Putin boasts about 'Starlink analogue' for controlling heavy drones
Photo: Vladimir Putin, Russian President (Getty Images)
In Russia, work is allegedly underway on a satellite system that would allow occupying forces to control heavy drones, states Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with Russian soldiers.
According to him, in order to create a low-orbit satellite constellation (a "counterpart" to Starlink), Russia has already begun launching satellites into space.
"In 2023, the first satellites capable of performing such a task (controlling heavy drones — ed.) already appeared in space. And in 2024–2025, this work is continuing. We have a private entity," Putin said.
He declined to name the company working on the satellite system.
Blocking Starlink for Russian forces
This year, Ukraine, together with SpaceX, introduced a "whitelist" of Starlink terminals.
The main purpose of these measures is to block the operation of terminals used by Russian occupation forces in the war against Ukraine. Although the delivery of Starlink systems to Russia has long been prohibited, the aggressor state’s military purchased them through intermediaries in third countries.
There have been cases in which Russian troops even used Starlink on their Shahed strike drones in order to bypass Ukrainian air defenses.
In March this year, the Russian company Bureau 1440 announced that it had placed the first 16 Rassvet satellites (a "Starlink analogue") into orbit.
However, it is unclear which satellite launches in 2023 Putin was referring to.
