Musk building huge spy satellite network for the US – Reuters
Musk building huge spy satellite network for the US – Reuters
Elon Musk’s secretive Starshield project will allow the US military to track targets and support American and allied ground forces in real time almost anywhere on Earth, Reuters has reported, sharing new details of the billionaire’s dealings with the Pentagon.
SpaceX has been launching prototype military satellites alongside “civilian” payloads on Falcon 9 rockets since at least 2020, before eventually securing a lucrative $1.8 billion contract with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in 2021, Reuters wrote on Saturday, citing five unnamed sources familiar with the project.
The vast constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites will be able to track targets on the ground in real time nearly anywhere worldwide, the sources claimed. One of them boasted that Starshield would ensure “no one can hide” from the US government. The system also reportedly aims to be “more resilient to attacks” by rival space powers.
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SpaceX's increasing involvement in US' military deployment poses a new threat to world peace and stability, and may even impact the everyday lives of ordinary people around the world, experts warned after the company is reportedly building a powerful spy satellite network using hundreds of its satellites for US intelligence agencies.
In an exclusive report from Reuters on Saturday, the commercial space giant is allegedly building a network of spy satellites under a classified contract worth $1.8 billion with a US intelligence agency called the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), Reuters said, citing sources familiar with the program.
A special business unit under SpaceX, Starshield, is undertaking the project, the sources revealed, and if successful, it would significantly advance the US military's ability to quickly spot potential targets "almost anywhere on the globe," the reports said.
The reason the NRO chose SpaceX was mainly due to the company's advantage in the number of small satellites it has in orbit, which allows for maximum coverage of more orbital levels, Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military expert and media commentator, told the Global Times on Sunday.
"The large number of satellites can enable the monitoring of a certain area without any blind spots, not only in coverage but also in time duration, thereby creating an all-encompassing spy network above the heads of all countries around the world," Wei said.
Starshield was established in December 2022, when the company announced it was "expanding its Starlink satellite technology into military applications." The target customers of Starshield includes the Pentagon and other national security agencies.
Coverage: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202403/1308988.shtml
https://www.rt.com/news/594364-musk-starshield-spy-satellites/
Trusting, of all people, elon musk, to set up your satellite weapons system? What a relief for comrade Xi
Many of us knew Musk was weaponizing Starlink for additional C&C capacity for the US, but this is a step further. This threatens near constant surveillance and to change the game. It demands a response and will require major, major efforts using new technologies to take out this capability in a hot war between China and the US.
I personally find it ridiculous that the US is weaponizing space to this extent and yet Russia is just supposed to sit by and not take out their satellites which are feeding live intelligence which results in the deaths of Russian soldiers and civilians to Ukraine and which makes the US an active party to the conflict. Merely because these assets are very, very, very high off the ground in space are they spared whereas were they in the skies, on the ground they'd have been taken out by now as they've taken out missile systems manned by US personnel already.
The US is exploiting the good nature of China and Russia and their own desires not to create a Kessler syndrome situation or generally have to deal with militarizing space to take things to the n'th degree of ridiculousness. Make no mistake, I wouldn't be surprised if some or all of these satellites also have a mode and a plan to use them as anti-satellite weapons against Russian or Chinese assets, maybe electronic warfare and jamming, maybe kinetic.
The answer of course is to develop solutions to take out the entire network, not differentiating between so-called civilian (actually dual use) Starlink and this kind of equipment, to punish Musk badly for his good work creating cheap spying solutions to cover every inch of the earth with the spying eyes of the slowly crumbling US empire.
I get the desire not to escalate but I think it may in the end be misplaced. The US is incredibly arrogant and entitled and likes salami-slicing tactics, they'll take a centimeter, then another, then an inch, then another inch, then a meter and so on each time they do something like this without a response. Every inch you let them take they assume as their right alone and not yours, they assume as accepted, a given, the normal, rules based order way of things. I'm not sure there are any good responses at the moment. I think though that the Chinese have the capability to match this kind of move and should with haste, but only over the US and the South China Sea as a purely reciprocal move. It would drive the US up a wall crazy, it could induce balloon, even Sputnik levels of paranoia and impotent rage and seething and perhaps a little perspective which is sorely needed. An even better though perhaps unrealistic solution would be a joint Chinese/Russian venture in this area that could have downlink stations in Russia and China and share the data excepting any data sensitive to China's waters and territory.
Of course one problem with this is that neither China nor Russia maintain nor have interests in maintaining NSA type spy teams trained in space-flight while the US does and has active designs and intentions of installing hardware implants in non-US, particularly Russian and Chinese satellites to in the event of a conflict hack, electronically disable, or even physically destroy them and leave their enemies blind. Therefore such a plan would have to account for the difficulty of preventing so many satellites in such close orbit from being sabotaged in this way. (In the past there was a news report where the US leaked their L and their alarm at a Chinese spy satellite maneuvering away at speed from a US craft that approached it, it was a real goose_knife "to do what, approached it to do what?!?" moment)
Agreed, in regards to space- the time for escalation should be soon, if not now. In many other things increasingly as time goes on, as well. The world must understand when dealing with the US that this is no ordinary state to be negotiated with- it is the exceptional warmongerer, genocidaire, imperialist, perhaps the most aggressive and arrogant state in history, its institutional character that of a natural thief and backstabber due to its inglorious, continuously settler-colonial and slaver history.
There's a heart and soul to America, perhaps. It does exist- there's not a people out there wholly lacking of it. But the character of the state is another story, and the American state only understands one language, now more than ever in this age of bloodthirsty neocons. And there is no reason to believe any other language will work, no reason to believe that any other language can ensure peace and respect.
Am I reading this right that they're using existing Starlink satellites? That's some real fuel for conspiracy theorists, what the hell did he launch in massive numbers all over the world?
So we can all be pretty sure Musk is just a patsy for setting up this vast spy satellite network right?
Like no other explanation tracks what with it jeopardizing future space launches in such an insane way.
There is no way he would be allowed to do this without getting
right?He's a contractor, not a patsy.
A top bourgeoisie contractor.
The satellites will I think almost certainly be managed by the US NRO office and its sites, I don't think Musk/Starlink are doing more than manufacturing them and putting them into position using tech and knowledge gained from their Starlink system. But even that should paint a target on his so-called civilian system which as we know has been used in Ukraine to help organize terrorist attacks as well as military strikes making it and Musk a party (he did stop them from sinking the Russian fleet in the black sea in a big attack but only because he was rightly concerned such a move would force the Russians to respond and take out a large chunk of his network or even the whole thing).
Comrade musk once again making things easier for us unintentionally by giving the U.S. trash