China military must be able to destroy Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites

scmp.com

9 points·mactitan··5 comments

The main point of the article seems to be that Starlink can be used for military based communication, and that the system has too many satellites plus built in redundancy to cost-effectively destroy with the traditional method (a rocket).

Starlink is used by the US Military

(Aug) https://www.businessinsider.com/us-air-force-contracts-with-...

(Feb) https://www.army.mil/article/254316/army_tests_commercial_sa...

(2020) https://spacenews.com/u-s-army-signs-deal-with-spacex-to-ass...

You can include in ukraine too, giving the US a hand at distance: https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-is-using-elon-musks-starlink-f...

Used for spying and planning, and finding targets

It'd be nice if I could read about the reasons why, but it's behind a paywall.

China won't need to destroy them. Musk is fully subscribed to China's authoritarian vision. He is invested in it. It suits him.

Musk says Americans are complacent and entitled, especially Californians and New Yorkers. In contrast, Musk says China rocks:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/31/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-china-ro...

Musk implausibly called America's covid measures "fascist":

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/29/21242102/elon-musk-corona...

And yet he had Tesla praise China's covid measures and say that Tesla "always strived to fulfil its epidemic prevention responsibilities and that it believed Shanghai's COVID-19 measures helped lay the foundation for the city's future development":

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-...

China profits Musk too much for him to oppose it. China will say "jump" and Musk will ask, "How high?"

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