How dual-use satellites are blurring the lines of modern space war

When we imagine space warfare, we picture shattered satellites and orbital debris. The reality is quieter but also more dangerous. The markers of modern orbital conflict are signal loss, deliberate misdirection, and sudden system failures.

In the initial hours of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a cyber-attack crippled Viasat’s KA-SAT network, severing vital communications across Europe. GPS spoofing incidents have similarly misled civilian aircraft and maritime vessels, luring ships into hazardous shoals or corrupting flight computers to trigger false terrain alerts effectively weaponising a platform’s own safety logic against its operators.