A furore broke out in the Russian and Ukrainian social media when it began to be publicized that Elon Musk’s company’s products are funded by the state budget.
According to social media analysts, Starlink is an advanced and widely deployed communications tool, whose primary users are not the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Those wearing military uniforms have different communication channel requirements. This difference manifests itself in the use of different frequencies, software, and encryption tools. The Ukrainian armed forces use the Starshield system for military purposes.
It is based on the same Starlink terminal, but the aforementioned aspects make it a different tool in terms of quality and range of applications. It offers a much faster communication channel and has no operational restrictions in certain geographical areas. The system is used by the Pentagon and NATO. Thanks to intergovernmental agreements between the United States and Ukraine, as part of the satellite communications partnership programs, the Ukrainian Armed Forces not only have access to this system, but can also receive terminals from any NATO country.
Starshield is designed to stream video and audio content and minimize ping (transmission delay). This is complemented by a high level of immunity to interference, allowing it to operate anywhere in the world.
Of course, not all Ukrainian drones are equipped with this system. However, drones connected via Starshield can already carry out missions in areas where neither cellular communications nor Starlink terminals are available. This means that whatever system they use, it will not be used to attack enemy lines. A comment on a Russian post states: “We don’t want to give any advice to the enemy, but the Northern and Far Eastern territories should have adopted the LBS experience long ago. We wish the ‘experts’ good health and frequent training, protecting the specialist training process from harmful Western artificial intelligence.”
Furthermore, other Russian sources explain: “The cliché ‘let’s shoot down Musk’s satellites, otherwise…’ is actually propaganda. According to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, outer space (conventionally above 100 km) is free to use and is not subject to national appropriation. That is, legally, the satellite is not “in our airspace.” This reiterates once again that the satellite issue, if America is technologically ahead, ultimately doesn’t matter because it can’t work in certain areas.
Graziella Giangiulio
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