Ukrainian Defense Forces destroyed a Russian Shahed-136 that was equipped with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite communication during a night attack on September 25, in which 28 of 32 drones were shot down.
Defense Express received the relevant photos from its own sources. They show a satellite dish with serial numbers on it. This should allow to investigate the supply channels of the Starlink terminal.
At the same time, the question of when the Russian Federation will begin to install Starlink on its long-range UAVs was objectively only a matter of time. Because before that, the enemy had already experimented with 4G modems with Ukrainian SIM cards.
And now we are talking about a very wide and powerful feedback channel with the drone, the possibility of transmitting information from it and changing the flight task at any distance. That is, the transformation of Shahed, first of all, into a reconnaissance tool.
Starlink may be needed by the enemy in order to transmit intelligence information, for example, collected by radio technical means about the positions of Ukrainian air defense. Or, in the case of equipping the drone with cameras – images. And thanks to Starlink, the Russian Federation can use Shahed as an extremely long-range barrage munition with the possibility of reconnaissance, due to an additional camera, and hitting even moving targets.
The choice of the Shahed platform for such purposes may be related to its capabilities in terms of a flight range of about 2,000 km and a fairly significant free volume in the middle of the fuselage. It may also be related to the “creativity” in Alabuz, where these drones are assembled .
We will remind that although Starlink does not work and is not sold in the Russian Federation, Russians purchase it through third countries. At the same time, the USA is trying to fight this problem , but the problem is far from being solved.
But apparently, Washington needs to speed up a little in this matter, because Shahed from Starlink is about unlimited range control of an attack UAV with a flight range of up to 2,000 km. Because taking into account the cooperation of the Russian Federation not only with other rogue countries, but also with terrorist groups, this is already a threat not only to Ukraine.
Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian GUR military intelligence agency, told Ukrainian media at the time that Russian use of Starlink was becoming “systemic.”
Starlink is owned and operated by entrepreneur Elon Musk‘s aerospace firm, SpaceX, and accounts for a huge percentage of active satellites. Musk has vehemently denied that Starlink is being sold to Russia.
SpaceX said earlier this year that it does not “do business of any kind with the Russian government or its military.”
“Starlink is not active in Russia, meaning service will not work in that country,” the company said in a statement. “SpaceX has never sold or marketed Starlink in Russia, nor has it shipped equipment to locations in Russia. If Russian stores are claiming to sell Starlink for service in that country, they are scamming their customers.”
“If SpaceX obtains knowledge that a Starlink terminal is being used by a sanctioned or unauthorized party, we investigate the claim and take actions to deactivate the terminal if confirmed,” the company added.
A Kremlin spokesperson said in February that Starlink is “not a certified system with us” and therefore “cannot be used officially in any way.”
But back in May, the then-assistant secretary of defense for space policy in the Pentagon, John Plumb, told Bloomberg that the U.S. was “heavily involved in working with the government of Ukraine and SpaceX to counter Russian illicit use of Starlink terminals.”
“At this time we have successfully countered Russian use,” Plumb added at the time. “But I am certain Russia will continue to try and find ways to exploit Starlink and other commercial communications systems.”
Russia’s use of Starlink will continue to be a problem, he said.
Top Photo: Numbers and QR code of Starlink terminal are censored
Sources: Newsweek; Defense Express