Kalinka

Russia's most-discussed answer to Starlink is not a jammer. Kalinka listens for the uplink signal a terminal sends to the satellite, isolates it from background noise, and works out where the operator is sitting — converting a communications link into a targeting cue.

Overview

Kalinka is a Russian passive signals-detection and direction-finding system announced by Russia's Center for Unmanned Systems and Technologies (CBST) and reported in small-batch production and combat testing since late 2024. It is often misattributed to Rossiysky Kupol (Russkiy Kupol), the maker of the Volna-Kupol-Garant jammer. Its function is frequently misdescribed: it does not jam. It receives and analyses the uplink emissions that a Starlink user terminal transmits toward the constellation, isolates those emissions from the surrounding radio-frequency environment, and determines the direction and location of the emitter.

That distinction matters operationally. A jammer denies a service in an area and announces itself doing so. Kalinka produces a coordinate. In a war where Ukrainian drone crews, naval drone operators and command nodes depend on Starlink for connectivity, a system that turns terminal use into a geolocation is a targeting sensor feeding artillery, drones and strike aviation — not a communications-denial tool.

The developer claims detection and direction-finding of active Starlink terminals at up to 15 km, and reporting extends that to the militarised Starshield variant. That figure is contested, and the contest is covered in detail below.

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