Thread by @elisabethmalom1

🧵Loved working on this one - The widespread use of #Starlink by Ukrainian troops in defending against Russia is accelerating development of drone warfare, according to experts. Here are the benefits, risks & legal challenges of its militarization:
c4isrnet.com/battlefield-te…

2. While SpaceX likely never ruled out potential military use, it was not a case they emphasized. Today, there's no question that Starlink’s prominence in #Ukraine war has militaries all over the world considering & looking to make greater use of it.

3. Currently, Starlink antennas are too large/too heavy for small drones. However, there has been momentum from the defense industry to experiment. In Nov. #Canadian company RDARS, announced that it had successfully integrated Starlink equipment to its Eagle Nest ground station.

4. Via Starlink, ground station communicates w/ a control center, allowing the operator to control & receive imagery from its military Eagle Eye drone. While RDARS solely integrated dish to the UAV’s ground station, it has emphasized potential of installing it on the drone itself

5. Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in the #MiddleEast, has stated that Starlink was used to connect unmanned aircraft, vessels and underwater vehicles operated by allied forces in a NATO exercise in #Portugal.

6. With respect to drones, Professor David Burbach states that if high bandwidth commercial satellite links can be installed inside of one or more while functioning in flight, then this would make it possible for the operating country to control it far outside of its borders.

7. For any country or military to rely on Starlink does entail a number of security risks as well. Perhaps the most important one being that it is possible to geolocate the terminals, possibly giving away the physical positions of forces.

8. As a base station or flying drone emits radio signals, it can be intercepted by enemy forces using high power antennas across a wide array of commonly used bands. Achieving this might be harder in practice than is let on.

9. Todd E. Humphreys, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas points out that the beams a Starlink terminal produces “are narrow (less than 5 degrees) and they hop around in frequency, which make it hard to get an actual lock on a terminal.”

10. This can in part be seen in #Russia’s large inability to locate satellites one year into the war, at least on a significant scale. SpaceX also applies geofences on user terminals to prevent their operation outside approved areas.

11. It also holds power of revoking one’s access to the network if it finds this one being used in violation of the user agreement/permitted instances. An implication of this, is the possibility for a country depending on Starlink to lose access to these services in middle of war

12. More subtle risk is that SpaceX, has an extensive access to information about clients, and by extension #Ukraine. Burbach says ‘If I were #Russia, I would be very interested in trying to get into Starlink by compromising an employee, or even getting an agent on staff."

13. SpaceX has undergone important expansion opening a rep office in #Azerbaijan in late 2022, and announcing it had applied to establish a Starlink branch in #SouthKorea. Additionally, a new satellite constellation should be up later this year to provide coverage in the MidEast.

14. While its services are currently active in app. 45 countries (mainly NATO members/US allies), experts say that it is not a far remote possibility that SpaceX could begin supplying customers in states unfriendly to the West, also interested in using Starlink for military appl.

15. While, as Professor Davide Scaramuzza argues, it is false to assume that Starlink can be associated with a country, important concerns to be raised regarding the development of its integration on unmanned platforms and overall uses.

16. In Jan, footage from a pro-Russian paramilitary group on telegram claimed that they had captured, disassembled Ukrainian drone, finding a Starlink dish modified to fit onto the system. While these reports remain unconfirmed, such events could likely happen on more frequently.

17. Proliferation of Starlink, less regulated than Starshield, for military purposes remains in its very early days. @SamBendett concludes, “whatever happens in #Ukraine is going to serve as a blueprint for future Starlink applications in drone warfare.”

18. As Starlink is further militarized, many complexities /sets of questions will arise. Two experts point out “If it is to be considered a proper military target, question then becomes how would Western governments respond in the event of an attack on single satellite?"

19. Such matters are also challenging considering that SpaceX has not only received significant subsidies from the U.S. government, but that the U.S. Agency for International Development reportedly also paid the company to send over 1,000 Starlink terminals to #Ukraine.

20. Heiko Borchert from Defense Artificial Intelligence Observatory says that this is an important space to watch, concerning whether #US would be willing to provide the same level of support to make Starlink available in the event of other conflicts to friendly governments.