Russia Targeting British Military Satellites on a Weekly Basis, Says Head of UK Space Command

Meanwhile, UK Space Command and UK Space Agency announced a new project to detect lasers being used against British satellites.

Victoria Friedman

Published: 10/3/2025, 1:48:47 PM EDT

Russia Targeting British Military Satellites on a Weekly Basis, Says Head of UK Space Command — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the NROL-87 spy satellite payload for the National Reconnaissance Office launches from Vandenberg U.S. Space Force Base in Lompoc, Calif., on Feb. 2, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

Russia is trying to jam British military satellites on a “weekly” basis, the head of the United Kingdom’s Space Command, Maj. Gen. Paul Tedman, has said.

Speaking to the BBC, Tedman also said Russia has been shadowing British military satellites, saying, “They’re interested in what we’re doing and flying relatively close.”

“They’ve got payloads on board that can see our satellites and are trying to collect information from them,” he said in the interview published on Oct. 3.

This echoes claims made by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who last month said that Russia had been tracking two Intelsat satellites used by German forces.

Pistorius said during a space conference in Berlin on Sept. 25, “Russia and China have expanded their capabilities for warfare in space rapidly over the past years: They can disrupt satellite operations, blind satellites, manipulate or kinetically destroy them.”

Tedman said that British satellites were equipped with anti-jamming technology, but “we’re seeing our satellites being jammed by the Russians on a reasonably persistent basis.”

When pressed on how frequently, he responded “weekly.”

On which poses the greatest danger to Britain’s military space assets, Tedman said, “I would say the Chinese have by far the more sophisticated capability, but the Russians have more will to use their counter-space systems.”

The Epoch Times contacted the Russian government for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Laser Detection

The interview was published the same day that UK Space Command and UK Space Agency announced a new project to detect lasers being used against British satellites.

On Oct. 3, the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) said that the project will help protect satellites that are being used across civilian and military applications, including bank transfers, emergency services, and intelligence operations.

Lasers can be used to track the location of satellites and dazzle them, as well as intercept and interrupt communications.

In the government press release, Tedman said that the recent Strategic Defence Review—which assessed the UK’s defense policy and examined how to develop the British military’s readiness for evolving threats—has highlighted that space should be raised to parity with other domains of war.

The major general said that space “does not just accessorise our way of war, in many respects it is changing it fundamentally. It also made clear that threats to our national interests in space are increasing.”

Drone Wall

In response to growing tensions in space, the UK’s and the United States’ respective space commands have conducted their first coordinated satellite maneuver.

On Sept. 22, the U.S. Space Force confirmed that between Sept. 4 and 12, a U.S. satellite was repositioned to examine a British satellite and confirmed that it was operating normally.

The Rendezvous Proximity Operation was part of Operation Olympic Defender, a joint military framework committed to strengthening defense and deterring aggression in space.

A damaged drone lies crashed in the eastern Polish village of Czosnowka, in this picture obtained from social media, in Czosnowka, Poland, on Sept. 10, 2025. (Dariusz Stefaniuk via Reuters)

Concerns over Russian aggression in space come as NATO allies in Europe, including Denmark and Poland, are seeing an increasing number of drones entering their airspace.

European defense ministers agreed on Sept. 26 to develop a “drone wall” along their borders with Russia and Ukraine to better detect, track, and intercept drones violating Europe’s airspace.

“Russia is testing the European Union and NATO, and our response must be firm, united, and immediate,” European Union Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said after chairing a virtual meeting of 10 countries on Europe’s eastern flank.

Kubilius said the project could take a year to build and that envoys will soon draw up “a detailed conceptual and technical roadmap,” and the top priority will be the establishment of an effective detection system.

Reuters and Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times