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UK military jamming other nations' satellites to defend itself, BBC told

171 points · 213 comments · thm

  1. autoexec · · focus · HN ↗
    > Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said daily lives depend on satellites that power everyday technologies like mobile phones and banking apps, adding the loss of GPS would cost the UK economy £1.4bn a day.

    Oh no! Not our precious banking apps! What a weird thing to call out specifically. It's also kind of strange to talk at such length about how critical satellites have become to people's lives, national economy, emergency services, and people's "daily freedoms", only to conclude with "So now we're using ground-based systems to take out the satellites other countries depend on for all of those things"

    1. tene80i · · focus · HN ↗
      Why is it strange? Millions of people use banking apps daily to make transactions essential to their lives and businesses.
      1. 0x1ch · · focus · HN ↗
        It's not and it's also not uniquely a British thing either. Most of my friends and myself use our phones as wallets, in the US. The only time I use my physical cards is to pull cash from the ATM, ha.
        1. asplake · · focus · HN ↗
          In my household, we refer to coins as “parking tokens”.
          1. ChrisRR · · focus · HN ↗
            Trolley tokens for me. I just keep a couple of quid in my car for supermarkets that need a coin for the trolley
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