September 13, 2023, 9:05 pm
In the last few days, Internet has been abuzz with a particular revelation in a new biography of Elon Musk.
The extract from Walter Isaacson’s book, published in the Washington Post, stated that the SpaceX CEO “secretly” told engineers to turn off Starlink coverage within 100km of the Crimean coast to prevent a Ukrainian attack on the area.
The extract continued, “As a result, when the Ukrainian drone subs got near the Russian fleet in Sevastopol, they lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,”
Musk disputed the claim, tweeting that the Starlink regions in question “were not activated” in the first place and that the company “did not deactivate anything”.
Instead, there was an “emergency request” from government authorities to activate Starlink to Sevastopol, “the obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor”, wrote Musk. “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”
While he has not blocked an attack, Musk has clearly prevented US DOD from exploiting Starlink’s capabilities.
Now a key person has spoken on this matter.
US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said this incident has raised questions as to whether the U.S. military needs to be more explicit in future contracts that services or products it purchases could be used in war.
In this video Defense Updates why Elon Musk refusing Starlink activation for attack on Russian fleet in Sevastopol is concerning for the US DoD?
#defenseupdates #elonmusk #ukrainerussia
🐦 Follow us on Twitter : https://twitter.com/Defense_Updates
▶️ Narration by Scott Leffler (scottleffler.com)
🎵 Background Music courtesy of incompetech.com
"Giant Wyrm" Kevin MacLeod (Licensed under Creative Commons)
Content Creator – Defense Updates
