sounds like a backdoor plot to shut Elon down for "security reasons."
ReplyDeletePapa might be right, Musk isn't a "friend to the powers that be".
ReplyDeleteAlso, secondary idea, telling you one way we can track you while holding the other ways in our hands. Give the F35 pilots a bit of concern HOW they got intercepted.
The fact that they said it out loud hopefully means that the US already has countered it.
ReplyDeleteChina had an "I see you" moment, much like when the US released radar imaging of the Nile Basin and 'found' lost archeological sites and underground aquafers.
You can accomplish the same with US broadcast stations and some SDRs.
ReplyDeletethey discovered early on that though invisible to current frontline radar systems, stealth fighters could be detected by old school chinese radar decades out of date. just like our subs, they look for the hole in the water.
ReplyDeleteKnowing roughly where a stealth fighter is, and being able to shoot at it are two different things. The radar lock needed for guiding a missile is much more difficult.
ReplyDeleteBeing aware that a stealth plane is in the region is a far cry from a tracking and targeting solution. And the CCP, like the Russians, have a habit of exaggerating their capabilities. Never forget that communists, both here and abroad, are masters of propaganda.
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