Comment by nradov
7 hours ago
SpaceX already does geo-lock them to an extend. But the terminals are exported to so many countries that any meaningful controls are impossible.
7 hours ago
SpaceX already does geo-lock them to an extend. But the terminals are exported to so many countries that any meaningful controls are impossible.
Terminals in Ukraine are whitelisted (with whitelist being supplied by the Ukrainian MoD). Meaningful controls are possible, it's what led to the ukrainian forces advancing and liberating territory recently.
You missed my point. It's impossible to meaningfully control the export of physical terminals. But as I pointed out above, SpaceX has already been doing some geo-locking.
I did not. Whitelisting means Russia can not buy terminals in UAE and use them in Ukraine. Because the terminals in UAE are not whitelisted to be used in Ukraine. Therefore, it's possible to control the export of terminals.
1 reply →
The terminal knows where it is at all times.
I know this is a meme but for those at home the whole point of a war is to cross over the front line into the opponent's territory and capture it. If your comms are disabled when you cross the front you can't really fight. So "just disable Starlink within Russian territory" does not solve anything.
You can have a hybrid approach - deny access in that area by default but have a secure way to whitelist specific terminals for short periods (mission duration)
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Simple solutions: block all Starlink terminals that aren’t whitelisted upon entering Russian territory or Ukrainian conflict zones.
This will prevent Russians importing Starlink terminals and then deploying them in Ukraine.
Work with Ukrainians to whitelist all their terminals.
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The Starlink terminal can't know based on only its position which side it's being used by. Equipment is often used in enemy territory.
That is a tiny minority of the use. The vast majority of Russian use has been on Russian controlled land.
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Yes but the problem is that the battle lines are fluid and the drones are obviously aiming for the Ukrainian side.
It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't
That all depends on what the meaning of is is.
I understand this reference
I think what's actually funnier is that the satellite shooting the laser has to know where the terminal is with pin point accuracy too. So it's pretty easy to cut off targeting to a vast chunk of the planet.
The sats don't use lasers to communicate with terminals, just regular radio waves, they only use lasers for inter-satellite communication
Starlink cells are ~15 miles wide BTW.