Photo: SpaceX
SpaceX has equipped those fighting in Ukraine with Starlink since early on in the Russian invasion, and despite jamming and hacking attempts, the service is still in place.
@Elon Musk said on Thursday that SpaceX’s Starlink has been dealing with “relentless jamming attacks” and “cyberwar,” though the effectiveness of these attacks has been “limited.”
The response came in a thread from Ukrainian official Mykhailo Fedorov who said that Starlink remained an “essential part of critical infrastructure” amidst defense efforts against Russian forces.
Another user noted that Russian media was portraying things quite differently than that, saying that it was personally taking credit for signal jamming attempts.
Starlink has faced relentless jamming attacks & SpaceX relentless cyberwar. So far, their success has been limited.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 13, 2022
Musk also posted a screenshot showing the growth of Starlink usage in Ukraine, which depicts a steady increase in use of the service from February until now.
Starlink data usage growth in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/c4IWNwKwLR
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 13, 2022
Musk also was asked about Starlink in Iran and he confirmed that “there are some active terminals” in the country. SpaceX launched Starlink in Iran last month amid protests over the death of a woman related to the nation’s strict hijab laws, while in police custody.
As of May, Starlink had 150,000 active daily users in Ukraine, following Musk and SpaceX making the service active in February courtesy of a request from Fedorov made via Twitter.
As of just a few days ago, Musk said SpaceX has sent 25,000 Starink kits to Ukraine.
In April, the U.S. Pentagon expressed being impressed with SpaceX’s defenses against Russian signal jamming in Ukraine, around the same time as Musk helped the company reprioritize efforts toward cyber defense.
