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Russia May Be Fitting Starlink Dishes on Military Drones

A Ukrainian media outlet publishes photos of a downed Russian drone
that was found next to a destroyed Starlink dish. 

 
Michael Kan
By Michael Kan
September 26, 2024
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russia-may-be-fitting-starlink-dishes-on-military-drones
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Starlink dish (Photo by Viktor Fridshon/Global Images Ukraine via
Getty Images)

Despite efforts to stop Russia from using Starlink, evidence is
emerging that the country is fitting the satellite internet system on
military drones to attack Ukraine. 

Ukrainian news outlet Defense Express has published photos of a
Russian drone that was shot down while carrying out an attack on
Wednesday. What stands out is that the drone was found lying next to
a destroyed Starlink dish.  

In addition, the photos show the Starlink logo on the dish, along
with an apparent serial number and QR code from SpaceX. 

    This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has
    been removed.

The drone, an 11-foot-long Iranian Shahed-136, was among 32 drones
that attacked that night, according to Defense Express. Previous
Shahed-136 units have been found to communicate over 4G using SIM
cards, including from Ukrainian cellular providers. 

However, fitting a Starlink dish on the drone could give it another
way to communicate with the Russian military when no cellular signal
is available. Instead, Starlink uses SpaceX's orbiting satellites to
send and receive internet signals. 

The discovery raises concerns that Russia is harnessing Starlink for
long-range drone missions since the Shahed-136 can travel up to 1,600
miles. This would give the Kremlin a way to perform reconnaissance
and military strikes deep within Ukrainian territory. (Ukraine has
also been using Starlink to help communicate with its own drones.)

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SpaceX and the Pentagon have been trying to stop the Kremlin's use of
Starlink units that have been smuggled to Russian soldiers. Although
SpaceX has blocked Starlink access within Russia itself, the
satellite internet system remains online within Ukraine and along the
borders between the two countries. In February, Ukraine claimed that
Russian soldiers were using thousands of smuggled Starlink dishes in
occupied areas of the country. 

SpaceX didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But in
May, the Pentagon indicated it's facing a whack-a-mole situation with
Russia's use of Starlink. Although the US Defense Department has come
up with ways to block the Starlink access, "I am certain Russia will
continue to try and find ways to exploit Starlink and other
commercial communications systems," John Plumb, the Pentagon's
assistant secretary of defense for space policy, told Bloomberg at
the time.

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About Michael Kan

Senior Reporter

Michael Kan
 
 
 

I've been working as a journalist for over 15 years--I got my start as
a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in
2017.

Read Michael's full bio

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