Starlink helps Ukraine’s elite drone unit target and destroy Russian tanks

Enlarge / Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov shared this photo of Starlink user terminals on March 18. (credit: Mykhailo Fedorov)

SpaceX's Starlink Internet is proving to be useful for Ukraine's military as it fights the Russian invasion. In an article Friday titled, "Elon Musk's Starlink helping Ukraine to win the drone war," The Telegraph described how the satellite connection helps the Ukrainian army's Aerorozvidka (Aerial Reconnaissance) unit do its work of "using surveillance and attack drones to target Russian tanks and positions."

The Telegraph wrote:

Amid Internet and power outages, which are expected to get worse, Ukraine is turning to the newly available Starlink system for some of its communications. Drone teams in the field, sometimes in badly connected rural areas, are able to use Starlink to connect them to targeters and intelligence on their battlefield database. They can direct the drones to drop anti-tank munitions, sometimes flying up silently to Russian forces at night as they sleep in their vehicles.

The Ukrainian unit's "most sophisticated drones are connected using Starlink," The Times of London wrote. "If we use a drone with thermal vision at night, the drone must connect through Starlink to the artillery guy and create target acquisition," an Aerorozvidka officer told the paper.

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