Chinese scientists have learned to detect drones and stealth aircraft behind obstacles in the Starlink network

Chinese scientists have learned to detect stealth aircraft and other inconspicuous flying objects using the Starlink satellite network’ , such as drones. For this, it is not necessary to create complex and expensive systems – the device was assembled from what can be bought in an ordinary electronics store. Now expensive and technologically advanced F-35 stealth fighters can be intercepted using simple home-made equipment.

It has long been known that the presence of people in a room can be detected using Wi-Fi router signals. Something similar has become possible thanks to the Starlink satellite network only on a global level. Satellites, numbering about 7,000, in low orbit continuously transmit high-frequency radio signals to the Earth, creating a kind of "rain" from radio waves. Under this flow, any air vehicle will distort the signal.

It resembles radar — each target has its own effective scattering area in the radio range (in the English-language literature — radar cross section), which gives an idea of ​​the observed object. However, unlike military radars, in this case, active radiation towards the target is not required. It is only necessary to passively receive signals from Starlink satellites, which makes this method of radio reconnaissance particularly attractive. The data stream from Starlink does not even need to be decrypted – it is enough to analyze the obstacles, and with the help of (secret) algorithms it is possible to restore the profile of the target.

According to the South China Morning Post, an experiment with the detection of an inconspicuous aerial object was conducted in the South China Sea. The DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone, approximately the size of a bird (35 cm in diameter), was used as an object. American stealth planes have approximately the same effective scattering area.

Based on the analysis of Starlink signals, Chinese scientists with the help of home-made equipment were able to reconstruct the image of the object up to the identification of the rotation of the propellers. Although the technology is still in the development stage, its prospects are impressive. Now either satellite communication in the theater of war or stealth.