Ukrainian forces rely heavily on Elon Musk’s Starlink for
satellite communications over Ukrainian territory. Kyiv has also asked the
company to expand coverage into Russia.
For 10 days in October, however, Ukraine faced restrictions
on the speed of SpaceX services, hindering drone-defense operations and strike
missions.
Terekh said Fire Point had developed workarounds that
allowed it to strike Russian territory without satellite communications.
“We have built with this in mind; Fire Point systems are designed to finish a
“Navigation that works without any external signal is a
priority.”
Terekh declined to provide details about the workarounds.
She said, however, that full access to SpaceX systems over Russian territory
would provide a significant advantage.
“We found a technological way to overcome this problem, but
it probably covers only 15% to 20% of what we could do if Starlink worked [over
Russian territory],” Terekh said.
She specified full access to SpaceX services would be a
“game changer” for Ukrainian strikes against high-value targets, such as ballistic
missile transporter-erector launchers.
“What we want is an alliance with America where the rules
are known in advance so the question of whether we are allowed to defend
ourselves is not reopened every few weeks depending on someone's mood,” Terekh
said.