SpaceX has announced the establishment of a new business line called Starshield, which targets the US national security agencies and the Pentagon. Some commentators believe that this move marks a key step toward the militarization of the Starlink.
Starlink,a grand vision proposed by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in 2014, is aimed to build a space-based communication system with global coverage, large capacity and low latency that can provide high-speed internet service globally. Many people in the industry questioned that if such a large number of satellites are all launched into low-earth orbit, the entire earth will be wrapped in a large web, which will inevitably bring about serious problems such as frequency band competition and space congestion.
However, this satellite network has been transformed into the military network of the US. Professor Jin Yinan, a military commentator, believes that upgrading Starlink to Starshield and expanding mature civilian technology into military applications fully expose the US's ambition to seek military hegemony in space.
It is known to all that SpaceX's Starlink Internet satellites were widely involved and played an important role in the development of the battlefield situation after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The advantages of Starlink's network transmission using Low Earth Orbit Satellites (LEOs) are very obvious on the Ukrainian battlefield. And that's exactly what pushed the US military to hurriedly contact with SpaceX for potential cooperation. Now the US military and Elon Musk have reached an agreement to upgrade the Starlink system to the Starshield system.
Jin pointed out that the change from Starlink to Starshield is not just a change of name. The most obvious difference between Starlink and Starshield is that Starlink was originally designed for commercial services, while Starshield was originally designed to serve the US government and US national security. In fact, it serves the US Department of Defense. Specifically, it serves the US intelligence collection, reconnaissance, and even global strike systems. Compared with Starlink, Starshield has higher specifications and more complex functions. Starshield will bring great convenience to the US in terms of reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, and combating opponents. But this is definitely not good news for the whole world, and it is worth close attention.
According to SpaceX's official website, Starshield will provide the US military with earth observation, communication and hosted payloads services. First, it can conduct a detailed reconnaissance of the target country. Second, it can also carry out cryptographic communication, that is, it can intercept all communication methods of the other party while protecting its own communication system from being intercepted. Third, after the Starlink system is upgraded to Starshield, it can effectively manage nuclear weapons and nuclear warheads orbiting the earth at high speed.
According to the US space version of the heartland theory, whoever controls the Earth's orbit controls the near-Earth space and whoever controls the near-Earth space controls the Earth. The Starshield program has accelerated the militarization of low-orbit satellites. It exposes the US's eagerness to seize outer space orbital resources and its ambition to subvert the existing combat system. Vladimir Yermakov, Director of the Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, recently revealed that the US Department of Defense is using a constellation of low-orbit satellites to test a military command system that can cover anywhere in the world, but most countries lack "effective countermeasures."
From Starlink to Starshield, people can see clearly that the US is trying to build a unilateral space military advantage, and distance itself from its opponents to achieve a dimension-reduction strike. The Starshield system will bring new challenges to global security and strategic balance. Therefore, we must maintain a high level of vigilance against the threat posed by the Starshield system.
Editor's note: Originally published on military.cnr.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
