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Today's Topics:
1. China simulated Starlink blockade over Taiwan with 2, 000
drones to create an 'electromagnetic shield' (Stephen Loosley)
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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2025 22:13:46 +1030
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] China simulated Starlink blockade over Taiwan with 2,
000 drones to create an 'electromagnetic shield'
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
China simulated a Starlink blockade over Taiwan that uses around 2,000 drones
with jammers to create an 'electromagnetic shield' ? CCP scientists devise
potential plan to cut off satellite internet to the island
News By Mark Tyson published 23 hours ago
https://www.tomshardware.com/networking/china-simulated-a-starlink-blockade-over-taiwan-ccp-scientists-say-around-1-000-drones-would-be-enough-to-cut-satellite-internet-to-the-island
So, Taiwan's Iron Dome plan needs to include a few drone zappers.
Comments (5)
A Chinese study has outlined how the nation could jam Starlink access across
the entirety of the island of Taiwan.
It would require around 1,000 to 2,000 specially adapted electronic warfare
drones for this hostile act to pay off, reports the South China Morning Post
(SCMP).
The research, taken in tandem with recent news about China?s advanced internet
cable-cutting capabilities, ratchets geopolitical and world semiconductor
ecosystem tensions even higher.
Zhejiang University & Beijing Institute of Technology ran simulations to
determine how the CCP-controlled People?s Liberation Army (PLA) could deny
their democratic foe?s access to Starlink. Musk?s constellation of 10,000-plus
satellites has been a source of consternation among CCP strategists ever since
Ukraine effectively made use of it to resist the Russian invaders. Access to
tech like Starlink is just one of the speed bumps that have made Putin?s 3-day
"Special Operation" extend towards a grueling near-four-year campaign.
1,000 ? 2,000 electronic warfare drones
According to the Chinese scientists, the complex, ever-changing satellite mesh
networking coverage provided by Starlink could only be countered by a broad
distributed jamming strategy. ?Hundreds or thousands of small, synchronized
jammers would need to be deployed across the sky ? on drones, balloons or
aircraft ? forming an electromagnetic shield over the battlefield,? reports the
SCMP.
To reach their unhappy-for-the-PLA conclusion, the scientists used actual
Starlink data to create a simulated dynamic satellite mesh the size of Taiwan
over 12 hours. A mix of wide and narrow-beam electronic noise-generating
jammers featured in the test simulation. Airborne Chinese jammers, situated
around 3 to 6 miles apart from each other, could form an effective 12-mile-high
internet blocking mesh, it is now thought.
Under ideal conditions, a successful Chinese Starlink blockade would require
935 coordinated interference nodes, suggests the research. With cheaper, more
practical, lower-power drones, the number of airborne interferers would have to
be scaled up to approximately 2,000 drones.
Starlink hardware
Of course, hostile blanket drone coverage wouldn?t exist unopposed in Taiwan?s
skies. The home of computer and semiconductor giants like TSMC, Asus, and
MediaTek has been investing in both foreign-bought and domestically produced
drone and anti-drone military equipment.
The ambitious and industrious Silicon Island (and aspiring 'AI island') might
even be considering its own Iron Dome-inspired protective network, no doubt
further infuriating its neighbor.
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