Needed: Robust Comms to Foil Russia’s Saboteurs

Communications systems are being targeted by NATO’s enemies. New technology is needed to ensure decision-makers are not blinded by attacks.

A critical fiber optic cable next to a Swedish highway of significant strategic military importance was found cut in several places in October. Such attacks are becoming commonplace — police have investigated around 30 acts of sabotage attacks, mostly along the same road, according to a June report. 

The implications are profoundly worrying, even assuming that Russia was not involved (it has a long track record of hybrid warfare attacks). If state or non-state actors can easily disrupt key communications links, then NATO countries urgently need solutions. 

It’s easy to imagine the chaos of, say a Russian incursion onto the lightly garrisoned Swedish island of Gotland, even as datalinks and mobile phone signals are disrupted. Swedish forces would turn to satellites, but these too can prove vulnerable, as Russia demonstrates month after month by jamming GPS and other signals using space signals in the Baltic Sea and Ukraine.  

And the West’s orbiting satellites could also quickly become military targets if a major conflict were to break out. In March, the US Space Force observed China practicing satellite “dogfighting” maneuvers. A successful wartime attack could hinder military operations and cause damage to global navigation systems. Similarly, undersea Baltic cables have been severed and would be early targets. 

The scope for chaos is considerable and is spurring efforts by many smaller companies to provide answers. One such is the Swedish company TERASi. It has been working for three years on a solution. Named RU1, and fitting into the palm of a hand, it is claimed to be the world’s smallest millimeter wave radio. Such radios use wavelengths from ten to one millimeters – the range of electromagnetic frequencies between microwaves and infrared, and can carry huge amounts of data. 

Such units could transform communications in both civilian settings and on the battlefield, according to the company.   

TERASi is one of several companies scrambling to develop next-generation communications technology. Two years ago, the UK-based company BluWireless unveiled a device with similar capabilities called PhantomBlu. While both the RU1 and PhantomBlu are mmWave radios, they have some differences, but they have a key strength in common: neither relies on fiber optic or satellite connectivity to function. 

Radios of this type could be tethered to drones or balloons and then raised into the air to form a secure comms network. Such a network would be very hard to identify or to attack without the use of direct force, raising the risks that (for example) Russian action would rise from hybrid to open warfare. 

James Campion, the Irish co-founder and CEO at TERASi, told CEPA how its radios could be used in another scenario. Troops would “deploy multiple cameras looking at different angles, then take the video feed, plug it into the RU1, and establish remote monitoring. “That would mean personnel wouldn’t have to always be at the front line watching what’s going on,” Campion says. He points to the radio’s gigabit-speed data capacity. “It can be a camera, radar, or whichever sensor is needed,” Campion says.  

It could also be used when satellite signals fail. While mmWave radio systems are not a direct competitor to satellites in the field, it depends on the operation. “In certain scenarios, you could replace satellite links,” Campion says. Each unit currently has a maximum range of 20 km (12 miles), which he calls a connectivity bubble. Each can be linked to the next to build a chain.  

The company is working and adapting to real-world experiences from the battlefield. “One of the biggest problems you see in Ukraine is the sensitivity to jamming, as conventional systems work roughly in the same wavelength range,” Campion states. In contrast, the mmWave radio uses laser-like beams at much higher frequencies, making the units highly resistant to disruption.  

The small size of the radios will also make it easy for troops to use them in the field. “They can carry a private 5G network with them,” Campion says. Though the units need line of sight, their size makes them extremely mobile. 

“[Requiring line of sight] sounds like a massive obstacle,” he says, “but you can integrate the units into other unmanned platforms, like UAVs or UGVs.” In a scenario where a mountain blocks the line of sight, a UAV could act as a relay in the air, he explains. The units make it possible to receive signals in remote areas where Starlink would previously have been required. 

The Starlink satellite internet constellation has been widely used in the war in Ukraine. The country requested help from the owner SpaceX after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, and Ukraine has since received signal coverage from its thousands of satellites. However, it has not come without critical drawbacks, including a 2022 decision by SpaceX owner Elon Musk to temporarily cut off the signal in Ukraine.  

Campion argues that that kind of loss of signal could not have happened with its units. Unlike Starlink, TERASi has no way of interfering with the radios once they have been deployed. There’s another advantage — once a satellite has been deployed, it’s difficult to make changes. By contrast, the payload on an mmWave radio can be easily adapted if an adversary figures out how to jam or disturb it. 

Much of the company’s work has so far been the result of collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). TERASi already has several contracts with the agency. As for the future, Campion says the goal is to have a complete product available by the second half of next year. 

The ESA is now funding a major satellite program aiming to rival Musk’s Starlink: “It is a significant step towards Europe’s sovereignty and secure connectivity”, the EU said in 2024. The program’s full governmental satellite connectivity services are set for delivery by 2030. In the meantime, the race for rapid battlefield communications solutions — both in space and on the ground — continues. 

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By Heine Sandvik Brekke. Heine Sandvik Brekke is an Editorial Intern at CEPA. He is currently studying at the American University in Washington, DC. Heine is pursuing a degree in journalism and has worked in a variety of editorial roles, including at the daily newspaper Aftenposten. He also served in the Norwegian Army as a conscript in Northern Norway.  Article first time published on CEPA web page. Prepared for publication by volunteers from the Res Publica - The Center for Civil Resistance.