Although his SpaceX is a major Pentagon contractor, billionaire Elon Musk has often stated that the Starlink satellite constellation he developed was always intended for civilian purposes.
However, Musk and his service were swept up in the military confrontation vortex in Ukraine.
When the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were about to launch their ‘Special Military Operation’, they knocked out Kiev’s communication systems.
Musk has since started supplying Ukraine with millions of dollars worth of SpaceX-made Starlink satellite terminals, which then became critical to Ukraine’s military operations.
A new biography of the SpaceX-Tesla-Twitter/X tycoon, due later in September, written by an author of acclaimed biographies including Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, recalled a pivotal moment in the war, when Musks failed to – deliberate involvement in the war was taken to an extreme.
CNN reported:
Elon Musk secretly ordered his engineers last year to disable his company’s Starlink satellite communications network near the coast of Crimea in order to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack on the Russian naval fleet, according to an excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the eccentric billionaire with the title ‘Elon Musk’.
When Ukrainian submarines loaded with explosives approached the Russian fleet, they “lost connectivity and washed up harmlessly,” writes Isaacson.
The decision was made out of fears that Russia might respond to a Ukrainian attack on Crimea with nuclear weapons — “a fear that was made clear by Musk’s conversations with senior Russian officials,” Isaacson said.
The episode highlights the unique position Musk was in as the war unfolded.
“’How am I in this war?’ Musk asks Isaacson. “Starlink was not meant to get involved in wars. It was so people could watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good, peaceful things, not drone strikes.”
Musk spoke to Biden’s adviser Jake Sullivan, General Mark Milley and Russian ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov, in an attempt to break his deadlock.
“Meanwhile, Mykhailo Fedorov, a deputy prime minister of Ukraine, begged Musk to restore connectivity for the submarine drones by telling Musk about their capabilities in a text message, Isaacson said. “I just want you – the person changing the world through technology – to know this,” Fedorov told Musk.”
There was also the question of who would pay for the Starlink terminals. After spending tens of millions on the satellite equipment to Ukraine, the company told the Pentagon it would not continue to foot the bill for the satellite equipment.
Although Musk wanted to reverse course, tweeting, “Damn…we just keep funding the Ukrainian government for free,” eventually Starlink was able to strike a deal with the US and European governments to pay for another 100,000 new satellite dishes. to Ukraine.
Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, responded to the CN piece:
Business Insider reported:
“It has previously been reported – and admitted by the SpaceX leadership – that steps have been taken to prevent Ukraine from using the Starlink system for certain attacks. Last fall, Ukrainian armed forces reported ‘catastrophic’‘ malfunctions in areas previously occupied by Russia, suggesting that the system there was deliberately disabled, possibly to deny Russia access (Musk said at the time that information about Starlink’s use on the battlefield was ‘secret’).”
personally rejected a Ukrainian request to use Starlink for a maritime drone strike near Crimea,
“According to Isaacson, Musk himself ordered Starlink engineers to shut down the system along the coast of Crimea.
[…] The system was ‘never intended to be used as a weapon’, [Starlink CEO Gwynne] Shotwell said so earlier this year, citing Ukraine’s use of Starlink for drone reconnaissance and strikes. “There are things we can do to limit their ability to do that,” she said. “There are things we can do, and we have done.”
Elon Musk has since clarified the CNN report by saying the system was not armed in the area and that he declined Ukraine’s request to activate it due to concerns about a possible UAF attack on the Russian fleet.