Starlink is both a successful commercial service making money hand over fist and a vital strategic asset for the United States. Put simply its one of the most transformative infrastructure projects of the 21st century. SpaceX found a winner and is doubling down on it I don't blame them.

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ethbr1 5 days ago | parent [-]

Just wait until the US' low orbit sensing/networking satellite cloud is fully deployed (with radar, GMTI, AMTI).

That's the vital strategic asset, because suddenly the US will have ASAT-tolerant space sensing capability (by virtue of decentralization and numbers) while other countries will still have exquisite assets.

Starlink is interesting, but the above is a game changer at the level of when the Key Holes were launched or the GPS constellation was completed.

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ls612 4 days ago | parent [-]

The Ukraine War has already proven that Starlink as it exists today in civilian form is already a game changer. If sensor satellites could make a constellation that was over target 100% of the time and could track a ship to support a missile lock (not sure if this is possible with the constellations being built today but it sure isn’t possible with a old style system like the yaogan) then that would be transformative for a Pacific War scenario.

	▲	ethbr1 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		That's essentially the goal: weapon targeting quality tracks, across 100% of the planet, 100% of the time. (Albeit probably with limited simultaneous tracks)