• @[email protected]
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    3 months ago

    I find the threat of GPS loss to be hard to believe. Theyd have to take out 38 GPS satelites and presumably any of the other navagation satellites American allies have in orbit, and presumably theyd have to not damage their own navigation satelites in the process. I also doubt they could do that all at the same time, or quick enough that no one could respond. Im sure they have the capability, and im sure they have an idea of what the operation would have to look like but in terms of a plan that’s actionable, I have big doubts.

    • @[email protected]
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      133 months ago

      I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss that threat.

      They know exactly where in the sky they are. They know what frequencies their antennas are tuned to. I’m betting burning out those transceivers would not be an impossible feat.

      I also don’t know how well they put up against really large lasers

      They’ve also been fully capable of putting s*** into space for years. I would not put it past them to have some form of combination weather/spy satellite and weapons platform out there.

      • @[email protected]
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        123 months ago

        They must be aware of the concept of re-ta-lia-tion. You shoot down my satellites, I shoot down yours. Nobody wins and we are all back 40 years.

    • @aubeynarf
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      73 months ago

      or they could jam the signal.

      • @[email protected]
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        3 months ago

        Where though? They just gonna fly enough jammers up into orbit to cover the entire path and all the satelites and pretend thats not going to also jam every navagation satelite including their own and China, their biggest allys? I don’t see it.

        • @[email protected]
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          3 months ago

          Blowing up the GPS satellites is certainly an option and there’s not much we could do to stop them. We know that China has succesfuly tested an anti-satellite missile in 2007. I would not be surprised if Russia was working on the technology at the same time. If they can’t or don’t want to blow up the satellites, then they could perhaps launch their own jamming satellites to orbit near the existing GPS satellites would work.

          Edit: It just occurred to me that you don’t need to jam them. Just put up your own satellites that mimic the GPS satellites to throw off the calculations of anyone trying to use them. Your devices wouldn’t know which signals were legit.

          • Skua
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            203 months ago

            The Soviet Union proved that it was able to shoot down satellites in the 60s. The technical difficulty of hitting a satellite with a missile is not really an obstacle here

            • @[email protected]
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              163 months ago

              Yeah, the Soviet union could also mass produce tanks and planes. Russia today…

              Glances at Ukraine

              Is using almost exclusively Soviet stock.

            • @[email protected]
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              93 months ago

              It may not be a problem technology wise, but do they really have the equipment today to blow up dozens of satellites?
              I seriously doubt it, Russia isn’t the Soviet Union, they seem less capable, and corruption would probably have undermined the program even if it still existed.
              And even if they can, can they also do it without harming their own and China’s geopositioning systems?

              • @[email protected]
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                53 months ago

                And even if they can, can they also do it without harming their own and China’s geopositioning systems?

                Nope, they can’t. And not only that, destroying that many satellites is almost assuredly going to trigger Kessler Syndrome and lock out space for the most part for a good long while.

          • borari
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            93 months ago

            Just put up your own satellites that mimic the GPS satellites to throw off the calculations of anyone trying to use them. Your devices wouldn’t know which signals were legit.

            Do this, then get absolutely raw dog fucked by the US (and any other competent) military, who has absolutely no issue with ground nav or weapons guidance because they all use encrypted GPS signals.

          • @[email protected]
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            3 months ago

            China doing it in 2007 was big news because they joined the club. The West and Russia has had the capability for decades.

          • @[email protected]
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            33 months ago

            You don’t need satellites in space to shift GPS, they’ve been messing with it in war zones for years, and AWACS like planes could do it in real time anywhere they won’t get shot down.

        • @[email protected]
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          23 months ago

          Jam some strategic locations, like air travel hubs or highly populated areas for the highest impact. No need to jam wide open low population areas without military targets.

          • Mayor Poopington
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            213 months ago

            Real curious how Russia plans to get jamming equipment the size of a truck into those areas

            • @[email protected]
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              I also just don’t see anyone in Russia deciding that were going to trigger article 5 by using a jammer on US soil. The risk reward is non existent unless they can make the whole country GPS and internet dark at the same time. Imagine that many resources going on the ground in a country as large as America. It’s basically asking Ukraine to regain any territory they had a counter invasion plan ready for.

            • @aubeynarf
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              3 months ago

              The jamming equipment could be the size of a briefcase; the received signal is below the noise floor.

              Or it could be one satellite already in the air beaming to a specific area. Or a constellation of satellites already in the air who handoff coverage of a specific area. Or a hack of an existing satellite constellation command and control channel to reprogram the transmitters to cover up GPS L band.

                • @aubeynarf
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                  3 months ago

                  I’m familiar with radio systems. You could absolutely put a 1 kW L-band jammer in a briefcase, with an effective radius of probably a couple of miles.

                  • @[email protected]
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                    13 months ago

                    Huh. I went to go look at that stuff and it’s definitely 2024. At any rate news articles made it clear that airports have dealt with GPS jamming for over a decade already and the FCC is pretty quick to send someone out with RDF equipment if it’s not a transient signal from a highway. Planes aren’t falling out of the sky so they’ve got a good idea of how to handle it already.

            • @[email protected]
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              3 months ago

              I was just pointing out that it isn’t necessary to jam 100% of GPS to have a massive impact. The odds that Russia could pull anything off is pretty small, and jamming GPS for more than a few hours is evenless likely.

            • @[email protected]
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              43 months ago

              That’s easy you just drive the truck into the area. It’s when you turn it on that’s the issue. You’re going to meet a lot of people very fast.

          • @[email protected]
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            103 months ago

            Triggering NATO collective defense so they can deploy a jammer on US soil doesn’t seem to be what they’re threatening, and they’re already been using jammers in Ukraine. So either theyre threatening to do something they can’t do or theyre threatening to do something they’re already doing, and already being countered, in a new place.

      • @[email protected]
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        23 months ago

        Which they do. Not on a global scale, though.

        It is quite annoying to be Russia’s neighbours. But you can work around it. In fact, it’s not bad to train yourself to operate without GNSS. And it would be even better if the jammers decided to spontaneously combust.