Back in 2004, the U.S. Air Force suggested that they might be
willing to mess with commercial satellites, if they were aiding an
American foe. The idea drew howls from outside observers. And, for
a while, it seemed destined for an extremely quiet corner of flyboy
doctrine.
But now, the Israelis are picking up where their American
counterparts left off, Defense News' Barbara Opall-Rome reports.
Fed up with Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV broadcasts -- which stayed on
the air, despite repeated aerial and electronic attacks -- the
Sabras are now talking publicly about "disrupt[ing] transmissions
of enemy programming carried by commercial satellites."
No doubt, we understand the power of the media, public opinion and
mass psychology, said [Maj. Gen. Ido] Nehushtan, who is
responsible for IDF modernization planning. Al-Manar is a
liability, and were going to have to improve our ability to
counter this threat...
...the only way to ensure persistent, reliable, wide-area broadcast
denial is through an anti-communication satellite system. Israel
must develop the means to surgically target signals serving
Hizbollah without damaging the spacecraft or disrupting operations
of other customers serviced by the broadcast frequencies, he
said...
[But] according to [an Israeli] executive, jamming a communications
satellite is like interfering with civil aviation. You can do it,
but its against international law and youll be subject to all
kinds of lawsuits.
It is technologically impossible, he said, to selectively jam only
those satellite signals that carry enemy broadcasts.
Everything goes out as a single beam, and it is impossible to jam
only those channels viewed as a threat, the executive said. If
you make the decision to interfere with one [satellite signal],
then you must be prepared to face the consequences of the
collateral damage incurred to the many other legitimate users of
the signal.
Robert Ames, chief executive of the Satellite Users Interference
Reduction Group... said it is relatively easy to jam a specific
satellite transponder.
Transponders are separated by frequency, he said. All you have
to do is know the frequency which it operates on and then put up a
signal that is stronger than the programming carrier of the
satellite...
Satellite interference capabilities have been around since the
mid-1970s, he added. But if the Israelis are talking about
technological challenges, I assume they are aiming for a capability
that goes way beyond what our companies have experienced to
date.
http://defensetech.org/
I think Singapore should take a look at this technology, both to
protect our own communication satellites from jamming and at the
same time have the capability to jam others satellites as well.
This technology is especially important in a day where both the
civilians and the military of the world is increasingly dependant
on satellites. One good example is GPS. We can cooperate with the
Isaelis on this. 