SpaceX has taken active steps to stop Ukraine’s use of military drones that were using the Starlink network in the country’s offensive efforts against Russia.
President and COO of SpaceX Gwynne Shotwell said in a press conference on Wednesday that Starlink was never meant to be weaponized in Ukraine.
She said this regarding military drone use with Starlink:
“There are things that we can do to limit their ability to do that. There are things that we can do, and have done. We know the military is using them for comms, and that’s ok. But our intent was never to have them use it for offensive purposes,” she said. (via Reuters)
However, Shotwell did not specify what steps, for obvious reasons, the company took to limit militarized drone use on its network. Nor did she confirm if recent Starlink outages in Ukraine were linked to the changes completed by the Starlink team.
The Starlink team has continually hardened the Starlink network for use in Ukraine amid Russian attempts to jam the service. While this anti-jamming work has been successful so far, the latest changes to limit drone usage may change how Ukraine and its military utilize Starlink moving forward.
Ukraine may be installing Starlink dishes on its drones to fight Russia
