According to Ukrainian Minister of Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, who gave an interview to the New York daily, everything indicates that the enemy is using new, more advanced technology.
New weapon breaks the Earth-space barrier
The Russians are “testing various mechanisms to… disrupt the quality of calls via Starlinksbecause (they know that) it is extremely important to us,” added the minister.
SpaceXbusiness Elon Musk supplying to Ukraine Starlinkipaid for by the U.S. government, did not respond to the newspaper's request for comment on the issues.
Starlink system from the first days of the Russian invasion, it has played an extremely important role in communication on the Ukrainian battlefieldis used to control drones that function as both weapons and instruments military intelligence – explains “NYT”.
Did Musk foresee such a scenario?
New attacks by Russian forces on Starlinki led to a large-scale suspension of the system for the first time. If the enemy continues them effectively, it may mean a major tactical change and at the same time prove that the weakness of the Ukrainian defense is its reliance on only one satellite communication systemprovided by Musk's company – writes the daily.
Considering that the US and the governments of other countries use this system, then Russians jamming its signal raises a more serious question about thiswhether Starlink is resistant to attack by a technologically advanced enemy – emphasizes the New York newspaper.
Meanwhile, on the front, one of the commanders of the Ukrainian troops fighting drones uses nicknamed Ajaxtold the daily: “We are losing electronic warfare“.
Reliable radio waves
Kari Bingen, former US Ministry of Defense expert on electronic warfare and currently director of the security program at the prestigious think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, explains that Starlink signal and other communication satellites may be disturbed by very strong radio frequency. Typically, the waves are emitted from special military vehicles equipped with high towers.
“NYT” estimates that the Starlink system gave Musk too much power and the ability to influence the course of the warbecause it controls where the connection is available and can interrupt it if it so chooses.
In some situations, Ukrainian commanders asked the billionaire directly to turn on the Starlink signal during a military operation, and Musk did not always respond to these requests. Sometimes US government joined the negotiations on this matter.
The world depends on Musk's whims
Experts warn that Ukraine is too dependent on one company for an extremely important issuein addition “managed by a person as unpredictable as Musk”. However, this is unlikely to change, because there are not many alternatives – sums up the daily.
At the beginning of May, Axios wrote that: Musk has some control over the world's key infrastructure, and global companies owned by the billionaire are not subject to any supervision. All of his enterprises fulfill an important social function and at the same time are not subject to de facto any regulations – said the portal.
In 2022, Musk turned off the Starlink networkto disrupt an attack by Ukrainian underwater drones against a fleet of Russian warships off the coast of Crimea out of fear of nuclear retaliation.
During a conversation with the then deputy head of the Pentagon, Colin Kahl, the billionaire allegedly said that he “had a great conversation with Putin”, he also maintained that he regularly consults with Kremlin representatives.
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