Starlink efficiency reduced over Russia, areas under control - reports

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Economist
21 Mar 2023 23:03

In the early stages of the conflict, the Ukrainian army said it has immensely benefited from the terminals by connecting its drones to attack Russian forces.

A Bayraktar TB2 drone before a test flight at the Hmelnitski military base in Ukraine on March 20, 2019 (Press Office of the President of Ukraine / Mykola Lararenko)

A report published by The Economist on Tuesday detailed how SpaceX's Starlink was giving limited advantages to Kiev forces in initiating drone offensives on Russia's grounds.

Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, first announced sending the satellite internet communication system in March 2022, less than a month after the beginning of the war, and since then, Ukraine has received more than 20,000 satellite internet terminals.

In the early stages of the conflict, the Ukrainian army said it has immensely benefited from the terminals by connecting its drones to attack Russian forces.

Kiev's forces held expectations a bit too high for the Starlink terminals to assist troops with the manoeuvering of drones which work "at frequencies and in numbers that Russian systems struggle to jam."

In October of last year, a naval-drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea fleet made good use of this gap.

At the time the attack occurred, Russia and Ukraine were already involved in an UN-brokered Black Sea Initiative on grain and fertilizer exports which was signed on July 22.

Although no casualties were reported, Elon Musk decided to limit the capacities of the terminals by installing geofencing to limit their use and access, according to the report.

According to a Ukrainian military intel source cited by The Economist, Starlink is no longer active on Russian-controlled territories, as well as over water when the terminal is moving at speeds above 100km per hour.

"You put it on a boat at sea and it will simply stop working," the source told The Economist.

Ukraine's drone developers, therefore, had to resort to the development of new and more expensive communication systems, "with multiple systems often on the same vehicle," the report states.

On February 28, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Kiev of carrying out drone strikes against infrastructure in two southern regions of Russia.

"Last night, Kiev attempted to use drones to attack civilian infrastructure in the Krasnodar and Adygea regions," he said.

Although several reports have claimed that Ukraine's drones getting this close to Moscow was a sign of Russia's weakness, the fact that it has already by now encircled large parts of Bakhmut is enough to prove that Russian forces are advancing at a positive pace.