Adaptive equalization is a key issue to improve the performance of satellite mobile communication systems. S-UMTS transmission channels generate distortions due to multipath propagation and the use of nonlinear power amplifiers, such as traveling wave tubes or solid state power amplifiers, near their saturation region. These distortions are time varying and therefore need adaptive processing. This paper will present conventional and blind equalisation algorithms and investigate their suitability and performance in an electromagnetically crowded and hostile conditions encountered in S-UMTS.