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by goalieca 964 days ago
I can’t understate how revolutionary this technology is for those outside of dense urban center. It has even been well utilized by Ukraine in the war and is jamming resistant.
2 comments

I think the military implications of Starlink/Starshield are actually the most revolutionary. The "unjammability", low latency, high throughput and the sheer amount of them (which makes it very difficult to destroy them) makes a lot of unmanned military platforms very viable. Another aspect is that it might be accessible to smaller countries which can't afford their own military satellites.
Unless the jamming is being performed by an anxious and needy tech mogul after a phone call with a dictator.
Yeah - this is why critical military infrastructure should not depend on the private sector.
All military technology in the us is built by the private sector, and much of it is operated by the private sector, like the military communications.

One of the major problems in Ukraine’s case is they depended on the private sector _without a contract_ leaving them up to the pro bono will of the owner.

Last I heard Elon wasn't able to get more than a Secret Clearance and does not know a decent amount of what happens with Starshield
Starlink was already shut off in Crimea because of the war. He denied a request by the Ukrainians to turn it back on in that geofence that they made specifically so that they could use it to conduct an airstrike.

I’d have denied that request too.

Please make sure you communicate the facts correctly when spreading this meme.

More generally though: why do people love spreading false narratives? It’s ok not to like tech billionaires but I don’t get why they go around lying about stuff. There are plenty of legitimate criticisms of Elon Musk without making stuff up.

> turn it back on

It was never turned on in the first place.

It has been turned on, according to Kyrylo Budanov, commander of Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Directorate:

[KB] There have been no problems since it's been turned on over Crimea.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/exclusive-interview-wi...

Yes, the Department of Defense is now in control of the geofencing in the Ukraine theatre.