STARLINK FOR THE WIN: How Elon Musk’s satellites have saved Ukraine and changed warfare. “This kind of connectivity is something no previous army has enjoyed. Western armies fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq had access to some vast flows of data. For the most part, though (with special forces being the notable exceptions) they found it very hard to get that information to where it was needed in a timely manner. . . . Developing such a capability within the military-industrial complex has been slow; the bureaucracy has proved predictably resistant. Now it seems all but available off the shelf.”

Plus: “Cyber-attacks like the one aimed at Ukraine’s legacy satellite system on February 24th are one possibility. So far, though, similar sallies against Starlink appear to have been ineffective, in part thanks to SpaceX’s ability to quickly update the system’s software. Dave Tremper, director of electronic warfare for the Office of the Secretary of Defence, has said the speed of the software response he witnessed to one attack was ‘eye-watering’.”

Also: “And when satellites are small and mass-produced, as the Starlink ones are, they can be replaced with much less fuss than would previously have been the case. Brian Weeden of the Secure World Foundation, an ngo, reckons that Starlink’s use in Ukraine marks ‘the beginning of the end’ for the value of anti-satellite missiles. ‘[It] turns out they’re only useful if your adversary relies on small numbers of really large/expensive satellites.'”