Musk Activates Starlink Internet Service in Ukraine
February 26th, 2022Cryptogon 2019: Recently Retired USAF General Makes Eyebrow Raising Claims About Advanced Space Technology:
If you’re like me, you’ve been wondering: What is Starlink’s actual purpose?
I didn’t entirely believe the prosaic narrative about better rural broadband Internet and a funding source for Elon Musk’s Mars aspirations, etc. Well, it might be about those things at some level, but the massive scale of the project and the rapid approval by the U.S. Government made me think that there had to be some sort of national security element in play.
Flash forward to today: Musk Activates Starlink Internet Service in Ukraine:
Elon Musk said Saturday his company SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband service had been activated in Ukraine, after a Kyiv official urged the tech titan to provide his embattled country with stations.
“Starlink service is now active in Ukraine,” Musk tweeted, adding “more terminals en route.”
The tweet came some 10 hours after Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov urged Musk to provide Starlink services to Ukraine, days after it was invaded by neighboring Russia.
I have no doubt that this is part of a U.S. coordinated effort to ensure that the Ukrainian government maintains command and control and PSYOP capabilities. While the U.S. could use classified systems to deliver realtime battlefield intelligence to the Ukrainians, my guess is that Starlink will enable wider distribution of it, especially to irregular forces who will, as if my magic, find that they will have Internet access again on their phones.
Also, how will the Starlink systems be delivered in Ukraine, a country in which the largest war in Europe since World World War II is currently underway? My guess is that they will be included alongside the hundreds of tons of weapons that are being sent to the Ukrainians from NATO.
