Ukraine’s drones lose their Starlink link above 100 mph. Musk, Rubio and Trump all say it wasn’t them

Speed of communication has been essential on the battlefield for as long as humans have waged war.

From the legendary roughly 25-mile messenger’s run to announce an Athenian victory at Marathon, to war drums and carrier pigeons, to the telegraph, and right up to today’s militaries’ reliance on high-speed digital links, rapid information transmission is imperative for military success.

The speed of a weapons system is essential, too.

That’s why a sudden loss of satellite connectivity for Ukrainian drones and vehicles moving faster than 100 miles per hour earlier this month represented a major blow to the country’s fight against Russia.

A speed cap, without warning Overnight from Oct.

13 to Oct.

14, Ukrainian military users found that satellite-connected hardware traveling faster than 100 mph (160 km/h) lost its connection , according to Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, a defense technology adviser to Ukraine’s president.

Some units reported problems at even lower speeds: Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Reaction Corps said connections dropped for 10 to 20 seconds at 110 to 120 km/h, and Ukrainian activist Serhii Sternenko, citing military reports, claimed drops at speeds as low as 60 to 70 km/h —roughly 37 to 43 mph.

Beskrestnov said the restriction applied to Starshield’s military service package, the government- and defense-focused version of the satellite internet network run by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. (SpaceX’s civilian service, Starlink, has more than 12 million customers .) Exactly which service Ukraine’s forces rely on has itself become a point of dispute: Secretary of State Marco Rubio said over the weekend that Ukraine does not currently have access to Starshield and that its request for it is “under conversation.” Whatever the label, the effect on the battlefield was immediate.

Ukraine uses domestically built interceptor drones to hunt Russia’s jet-powered Shahed attack drones, known in Russia as the Geran-3, which can fly as fast as 370 km/h , or about 230 mph.

An interceptor that loses its link above 100 mph—or, by some accounts, above 43 mph—is badly outmatched.

Ukrainian sources have said terminals need to work at speeds of at least 450 km/h to counter the jet drones.

“The maximum speed today is 161 km/h; after exceeding it, Starlink shuts down and we lose the drone,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Oct.

17, adding that Ukrainian specialists had tested terminals at 180 km/h inside the European Union without losing connection.