Russia fields Volna Kupol Garant jammers against Ukraine's Starlink strike drones

Russia has begun fielding Volna Kupol Garant jammers that blank Starlink over 20 square kilometers, the network most of Ukraine's long-range strike drones fly on, Reuters reports, but the complexes radiate a signature loud enough to become targets.

Russian forces have begun deploying jammers that blank SpaceX's Starlink across stretches of the front, drone commanders and pilots of Ukraine's 422nd Unmanned Systems Regiment told Reuters on July 8. Most of Ukraine's long-range strike drones fly on Starlink for guidance.

The complex is the Volna Kupol Garant, or "Wave Dome Guarantor," Russian-made. One unit can destabilize Starlink across roughly 20 square kilometers (7.7 square miles), Ukrainian Defense Ministry adviser Serhii Beskrestnov said. It emits in the same 14 to 14.5 GHz band Starlink uses and hits eight satellite channels at once, Euromaidan Press reported. Each system is six trailers with dish antennas aimed at the satellites overhead.

Ukraine's mid-range drones strike dozens of kilometers behind the line, cheaply and accurately, on a Starlink link long considered immune to jamming, The Independent noted. Those drones have burned fuel depots, hit air-defense sites and command posts, and helped drive fuel shortages in occupied Crimea, the Kyiv Post reported.

The jammer answers an earlier defeat. Russia had run its own attack drones on illicitly obtained Starlink terminals; in late January, after Ukraine's Mykhailo Fedorov appealed to Elon Musk, SpaceX cut the unauthorized terminals and Russian command links collapsed at the front, Meduza reported.

Jamming Starlink takes enormous power, so the complex radiates a strong electronic signature that keeps it bulky and easy to pinpoint. The 422nd has helped destroy two, one hit within hours of detection in a joint operation with the SBU, regiment commander Mykola Kolesnyk said. "As soon as we struck that installation, our Starlink-equipped drones flew without problems," a crew commander with the callsign "Dyryhent," or Conductor, said.

The trade favors the defender for now, but volume shifts it. Rob Lee of the Foreign Policy Research Institute said mass production of the jammers could make Ukraine's mid-range strike campaign harder to run. Ukraine has identified about 10 complexes and destroyed two.