D.C. Memo: NATO Members Say Putin’s Military Developing Weapons to Disable Starlink LEOs, AP Reports
Russia's weapon system would flood Starlink orbits with hundreds of thousands of high-density pellets, damaging, if not destroying, the LEOs and impairing Elon Musk’s ability to help Ukraine fight.
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Starlink: Star wars could be coming to a low Earth orbit satellite Internet constellation near you. Two NATO-member intelligence services suspect Russia is developing a new anti-satellite weapon aimed at Elon Musk’s Starlink network by creating destructive clouds of shrapnel in orbit, in a bid to blunt Western space capabilities that have aided Ukraine, according to findings reviewed by the Associated Press. The so-called “zone-effect” weapon would flood Starlink orbits with hundreds of thousands of high-density pellets, potentially disabling multiple satellites at once and threatening other spacecraft, the findings say. Starlink has deployed more than 8,500 LEOs. Outside analysts who have not seen the intelligence were skeptical the system could be used without triggering uncontrollable debris that would also endanger Russian and Chinese satellites used for communications, defense, and other critical functions. Such risks could deter Moscow from deploying the weapon, they said. (More after paywall.)
