The U.S. military has successfully blocked Russian forces from illegally tapping into SpaceX\u2019s Starlink satellite internet during the invasion of Ukraine, a senior Pentagon official revealed.<\/p>\n
In a disclosure that points to a new dimension of the 21st-century battlefield, the official confirmed the Russian military had been improperly accessing Elon Musk\u2019s game-changer Starlink system to boost its communications in Ukraine. However, the Pentagon managed to shut down this unlawful exploitation.<\/p>\n
John Plumb, assistant secretary of defence for space policy, told reporters the U.S. \u201chas successfully countered Russia\u2019s use so far\u201d of the commercial satellite network owned by Musk\u2019s SpaceX. He warned that American agencies \u201care confident that Russia will continue to try to find ways to use Starlink and other commercial communications systems\u201d to overcome its forces\u2019 communications deficiencies.<\/p>\n
Plumb declined to specify the tactics and countermeasures employed to prevent Russia\u2019s piracy of Starlink\u2019s secure broadband connections. Doing so could compromise operational security as this virtual battlefront intensifies, with U.S. cyber operators undoubtedly working to wall off Starlink\u2019s systems from further Russian intrusions.<\/p>\n
The revelation underscores how Silicon Valley\u2019s pioneering satellite technologies have swiftly emerged as a new front in modern warfare. In the opening weeks of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion, SpaceX sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine to provide an alternative internet network after Russian strikes disrupted terrestrial communications.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has leveraged Starlink\u2019s connectivity for military and civilian use, including drone control and frontline operations. Russia has sought to co-opt the system too, likely to skirt its own military\u2019s limited communications capabilities.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon\u2019s disclosure indicates the importance both Moscow and Washington place on controlling usage of Space-Age tech like Starlink as a force-multiplier on the future battlefield. Plumb made clear the U.S. intends to protect these new digital frontiers from adversary co-options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Plumb, assistant secretary of defence for space policy, warned that American agencies \u201care confident that Russian will continue to try to find ways to use Starlink and other commercial communications systems\u201d to overcome its forces\u2019 communications deficiencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":406,"featured_media":16570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4812,78,7918,3167,3052,215,279],"class_list":["post-16564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia","tag-elon-musk","tag-russia","tag-silicon-valley","tag-starlink","tag-the-pentagon","tag-ukraine","tag-usa"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/406"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}