[wafflemaker]

Starlink guided drones are tipping the scales for Ukraine right now. That's what enables the range required to successfully hit trains and fuel trucks supplying Crimea through the "land bridge" made from conquered lands in South Ukraine.

That plus satellite comms. Both Russia and Ukraine were very fond of how it improves communication.

Edit: meant to say that in the time of global instability, weapons tech is going to be valuable.

[hajile]

This is putting the world at risk of Kessler Syndrome.

[defrost]

Not so much Ukraine using drones that use starlink, more the sheer number of starlink sats up and planned, the numbers in the proposed other constellations going up and planned, and the ongoing propensity of Chinese rockets to fragment after use rather than safely de orbit.

For interest:

An Orbital House of Cards: Frequent Megaconstellation Close Conjunctions (2025)

  Our calculations show the CRASH Clock is currently 5.5 days, which suggests there is limited time to recover from a wide-spread disruptive event, such as a solar storm. This is in stark contrast to the pre-megaconstellation era: in 2018, the CRASH Clock was 164 days. 

~ https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09643