Starlink and Ukraine War discussion

[Grendal]

Although I am a huge Shotwell admirer, in this case I think she is splitting hairs and her position is not defensible (Pun unintended). To try to say that some Starlink military uses are okay and others are not is not justifiable, in my opinion. Modern warfare requires reliable high speed communications capability. Starlink provides that. SpaceX enabled Starlink use in Ukraine and everyone could foresee that Starlink would then be used by the military.

I am very disappointed in Shotwell’s statements in this instance.

I think as President and COO of SpaceX, it is her job to not directly antagonize a foreign power. She has to cooperate with various world governments (especially the USA) and directly saying that they are allowing Ukraine to use their equipment for offensive purposes against Russia would be frowned upon. It is the Federal Government's job to dictate what is allowed and not allowed for an American company in a conflict area. Russia and Putin could choose to interpret her statements as SpaceX (meaning the USA itself) is intervening in their conflict and choose to eliminate what they perceive as a threat. So her statements make sense to me. Nothing she said can be taken as a direct threat.

JMHO.

 

[petit_bateau]

I think as President and COO of SpaceX, it is her job to not directly antagonize a foreign power. She has to cooperate with various world governments (especially the USA) and directly saying that they are allowing Ukraine to use their equipment for offensive purposes against Russia would be frowned upon. It is the Federal Government's job to dictate what is allowed and not allowed for an American company in a conflict area. Russia and Putin could choose to interpret her statements as SpaceX (meaning the USA itself) is intervening in their conflict and choose to eliminate what they perceive as a threat. So her statements make sense to me. Nothing she said can be taken as a direct threat.

JMHO.

I agree that the public positioning for SpaceX is awkward. In my personal opinion silence would be the better policy.

However to be fair Ukraine has only used Starlink to strike at Russian targets which are within Ukraine's territory and territorial waters. Those are the essence of defensive actions: literally if the Russians weren't inside Ukraine they would not be targets. There is no way anyone can spin those into being offensive actions.

 

[nwdiver]

In my personal opinion silence would be the better policy.

Hopefully there's more layers here. Ukraine has been pretty good at shaping the narrative. I would imagine the idea starlink use is being limited is a helpful narrative for Ukraine.

 

[Joe F]

I don’t know much about consumer grade drones but I assume that your drone controller has a range limit of less than 1 kilometer. Ukraine is likely using drones that they want to be able to control remotely over distances of multiple kilometers, tens of kilometers, or much farther.

Right. 12 km though for mine. And I second the Hawaiian Island test, although I've not flown that far from a mountain top.