• Elon Musk's Starlink service is being drawn into Russia's campaign of hybrid operations in Europe.
• There have been several attacks against Starlink infrastructure across Europe in recent weeks.
• SpaceX's lucrative connectivity business has become a military and political target.

Elon Musk and SpaceX have gotten caught up in very public battles over Starlink's role in the war in Ukraine, but they're also being drawn into another, less visible conflict: Russia's shadowy campaign of hybrid operations against the West.

The past few weeks have seen attacks and attempted sabotage against Starlink infrastructure across Europe. Western officials are blaming Russia for at least some of the incidents, and Ukrainian intelligence has warned that Moscow could ramp up these efforts.

Kęstutis Budrys, Lithuania's foreign minister, said on Sunday that a sabotage attempt targeting Starlink infrastructure near Vilnius was thwarted the previous night. He said that the aim was to "undermine a capability critical" to Ukrainian defense and civilian communications.

Budrys characterized the incident as "a direct consequence of Russia's war" and later described the act as an element of Russian hybrid operations against Europe — sabotage, attacks, drone incursions, and other actions that Western officials have attributed to Moscow in recent years. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied involvement.

Starlink infrastructure is a growing target. The civilian satellite internet service and its military-grade variant are used by NATO and Ukraine for battlefield communications and operations.

Last week, Poland blamed Russian intelligence services for a sabotage incident in September — two Turkish citizens were arrested in connection with a fire at a Starlink satellite station near Warsaw. Donald Tusk, the country's prime minister, called the attack "another act of hybrid warfare."

There was also a recent attack on Starlink antennas near Bulgaria's capital, according to media reports.

Ukraine's GUR military intelligence warned on October 2 that Russia could target Starlink infrastructure in Europe as part of its campaign.

Speaking Monday, after the most recent incident involving Starlink, Lithuania's Budrys said that "we are seeing coordinated efforts to target critical infrastructure linked to support for Ukraine, logistics chains and other important facilities."

"These are not isolated crimes," he added. "They are part of Russia's broader hybrid campaign against Europe, aimed at intimidating allies, undermining support for Ukraine, and testing our resilience."

Neither Russia's defense ministry nor its embassies in Poland or Lithuania responded to requests for comment from Business Insider about these allegations.

Lithuania's defense ministry said in a statement that the thwarted attack is not the first time it has seen an attempt to set fire to companies providing support to Ukraine. The ministry added that "attempts to damage Starlink equipment have recently occurred in other countries as well."

Attempted sabotage of Starlink infrastructure is not a recent development, though. British authorities, for instance, determined that Russian intelligence was behind a March 2024 arson attack targeting a London warehouse storing Starlink equipment bound for Ukraine.

"Neither space nor our societies are sanctuaries," US Army Col. Martin O'Donnell, a spokesperson for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, told Business Insider. "Fortunately, NATO has strategies for countering threats to both, and for defending the alliance."

NATO leadership and European Union officials have said the hybrid campaign won't derail support for Ukraine.

"As the threat level climbs, so must Europe's preparedness," Christian Wigand, the EU's lead foreign affairs and security policy spokesperson, told Business Insider. "Moscow is trying to scare Europe into winding down its support for Ukraine," he said. "This will not happen."

SpaceX in the crosshairs

Although the sabotage attempts in Poland and Lithuania targeted Starlink equipment at sites run by third parties, not by SpaceX directly, the incidents are a sign of how the company and Starlink are becoming increasingly entangled in the war between Ukraine and Russia and Moscow's hybrid operations against the West.

That entanglement is turning SpaceX's lucrative connectivity business into a military and political target.

Starlink accounted for over 60% of SpaceX's revenue last year and has been the funding engine for the company's cash-burning artificial intelligence and rocket ventures.

In SpaceX's third-quarter earnings call this week, the company reported that government and enterprise revenues were up 91% year over year, and executives told investors they expect this revenue stream to eventually exceed income from selling Starlink terminals to consumers.

As SpaceX contends with Starlink infrastructure becoming a target of hybrid Russian warfare, the company and its leadership are also facing controversies from the war in Ukraine that put that business at risk.

Earlier this month, Ukraine's access to Starshield, the military-grade version of Starlink, was limited without warning, complicating operations.

Ukrainian defense ministry sources told Business Insider that Starshield was restricted at speeds above 100 miles per hour, disrupting the Starlink-equipped drones that have become a crucial part of Ukraine's war machine, with some Ukrainian and foreign officials initially blaming SpaceX and Musk.

Musk redirected concerns in a social media post, saying that Starshield is operated by the US government and that the president and the Pentagon are responsible for such decisions. A senior US official told Business Insider last week that President Donald Trump did not order the Starshield restrictions.

Multiple media outlets have since reported that Musk ordered the disruption. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.

This incident has sparked calls from European officials for the EU to divest from Starlink in favor of local alternatives not controlled by Musk or the US.

Christophe Grudler, a member of the European Parliament, wrote to EU leaders urging them to accelerate development of IRIS2, a European rival to Starlink that is set to begin satellite deployments in 2029, while other lawmakers also called on Europe to reduce its reliance on US tech.

Europe is not alone in seeking alternatives. In an interview with The New York Times in September, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed that Canada would "diversify away" from Starlink in favor of a locally developed satellite network. He pointed to previous instances of Starlink access in Ukraine being throttled or disrupted.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Zelenskyy said the limits on Starlink in Ukraine had made it clear that Europe needs to develop its own alternatives, and fast.

"All of Europe has seen that it can be controlled from the United States, regardless of agreements or contracts, that Starlink speeds can be restricted," said Ukraine's president.

"That's why the Europeans are now raising the question of alternatives themselves. They're already making progress, and they'll succeed in this area," he added. Such an outcome could pose a major threat to SpaceX's ambitions to sell Starlink and Starshield to governments worldwide.

In the meantime, Starlink remains largely unrivaled, and Ukraine continues to face service restrictions, while Europe faces the threat of repeated hybrid attacks on Starlink infrastructure.

• Ukrainian forces said Monday that they pulled off a "first-ever" air evacuation using a heavy drone.
• Deploying large aerial drones for battlefield casualty evacuation is a high-risk operation.
• A Ukrainian official involved in the development of such drones called them a last-resort tool.

Several Ukrainian companies have developed heavy-lift drones that can evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield, but the risks mean they should be used only as a last resort, an official involved in these efforts told Business Insider.

Denys Lohvynenko, the drone chief at Brave1, Ukraine's state-backed innovation platform, said that heavy-lift drones provide a time-sensitive means of rescuing wounded troops in highly dangerous situations where they cannot walk on their own and other evacuation methods are unavailable.

Ukraine began developing heavy-lift drones two years ago, but the complex technical requirements took time to iron out.

On Monday, a Ukrainian military unit said that it had used a heavy drone to save a wounded soldier from the front lines, carrying out what it described as a "first-ever air evacuation."

The presence of land mines and Russian drones rendered the use of ground robots — for Kyiv, an increasingly common method of casualty evacuation — too challenging.

"In these situations, heavy-lift aerial evacuation serves as a lifeline of last resort," Lohvynenko explained in remarks shared by Brave1, which has supported the development of these drones and other war technology.

Ukraine's 92nd Separate Assault Brigade said Monday that soldiers used a six-rotor hexacopter made by the Ukrainian company Gurzuf Defense to carry out the mission. Other defense companies are working on similar technology; SkyFall, for instance, recently unveiled its own hexacopter for evacuations.

Ukrainian forces also use heavy-lift drones for logistics missions, as they can typically carry more cargo than smaller variants.

A challenge is that big drones are big targets. Samuel Bendett, a drone warfare expert at the Center for Naval Analyses, a US research organization, told Business Insider on Monday that certain elite Russian military units are focused on downing such aircraft.

Lohvynenko said Ukraine understands the risk of using large drones in and around contested airspace, as is the case along most of the front lines. So they are "reserved only for high-risk, high-priority emergencies," he said.

The heavy-lift drones have also been equipped with what he described as "additional survivability systems," including electronic warfare and alternative communications. Active protection systems could be installed in the future.

"We maintain a realistic view of the technological and operational challenges associated with aerial extraction of personnel via heavy-lift drones," Lohvynenko said.

"However, establishing this technical capability is essential," he continued, arguing that a "single life saved on the battlefield justifies every engineering hour and resource invested in this program."

Combat casualty evacuation has become increasingly robotic for Ukraine as the country's officials, companies, and military units look to replace soldiers with machines in dangerous front-line missions wherever possible.

Ground robots, in particular, are seen as crucial tools for casualty evacuation and logistics. Ukraine's defense ministry said last month that the number of these kinds of missions carried out by robots has jumped more than threefold since January.

The deployment of a heavy-lift drone for an evacuation, an unusual mission, underscores Ukraine's growing efforts to use uncrewed systems in unconventional battlefield roles.

• The US Army is applying lessons from Ukraine and Iran to better prepare its air defenders.
• Forward-deployed air defense units are bringing back lessons from combat.
• Combat simulations are evolving to reflect new battlefield threats and tactics.

Intense missile and drone attacks in global conflicts are showing the US Army how it needs to train its air defenders, as well as how to protect them from threats, Army officials said.

Lessons on protecting MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile systems and crews are coming in, and Army leaders say those observations are being quickly incorporated into training to help troops keep pace with evolving threats and tactics.

In their war against Ukraine, Russian forces have hunted Patriot batteries and other air-defense systems while also trying to overwhelm them with complex barrages of one-way attack drones alongside ballistic and cruise missiles, providing lessons in mobility, concealment, deception, and dispersal. The war with Iran, meanwhile, has exposed American and allied air defenders to the challenge of defending against large-scale drone and missile bombardments while managing interceptor stocks. The Army is learning those lessons, officials say.

Lt. Gen. John Rafferty, the head of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, told reporters at the Association of the United States Army conference last week that air defenders have been "probably the most aggressive community in the Army for learning lessons from Ukraine," with an emphasis on survivability and the protection of critical assets.

"How have we embraced those observations from Ukraine and then put them into action?" Rafferty said this was one of the first questions he asked when he took command earlier this year.

He said that he has seen how command teams have "put those lessons in place and how they are taking steps to protect their soldiers, to protect the critical systems of Patriots and sensors, protection, camouflage, deception, all of that."

Officials with the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command told Business Insider that observations and lessons from Ukraine are shared with its headquarters at Fort Bliss, Texas, where training materials for air defense soldiers are updated. The information is also shared with the larger Army and industry partners.

The 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command recently transferred to Army Space and Missile Defense Command and is tasked with missile defense planning across different regions. Its responsibilities include both active defenses, such as intercepting incoming missiles, and passive measures, such as camouflage and dispersal, as well as coordinating intelligence and command-and-control.

Rafferty and other officials said that the US war with Iran, which has stress-tested American air defense units, is providing valuable data on air defense. According to Rafferty, roughly 2,500 soldiers from his command are deployed to the Middle East, including both air defense formations and space specialists.

He said that roughly 25% to 30% of the command's air defense formations are deployed. These forces consist primarily of Patriot units and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-ballistic missile defense crews.

"We're taking the things that we're seeing in the Middle East and feeding it back to the other brigades in the formation," Col. Matthew Ingils, deputy commanding officer for operations with the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command, said.

Lessons include "the types of threats" as well as "the scale, the scope, the complexity of what we're seeing," and then training new formations on that insight so that individual soldiers who join an air defense unit can quickly catch up.

The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East present different challenges, giving the Army a broader range of lessons to incorporate into its training.

To prepare to counter new threats or employ new tactics, soldiers use combat simulations that are being updated with lessons from the Middle East and Ukraine.

Current conflicts have shown the Army and broader US military that air defenses are essential for intercepting missiles and drones, protecting critical assets, and challenging aircraft.

Heavy expenditure of air-defense interceptors and other munitions, however, have raised concerns about whether the US is sufficiently stocked for future fights.

At the same time, air defenders themselves have become priority targets for enemy forces, making dispersal, camouflage, and mobility increasingly important to their survival.

• A new Ukrainian list of foreign parts in Russia's anti-jamming antenna is filled with US electronics.
• GUR published a catalog of US digital processors, chips, and other components found in the Kometa.
• These arrays are used to help Shaheds and Iskander-M missiles navigate and suppress jamming.

Over two dozen US processors, chips, and other components have been found in Russia's anti-jamming antenna systems, according to Ukraine's military intelligence.

The Ukrainian agency, GUR, published a list of foreign parts on Monday that it said were discovered in 16-element Kometa modules, one of Russia's more advanced systems that help drones and ballistic missiles suppress electronic warfare and navigate the skies.

US-headquartered firms produced 28 out of 37 foreign components — or just over three-quarters — listed on Monday, per GUR.

Ten American brands and their components were identified in the catalog, posted on GUR's War and Sanctions page. These include digital processors from Intel subsidiary Altera, radio-frequency and precision components from Analog Devices, a memory chip from Micron, and supporting electronics from Texas Instruments.

Another three components are built by Chinese companies, while the other six come from Japanese, Taiwanese, and Swiss manufacturers, GUR also indicated.

In a statement to Business Insider, a Texas Instruments spokesperson said the company "strongly opposes the use of our chips in Russian military equipment."

"Any shipments of TI chips into Russia are illicit and unauthorized. We devote significant time and resources to developing, implementing, and refining policies and procedures to combat illicit diversion and keep chips out of the hands of bad actors," they added.

Intel, Analog Devices, and Micron did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

The new list from GUR, which regularly publishes information on foreign parts in Russian equipment, comes as the electronic warfare race grows more vital to Ukraine's air defense.

Kyiv's forces try to stop Russian drone and missile attacks with a mix of jamming tools and interceptors, but the latter are facing difficulty as Moscow has begun mass-launching faster, jet-powered drones — the slowest of which can fly at about 185 mph.

Kometa antenna panels are among the most common anti-jamming tools on Russian long-range weapons, such as Shahed drones, Iskander-M ballistic missiles, and glide bombs.

Each antenna receives satellite signals and helps to counter jamming or spoofing.

The 16-element Kometa, which essentially has an array of 16 antennas, is one of Russia's newer versions of the system in mass production. Two years ago, Moscow was regularly using eight-element Kometas on its Shaheds instead.

• The Marines are fielding new medical gear to treat casualties when evacuation is delayed.
• New portable blood coolers and warmers will help corpsmen treat wounded troops closer to combat.
• AI-assisted ultrasounds could help front-line medics identify internal injuries and prioritize evacuation.

The US Marine Corps has begun fielding new medical equipment meant to help troops survive when wounded service members can't be quickly evacuated from the battlefield.

The new technology is designed to store blood, identify internal injuries, and treat wounded service members closer to the battlefield as the military prepares for future wars in which casualties may be unable to reach a hospital for hours or even days.

The equipment includes improved, lighter-weight mobile blood coolers, better blood warmers, and small AI-assisted ultrasound devices and is designed to help Navy corpsmen and other providers treat casualties with less bulky equipment and less reliance on extensive medical infrastructure.

During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, US air supremacy frequently allowed helicopters to quickly evacuate wounded troops to well-equipped and defended medical facilities near the battlefield.

The proliferation of drone warfare and other technological advancements seen in Ukraine has, however, raised doubts about whether rapid casualty evacuations will be possible in future conflicts. Now, military planners assume that a sophisticated foe is likely to possess tools that could severely disrupt military tasks such as casualty evacuation, resupply, and communications.

Throughout the post 9/11 wars in the Middle East, the military planned on getting wounded troops to advanced medical facilities within an hour, said Navy Capt. Shari Gentry, the Marine Corps' deputy medical officer, speaking to reporters at a media event near Quantico, Virginia. "And we do not foresee that being the case."

The Corps has already begun distributing the systems to medical units, with some equipment reaching troops deployed to the Middle East.

Among the new devices is a portable refrigerator capable of storing approximately 30 units of blood, potentially enough for four seriously wounded Marines, according to military medical guidance. Each battalion aid station is set to receive one, giving medical personnel a supply of blood closer to the battlefield.

Weighing about 60 pounds, it replaces a system that weighs over twice as much and uses rechargeable batteries already common throughout the Marine Corps. The smaller refrigerator allows medical teams to maintain blood supplies without relying continuously on generators or fuel deliveries, said Navy Cmdr. Kyleigh Hupfl, the Corps' clinical lead for Expeditionary Medical Systems.

The capability has already proved useful in the Middle East, Hupfl said. The Corps accelerated delivery after units raised concerns about the reliability of existing refrigeration equipment. One unit told her that the new device allowed it to maintain a ready supply of blood throughout its deployment.

Small deviations in temperature can render blood and other pharmaceuticals unusable. "We need to be able to bring cold chain distribution forward without relying on heavy generators, and we need to be able to do that in a sustainable way," she said.

The service is also fielding new portable blood warmers that can deliver warmed fluids faster than the previous equipment. The warmer works by passing blood through a tube, warming it before it flows into a patient's veins. Such warmth is crucial to prevent hypothermia, a serious complication in injured patients.

Another major change involves portable ultrasound machines equipped with AI-assisted imaging. Previously held only at higher levels of battlefield medical care, the new machines are now being pushed toward the lowest level of tactical care, known as Role 1 facilities, where Navy corpsmen and physicians provide immediate life-saving care for wounded Marines.

The AI software helps users identify anatomical structures on ultrasound images, allowing providers with less ultrasound experience to spot signs of internal bleeding or other injuries that might otherwise be difficult to detect. That information can also help medical teams determine which casualties need evacuation or surgery most urgently, said Navy Chief Petty Officer Matthew Brown, the chief biomedical equipment technician for the Corps' Expeditionary Medical Systems.

"I have 10 people that are hurt. Who should I get out?" Brown said of the dilemma and the new ultrasounds being fielded to front-line medics to address it. "And at the end of the day, that's what's going to save their life."

• A Ukrainian military unit said on Monday that it had carried out a "first-ever air evacuation" with a drone.
• The unit used a heavy drone to save a wounded soldier from the front lines.
• The mission underscores Ukraine's growing efforts to use drones in unconventional battlefield roles.

Ukrainian forces have used a heavy drone to save a wounded soldier from the front lines, carrying out what one unit described as a "first-ever air evacuation."

The unusual mission underscores Ukraine's growing efforts to use drones and robots in unconventional roles on the battlefield, including casualty evacuation, logistics, and combat.

Ukraine's 92nd Separate Assault Brigade disclosed on Monday that it had "successfully" medically evacuated a wounded soldier who had been hurt at the front. The presence of land mines and Russian drones meant that a rescue operation using ground robots was not an option.

"Specialists from our company took on the responsibility of doing something that no one had done before: evacuating a soldier using an aerial drone," the brigade wrote in a translated statement on Telegram.

Soldiers used a heavy six-rotor hexacopter made by the Ukrainian company Gurzuf Defense for the medevac mission. The aircraft was tested in advance and modified by unit specialists to ensure it remained stable.

The 92nd said several military units participated in the rescue, including the 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade, which operated the drone that evacuated the wounded soldier. The soldier is now recovering from his injuries. The unit didn't specify when or where the evacuation took place.

"This is a historic event, at least for our unit," said Napalm, the squad leader and programmer for a robotics company in the 92nd, who was identified only by his call sign.

Casualty evacuation missions have become increasingly robotic this year as Ukrainian officials, companies, and units push to replace soldiers with machines in dangerous front-line roles.

Ukraine's defense ministry said in early September that the number of ground-robot casualty-evacuation and logistics missions has increased more than threefold since the start of the year, from roughly 7,500 in January to more than 25,000 in August.

The deployment of an aerial drone for casualty evacuation reflects a continued effort to use drones in new ways.

Gurzuf Defence, the maker of the drone used for the mission, called it an operation "that no one has ever performed before." The company said that Ukrainian forces used an aircraft called the Heavy Shot "AYUDAG 6" and the mission lasted roughly 75 minutes and covered a distance of nearly 40 miles.

Gurzuf Defence is not the only Ukrainian company working on this technology; SkyFall, the firm behind the P1-SUN interceptor, recently unveiled a large hexacopter for casualty evacuation.

Large drones can carry heavier payloads, but their size can also be a vulnerability on the battlefield. Samuel Bendett, a drone warfare expert at the Center for Naval Analyses, a US research organization, wrote on social media that there are "obvious dangers" with large, slow aircraft conducting casualty evacuation missions.

Bendett said that the Russian military spends "considerable resources" targeting heavy-lift drones. He told Business Insider that Moscow's elite Rubicon units are particularly focused on downing such aircraft.

As Russia's full-scale invasion grinds on, Ukrainian forces are continuing to innovate with their drones. Last month, for instance, the Third Army Corps revealed that it had become the "first in the world" to air-drop ground robots from drones in combat. Other units have deployed similar technology.

• Ukraine is funding air defense missiles with a hard cap of $20,000 per shot, Brave1's chief said.
• That's about a sixth the cost of a Stinger missile, and still cheaper than an APWKS 70mm rocket.
• It's one of Kyiv's responses to Russia's thousands-strong, inexpensive Shahed fleets.

Ukraine has been running a yearslong weapons program to develop cheap surface-to-air missiles that cost no more than $20,000 each, said Andrii Hrytseniuk, the head of its Brave1 startup incubator.

Several firms have been testing prototypes under this framework, and Kyiv is "preparing to put two of these companies into combat," Hrytseniuk said in a video interview published with Ukrainska Pravda on Thursday.

He expressed hope that a third would soon reach a similar stage.

Hrytseniuk said some of these manufacturers have managed to get costs down to $10,000 per missile, though the program has set a hard price cap of $20,000 per shot.

"This is significantly cheaper than the cost of a Shahed. Even if you need two or three missiles, it is still several times cheaper than the cost of a Shahed," said Hrytseniuk of the limit.

Hrytseniuk said the program was launched by Brave1 as a competition between Ukrainian firms to "create the cheapest anti-aircraft missile systems possible."

"Funding for missiles began in 2024, but making a missile takes even more time than making an interceptor drone," he added.

A price limit of $20,000 would make these Ukrainian missiles even cheaper than the AGR-Falco Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, an American-made unguided 70mm rocket fitted with a laser guidance kit.

Costing about $30,000 to $35,000 each, these were traditionally air-to-ground rockets that have now been converted for air defense in Ukraine. The cheapest US standard surface-to-air missile is the shoulder-mounted Stinger, which costs about $120,000 per missile.

The Ukrainian effort to lower air defense costs comes as a response to Russia's extensive Shahed attack drone fleets, which are numerous and cheaper to produce than typical missiles. Ukrainian officials have estimated that the Russian Geran-2, for example, costs $70,000 each, while jet-powered drones like the Geran-3 cost at least $100,000.

Kyiv uses a layered network of defense systems, including machine gun crews, interceptor quadcopters, and electronic warfare, to fight against these drones, which Russia can launch hundreds of at a time.

But Moscow has increasingly used jet-powered Gerans, which fly too fast for regular interceptor drones and human gun crews to keep up with. A new AI-powered terrain mapping system found on some Gerans has also raised concerns that Russia will soon be able to bypass Ukrainian jamming.

Ukraine's alternative has been air-defense missiles, such as the air-launched AIM-9 Sidewinder, which can cost about half a million dollars per shot.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that his country was working on a "small missile program" as a counter to jet-powered Gerans.

"There are several types. We will clearly see the result this month. At the end, in the second half of this month," he told reporters at a press conference.

In September, Hrytseniuk told Business Insider's Jake Epstein that several Ukrainian companies were also integrating artificial intelligence into strike missile systems and were seeing "first successes."

• Ukraine's drone pilots want masses of cheap, simple drones, a soldier and analyst said.
• Western manufacturers overcomplicate them and "get it so wrong," he added.
• Operators want drones they can tweak near the front and send out in large numbers.

Ukrainian drone operators need masses of relatively simple drones without a bunch of flashy features, a soldier with firsthand experience explained, cautioning the West against making them too complicated as it readies for future drone fights.

Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion is a grinding war of attrition that is consuming weaponry so fast that combatants need affordable weapons in huge numbers, and battlefield technology becomes obsolete so quickly that soldiers need systems they can update easily to keep them relevant in battle.

Dmytro "Liber" Zhluktenko, a former drone operator who is now a lessons learned analyst in Ukraine's 413th Unmanned Systems Regiment "RAID," told Business Insider that "we need something that works great but doesn't have superfluous features."

"That is something that most of the Western defense technology manufacturers, they get it so wrong," he said. Consider first-person-view attack drones, "we need something that is really basic."

"We are yet to find Western manufacturers that are able to produce, let's say 500,000 FPV drones, simple ones that just work, that are fine-tuned without any extra autonomy or extra navigation or any features like that," he added, describing what Ukraine needs most as something pilots can easily take straight into combat.

Western-made drone tech, he said, is often "too complicated, often detached from the battlefield, and much more expensive than Ukrainian options doing the same job. Therefore, most of the drones used at Ukraine's battlefield are Ukrainian-made."

His assessment of the situations draws on both his experience as a drone operator and his role as an analyst, where he looks at battlefield trends, interviews operators, meets with foreign defense manufacturers, prepares briefs for higher command, and organizes the sharing of information between Ukrainian units.

Simple drones give soldiers more flexibility

Part of the appeal of simpler drones is that Ukrainian operators can adapt them themselves.

Near the front, soldiers routinely modify weapons to keep them useful as the battlefield changes, and some units even have their own R&D centers.

They often want drones and other combat systems that are basic, generic platforms they can rework, upgrade, or configure for different missions, much like ground robots that can be assembled with different weapons or components like Lego sets.

Ukrainian companies and foreign companies that work with units know this is happening, work with unit engineers to help keep products updated, and are often surprised by the ways soldiers modify their gear. Companies are increasingly making their products modular, both so they can upgrade the products more easily and so soldiers can make their own changes near the front.

Zhluktenko said Ukraine's operators want products they can "tune ourselves, we would change the components or whatever as we need, because that's the normal process. But something like the basic platform that it could build upon."

He said it's "bonkers" that, despite the West's "significant industrial capacities," they aren't seeing anyone produce something simple and effective at scale.

Zhluktenko said that many Western manufacturers are still "stuck in this doctrine of building tools in small quantities that maybe yes, they do have some extra features, but that's not something that is way too relevant for Ukraine's combat."

The case for cheaper drones in greater numbers

Zhluktenko's comments echo warnings from Western and Ukrainian officials that this war has shown the West the limits of relying on smaller numbers of exquisite, highly advanced weapons.

Modern, large-scale warfare, as the situation in Ukraine has demonstrated, may also require much larger numbers of cheaper, less capable gear.

Ukraine is still buying and building advanced drone technology with cutting-edge features like autonomy, which can be critical for warfighting tasks such as intercepting Russia's attack drones or executing long-range strikes that need to break through the enemy's electronic warfare.

Zhluktenko said that it's about "balance," arguing that simpler drones remain essential and are often needed in far greater numbers. Ukrainian companies like SkyFall and General Cherry are producing these kinds of drones at scale, he said.

A representative for Ukrainian drone and technology company TechEx told Business Insider that Western manufacturers often have to deal with heavier, peacetime regulations.

They may have "levels of additional software and hardware that's put on top of it instead of making it a bare, functional, ready to go system here and now," she said.

That can "overcomplicate the operation of the system," she added. It can also make the manufacturing process more complex, so it's harder to produce the large volumes that some Ukrainian manufacturers can.

She described it as the contrast between "wartime operations and the peacetime operations." She said Western companies might have different processes and priorities if they needed to work faster and on a bigger scale.

Western officials say the war shows that allies need much larger volumes of cheap weapons, with leaders like Danish defense minister Troels Lund Poulsen previously telling Business Insider that "one of the lessons" from Ukraine is that the West needs far greater quantities of inexpensive weaponry.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said last year that "speed is of the essence, not perfection."

Drones are central to Ukraine's fight, and it says they now cause as much as 95% of Russia's front-line losses. But using drones effectively can require deploying large numbers of them, knowing that many will never reach their targets. That means making systems that are cheap and workable is key.

Zhluktenko said that when it comes to drones, the mindset should be about "spending thousands of dollars, not hundreds of thousands."

• The US Army is expanding its ranks of soldiers specialized in space warfare.
• Army space personnel are already deployed to the Middle East, where the US has been fighting Iran.
• More than 600 enlisted soldiers joined the new specialty this year, with more growth planned.

The US Army is expanding its ranks of soldiers trained for space warfare, a growing military specialty that is already supporting American combat operations in the Middle East.

The service established a new enlisted space operations branch in June, creating a dedicated career field for soldiers whose work involves satellites, communications, and the ability to disrupt an adversary's use of space.

While the Space Force and its Guardians oversee a broad range of military space operations in support of the entire US military, the Army has its own dedicated specialists focused on supporting its ground forces with satellite communications, navigation, and other capabilities.

Some space soldiers are already deployed in the Middle East, where American forces have been fighting Iran.

Lt. Gen. John Rafferty, the commander of US Army Space and Missile Defense Command, said at the Association of the United States Army conference in Washington, DC, this week that roughly 2,500 soldiers from his command are deployed to US Central Command's area of operations. That figure includes both air-defense formations and space specialists.

"Space is really embedded in every single echelon there," Rafferty said, speaking of the job's growing prevalence throughout all levels of military decision-making.

Those space soldiers' responsibilities can range from helping ground forces access satellite communications and navigation systems to disrupting adversary space capabilities, known as "space interdiction." Officials did not provide specific examples or further details on the work being done.

For soldiers on the battlefield, such help is essential for communicating with nearby units and gathering intelligence on enemy movements.

The growing importance of space as a domain of warfare, alongside land, sea, air, and cyberspace, prompted the Army to expand its specialized workforce.

Command Sgt. Maj. Rickey Jackson said at AUSA that the service reviewed several thousand personnel files for its new enlisted space operations branch. The 600 soldiers ultimately selected for the new job came mostly from intelligence, communications, and air-defense specialties, though the career field is open to troops from other backgrounds.

The service plans to continue growing its formalized space community, with around 1,700 space soldiers by the end of next fiscal year.

"When we talk about the branch and the targets, having a couple thousand dedicated folks within the branch between the enlisted and the officer side is a significant contribution across the service," Col. Joseph Mroszczyk, who oversees the integration of emerging space capabilities into Army operations, said during the event.

• The US Army will detonate 68 barrels of unstable explosive material at an ammunition production plant.
• Officials determined the lead azide couldn't be relocated and are in contact with residents on environmental concerns.
• The facility is also home to the Army's new 155mm artillery production line, which began construction earlier this year.

The US Army will detonate dozens of barrels of unstable explosives at its ammunition plant in Iowa after determining the material couldn't be safely moved, according to a public affairs official.

The lead azide the service needs to get rid of has been stored at the site for almost 20 years and is no longer needed for ammunition production. The detonation will occur near the service's new 155mm artillery production line, construction of which began in July.

The Army informed residents of nearby Middletown, Iowa, this week that it would detonate 68 barrels of lead azide sometime in November. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams will execute the detonation.

"There are 68 barrels of lead azide in two earth-covered magazines, and that material was on site for potential production," Justine Barati, deputy director of public affairs for the US Sustainment Command, told Business Insider. "When we realized that we would no longer need that material or use that material, then it becomes hazardous waste."

A team of experts recommended a controlled explosion to destroy the lead azide, and that decision was elevated to former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll for approval.

Barati said the 155mm facility is on the other side of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant. The Army anticipates a four-hour delay to construction at the facility on the day of the detonation.

The Army asked Middletown residents near the plant to temporarily leave their homes and is offering the Army Reserve Center as a place to stay during the detonation.

About 55 homes are expected to be affected by the detonation decision, Barati said. Local residents can assess any property damage afterward and file claims with the Army. The Iowa newspaper The Hawk Eye first reported on the detonation and town hall with residents.

Lead azide is a highly sensitive and toxic material used as a primary explosive component in some weapons that can pose environmental and health risks. Barati said that prior to and after the detonation, the Army will test air, water, and soil in the area. Residents agreed to give the service access to their properties for the checks.

The Iowa Army Ammunition Plant is a critical production facility for medium- and large-caliber munitions. Earlier this year, the Army began construction of a new production line for 155mm ammunition, replacing the plant's World War II-era M795 artillery production line.

The new facility was designed by the Army's Combat Capabilities Development Command's Armament Center and MSM North America to produce different types of 155mm ammunition with the capacity to surge manufacturing for wartime demands.

155mm artillery shells have become a high-demand munition amid recent conflicts. The US has ramped up production after providing millions of rounds to Ukraine. Concerns about the state of US ammo stocks have risen as the military assesses its readiness for future wars.

• The US Army is expanding its use of high-altitude balloons for surveillance and communications.
• The balloons can operate 60,000 to 100,000 feet above Earth, providing space-like capabilities.
• Army officials plan more experiments as the service expands its space warfare ranks.

The US Army is looking to expand its use of high-altitude balloons as the service builds out its capabilities near and in outer space.

These balloons operate in the stratosphere, roughly 60,000 to 100,000 feet above Earth, the space in between where conventional aircraft fly and satellites. Army officials say they see an opportunity to use the balloons to deliver satellite-like surveillance and communication capabilities closer to the battlefield.

Lt. Gen. John Rafferty, commander of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, said he was initially skeptical of the technology. He recalled hearing proposals to use high-altitude balloons while serving in what was then Army Futures Command and questioning whether they'd prove practical.

The general's view, however, changed after he saw the balloons hold their positions and conduct high-altitude surveillance during a training exercise.

"I went from nowhere to a huge believer very quickly once I saw them in action," Rafferty said at this week's Association of the United States Army conference in Washington, DC.

The Army is exploring a range of balloon systems for different missions, from surveillance and communications to supporting long-range strikes.

Col. Joseph Mroszczyk, who oversees the efforts to integrate emerging space capabilities into Army operations as the director of Transformation Integration Space Superiority, said at AUSA that he wants a "family of stratospheric systems."

Unlike satellites, which travel set paths in orbit, high-altitude balloons can exploit different wind currents to maneuver or maintain a presence over an area of interest, he said.

Mroszczyk said the Army could use favorable winds to position balloons carrying sensors, communications equipment, or payloads supporting strikes.

"What that enables us to provide is space-like capabilities, really exploiting a transition point between what is normally considered the aerial layer and the space domain," he said.

Operating at those altitudes could give the Army persistent coverage across large areas from the stratosphere without relying exclusively on satellites or conventional aircraft.

The Army plans to conduct multiple experiments involving various stratospheric systems over the coming year, building on tests conducted in Europe and the Pacific. The service has also experimented with the technology alongside combat operations in the Middle East, a senior Army official told Breaking Defense earlier this week.

Those efforts followed the cancellation of a large-scale balloon demonstration planned for the Indo-Pacific last year.

The growing interest in high-altitude balloons comes as the Army expands its role in space and near-space operations, with ground forces increasingly reliant on space-based capabilities for navigation, communications, and intelligence.

• Ukraine's access to military-grade Starlink services was suddenly disrupted this week.
• Kyiv said the disruption affected critical Ukrainian drone operations.
• Ukrainians say the incident exposes the risks of relying so heavily on a single communications platform.

The sudden disruption to Ukraine's access to military-grade Starlink services this week shows the risks of overly relying on any single platform, particularly one beyond Kyiv's control, for mission-critical battlefield communications, Ukrainian soldiers, officials, and defense companies told Business Insider.

With those risks front of mind, Ukrainians are working to diversify military-related communications platforms beyond Starlink.

Ukrainian officials and soldiers were surprised on Wednesday by an unexpected disruption to Starshield, SpaceX's dedicated satellite network for military services. Defense ministry sources said speeds were restricted above 100 miles per hour, though some units experienced a loss of connectivity at speeds as low as 45 mph.

Services appeared to have been at least partially restored by Thursday. The full extent of the disruption remains unclear, but the incident has left some Ukrainians feeling uneasy.

Yehor Cherniev, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliament's national security, defense, and intelligence committee, told Business Insider that the disruption underscores the risks of relying on a single communications platform. He said Kyiv is working to diversify its sources, but declined to specify how.

Yuriy, an officer with Ukraine's National Guard, told Business Insider that his units use Starshield to support drone operations, and several missions were spoiled during the disruption. He asked to be identified only by his first name for security purposes.

Yuriy said that while Starlink services are useful, the disruption exposes their unreliability. He said he would try to find alternate communications systems.

Alternatives to Starlink could be hard to find, though. Eutelsat, a large French satellite operator, saw its shares surge after this week's disruption, but Ukrainians say there is nothing else quite like what SpaceX offers.

"There is no working alternative to Starlink," said Dimko Zhluktenko, a soldier with Ukraine's 413th Unmanned Systems Regiment, calling it "an outstanding product."

"No direct competitor comes close," he told Business Insider, adding that "Europe has nothing comparable at this level of battlefield readiness."

SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider this week.

Ukraine relies on Starlink for battlefield communications and drone warfare, a dependence that was underscored by the disruption. Defense ministry sources said the disruption complicated important drone operations, including mid-range strikes, air defense intercepts, and front-line logistics.

Ukraine uses both Starshield and Starlink, SpaceX's commercial satellite internet service, to extend the reach of its drones, maintain stable communications in electronically contested environments, and conduct remote operations far beyond the front lines.

Satellite connections allow operators to control drones and receive live video without relying on traditional radio links, which have limited ranges and are much more vulnerable to electronic warfare interference.

The tech has been integrated into systems such as Perennial Autonomy's Hornet drones, as well as Ukrainian naval drones used to strike Russian targets in the Black Sea, among others.

Many Ukrainian defense companies have integrated Starlink services into their broader infrastructure, even if their products don't necessarily depend on it for operations.

Some firms, such as SkyFall, maker of the widely used P1-SUN interceptor drone, told Business Insider that they have developed their own communication methods or use alternative systems to avoid scenarios where a single technology outside Ukrainian control could become a significant point of failure, as it did this week.

"Depending on a single solution is very risky. Especially if you don't have full control over it," a spokesperson for Wild Hornets, the firm behind the popular Sting interceptor drone, told Business Insider. "Especially when it comes to something as critical on the battlefield as communications."

The spokesperson said this is "exactly why our ecosystem is built around our own communications technology and is open to various solutions when it comes to internet connectivity."

For anyone working with technologies that are dominated by a single provider, the risks are clear, said the head of hardware research and development at BlueBird Tech, a defense firm that makes drones and robots. They told Business Insider that Starlink has virtually no competitors because of its coverage, cost, availability, and ease of use.

BlueBird Tech uses Starlink services but is trying to avoid tying its products completely to any single technology. "We're actively exploring ways to introduce redundancy and potentially replace these components in the future," they said, speaking anonymously due to security concerns.

They said that potential workarounds include LTE or 5G technology, mesh networks with relay points, and laser communications. "Research teams around the world are working on these technologies," they said, "although none of them should be seen as a universal replacement for Starlink across every operational scenario."

When the disruption first occurred on Wednesday, some Ukrainian and foreign officials initially blamed SpaceX, led by Elon Musk. However, the world's richest man said on X on Wednesday that because Starshield is operated by the US government, any limits on speed would be a decision for the Pentagon or President Donald Trump.

A senior US official told Business Insider on Thursday that "no such request was ever made by" Trump. Reuters reported that the order came from inside the White House.

Starlink has delivered Kyiv an important battlefield advantage, especially since SpaceX cracked down on Moscow's ability to use the terminals earlier this year. The system, however, does not work in Russia, so Ukraine is limited to using its services over its own territory and Russian-occupied lands.

Ukraine has been unable to use Starlink for its long-range drone strikes that have wreaked havoc on Russian energy sites. Trump has pushed Kyiv to stop its attacks as he attempts to use Russian oil to lower gas prices.

Ukraine has found itself facing mounting pressure from the US, once a top supporter, as it continues to grapple with Russian missile and drone strikes amid severe shortages of critical air defense interceptors. The Starlink outage has only compounded Kyiv's anxieties as it anticipates yet another tough winter.

"Starlink is a major card on the battlefield," Zhluktenko said. "You can fight without it — even successfully — as the Russians show, but less effectively, at higher cost, and with constant communication headaches, above all for unmanned systems."

• Ukraine's access to military-grade Starlink services is returning, sources told Business Insider.
• Defense ministry and parliamentary sources said on Thursday that Starshield operations had been at least partially restored.
• On Wednesday, Ukraine was caught off guard by sudden speed restrictions, affecting drone missions.

Ukraine's access to military-grade Starlink services appears to have been at least partially restored on Thursday, a day after Kyiv was stunned by sudden speed limits that it said hamstrung some drone operations.

Ukrainian defense ministry sources told Business Insider that Starshield services remained functional while in motion as of roughly 11:45 a.m. local time on Thursday, according to reports that they had received from military units.

The sources said the defense ministry is working to understand how and why there was a disruption to the operation of Starshield, SpaceX's dedicated satellite network for military services.

Yehor Cherniev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliament's national security, defense, and intelligence committee, told Business Insider that Starshield services had been restored to their pre-disruption capacity.

Ukrainian officials and service members were caught off guard on Wednesday by the unexpected Starshield disruption, which they said restricted speeds above 100 miles per hour. Some units experienced a loss of connection at speeds as low as 45 miles per hour.

The full extent of the service limitation remains unclear.

Yuriy, an officer with Ukraine's National Guard, told Business Insider that his units use Starshield to support drone operations and that speeds were back above 100 miles per hour as of Thursday morning. He asked to be identified only by his first name for security purposes.

However, Yuriy said that several operations were disrupted during the earlier restrictions.

Defense ministry sources said the disruption complicated mid-range strikes, air defense intercepts, and front-line logistics. Starlink does not work inside Russia, so the issue was limited to missions in Ukrainian territory or Russian-occupied territory.

The sudden Starlink disruption caused widespread confusion and raised questions about the source of the decision and whether it was connected to tensions between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over Kyiv's targeting of Russian energy facilities.

Ukrainian forces use Starlink, the commercial satellite internet service run by SpaceX, and Starshield, a secure network for military and government work built by the company but operated by the US government. Some Ukrainian officials initially blamed SpaceX for the disruption.

In an X post on Wednesday responding to Ukraine's former defense minister, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk put the issue on the Trump administration, saying that Starshield was "owned and controlled by the American government." He said "any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS."

A senior US official told Business Insider Thursday afternoon that "no such request was ever made by the President."

The Pentagon has not responded to requests for comment.

Sprawling influence

The outage and impact on front-line operations have called attention to Ukraine's deep dependence on Starlink, which has become critical for battlefield communications and drone warfare.

As Business Insider recently reported, Starlink's rapid expansion has given Musk and SpaceX an enormous source of influence and soft power, and the world's richest man has not been shy about using that power in Ukraine to influence the course of the war.

Musk said in 2023 that he refused a request from Ukraine's military to activate Starlink to assist a Ukrainian assault on the occupied Crimean peninsula. Earlier this year, SpaceX clamped down on Russian forces' use of Starlink terminals in Ukraine, handing Ukraine a key battlefield advantage.

While support for Ukraine has varied, Musk has consistently been a prominent critic of the Ukrainian president. In an X post late on Wednesday, hours after responding to Ukraine's defense minister, he wrote that it was "time for Zelenskyy to go."

The sudden Starlink disruptions came as Ukraine faces growing pressure from the US, with Trump pushing Kyiv to halt its strikes on Russian energy facilities. The US president said on Tuesday that Washington had not cut intelligence sharing with Ukraine, another concern for the country.

Cherniev, the Ukrainian lawmaker, confirmed on Thursday that the US continues to share intelligence with Kyiv.

Meanwhile, Russia has intensified its ballistic missile attacks against Ukraine, firing dozens overnight. Recent attacks have targeted Kyiv and Ukrainian energy facilities.