The SpaceX genie is out of the bottle

> SpaceX plan to turn the internet into an outernet, by routing the majority of data traffic through their Starlink satellites. This should be particularly attractive to global users because a network of interconnected satellites is inherently more secure and faster than conventional fiber internet between continents

As a space engineer this is very wrong, no satellite solution can beat the reliability or throughput of a submarine DWDM fiber. Satellites are vulnerable to solar storms, cosmic radiation, nuclear attacks, jamming and a lot of other external factors while fiber cables are safely buried / submerged, protected against those kind of problems. Except for ship anchors and fiber seeking backhoes.

Another thing is that satellite to ground downlinks are still using RF, which is getting congested. You can work around that by going to optical downlinks to get the speed, and in ideal world you can have DWDM fiber speed that way. But got a cloudy sky and you lose your connection

Digression. In my understanding, genie out of the bottle seems like having negative connotation. But the article is positive about Spacex. Am I wrong?

I don't understand the ballistic cargo story. It implies forward staging and a presence is being deprecated for some kind of rapid injection force response. But, that is a change in posture from prevention to reaction.

Isn't that actually less effective strategically?

Sure, for the "international rescue" Thunderbird puppets world, it's great. We all know it's not about rescuing little Timmy stuck down a mineshaft.