Europe

Elon Musk Just Realized Starlink Units in Ukraine Are Airstrike Magnets

March 4, 2022Lauren Coontz
starlink ukraine

After realizing the dangers of satellite transmissions in war zones, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk issued a warning about the installation of some Starlink units he’d recently given to Ukraine. Composite by Coffee or Die Magazine.

After trumpeting the delivery of Starlink satellite internet terminals to Ukraine Saturday, Feb. 26, Elon Musk appeared to have a sudden realization Thursday of the dangers that several electronic warfare experts have been warning about all week: His Starlink internet system — in which a user connects to the internet directly through a satellite overhead, using a satellite dish — could be a nearly perfect targeting beacon for Russian airstrikes.


In an “important warning,” Musk tweeted Thursday afternoon that Starlink’s “probability of being targeted is high.”




When Musk announced his donation of Starlink units to Ukraine Saturday, several analysts — including John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher for Toronto’s Citizen Lab, who tracks threats against secure connectivity — said the units could pose real danger to anyone using them in Ukraine.


Targeting the user of an internet satellite station would be a relatively simple task for Russian air forces and even artillery. Targeting radio signals — be it from hostile radars, normal voice radios, or satellite communications — is a core skill practiced by all modern air forces and underlies tactics broadly known as suppression of enemy air defenses, or SEAD, missions.




SEAD came of age in the Vietnam War as US fighter-bombers hunted North Vietnamese ground-based surface-to-air missile systems, or SAMs, using “anti-radiation” missiles built to find targets by following their radio waves. The Russian-supplied SAM batteries would generally target high- and slow-flying bombers. To find the SAMs, US pilots flew fighter jets equipped with sensors built to pick up SAM targeting radar. Flying below radar coverage, the jets would wait for a SAM site to activate its targeting radars. Then the jets would hone in on the SAMs locations, following the signal.


The anti-SAM squadrons were known as “Wild Weasels” for the low-altitude, “in the dirt”-style flying required for the missions, which they flew in EF-105s, EF-4s, and Navy EA-6s (the E is a designator for the electronic warfare component of the mission).




The Russian military is also known to have robust SEAD and anti-radiation capabilities. During the First Chechen War between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria during the mid-1990s, Russian military assets triangulated Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev’s position during a satellite call and dropped an airstrike, killing him in 1996. According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Dudayev was “reportedly discussing possible peace talks with a prospective Russian mediator.” 


In 2012, journalists Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times of London and French photographer Rémi Ochlik were killed in a mortar strike in Homs, Syria, that may have been targeted by the Syrian army tracking the journalists’ satellite phones.


wild weasel
A patch worn by some “Wild Weasel” pilots during the Vietnam War. The pilots flew low and tried to attract the attention of surface-to-air missile batteries. YGBSM stands for “You gotta be shitting me.” Wikimedia Commons image.

Retired US Gen. Michael Hayden wrote in a 2017 study on Russian electronic-warfare capabilities that “Moscow relies on—and has heavily invested in—[electronic warfare] as an asymmetrical response to NATO’s technological edge across the spectrum of conflict and as an integral part of its anti-access/area denial strategy.”


Starlink uses a small satellite dish to connect to its network, according to Starlink’s website. The terminals aren’t cheap. “Starlink Premium requires a $500 refundable deposit and charges a $2,500 fee for hardware and $500 per month service fee,” according to Fox Business.




Musk’s foray into battlefield communications began Saturday, when Mykhailo Fedorov, vice prime minister of Ukraine, tweeted at Musk, “While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand.”


Later that day, Musk responded to Fedorov’s tweet, “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route.”


On Monday, Fedorov tweeted a photo of a truckload of Starlink boxes — they’d arrived less than 48 hours after Fedorov had asked for them.


Read Next: Famed Ukrainian Fighter Pilot ‘Grey Wolf’ Killed Over Kyiv



Lauren Coontz
Lauren Coontz

Lauren Coontz is a former staff writer for Coffee or Die Magazine. Beaches are preferred, but Lauren calls the Rocky Mountains of Utah home. You can usually find her in an art museum, at an archaeology site, or checking out local nightlife like drag shows and cocktail bars (gin is key). A student of history, Lauren is an Army veteran who worked all over the world and loves to travel to see the old stuff the history books only give a sentence to. She likes medium roast coffee and sometimes, like a sinner, adds sweet cream to it.

More from Coffee or Die Magazine
Military
DOD Denies Most Stayskal Act Malpractice Claims

Master Sgt. Richard Stayskal was diagnosed with lung cancer long after military doctors missed a tum...

March 29, 2023Maggie BenZvi
ukrainian wounded soldiers
Intel
‘On Tour In Hell’: Wounded Ukrainian Soldiers Evacuated

With bandaged heads and splinted limbs, the wounded soldiers are stretchered into the waiting medica...

March 27, 2023Associated Press
US oil mission
Military
US Launches Airstrikes in Syria After Drone Kills US Worker

While it’s not the first time the U.S. and Iran have traded airstrikes in Syria, the attack and the ...

March 24, 2023Associated Press
The Gift jason dunham
Entertainment
‘The Gift’ Explores the Life and Legacy of Medal of Honor Recipient Jason Dunham

"The Gift" tells the story of the first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor after the Vietnam War. ...

March 24, 2023Mac Caltrider
uss milius
Intel
US Denies Chinese Claim It Drove Away American Destroyer

The U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet said that a statement from China's Southern Theatre Command that it had fo...

March 23, 2023Associated Press
ultramarathon
Military
The Speed Project: Vet Team To Run in Lawless, Invite-Only Ultramarathon

For the first time, a team of (mostly) US veterans and active-duty service members will run in The S...

March 23, 2023Jenna Biter
uranium-based ammo ammunition Ukraine UK depleted uranium
Intel
A Look At the Uranium-Based Ammo the UK Will Send to Ukraine

The British defense ministry on Monday confirmed it would provide Ukraine with armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium.

March 23, 2023Associated Press
Zaporizhzhia Ukraine Russia
Intel
Ukraine: Russia Hits Apartments and Dorm, Killing Civilians

“Russia is shelling the city with bestial savagery,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a Telegr...

March 22, 2023Associated Press
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Careers
Contact Us
  • Request a Correction
  • Write for Us
  • General Inquiries
© 2023 Coffee or Die Magazine. All Rights Reserved