@wallabra It's a moment in the movie and I'm paraphrasing the dialogue ("You say Ferris Bueller, you lose a testicle") to make a point that no matter what good things Starlink might do, it's still a bad idea in general. I was getting tired of people telling me that Starlink is awesome just because it's helping Ukraine. Not sure people still use that argument, but it was very popular a couple of years ago.
@macronencer Ohh, right, yeah, that argument. I had forgotten about it.
Yeah, it's bollocks. Ukraine still has Internet infrastructure. It's not as hard to destroy internet connectivity in a war precisely because of the distributive nature of routable networks.
In other words, Starlink is completely unnecessary. Ukraine's gonna be fine... at least internet wise.
@wallabra
@macronencer While I also don't think it justifies Starlink, no, there is currently no replacement for Starlink in the Ukrainian context. At the trench lines, there is no infrastructure of any kind left. It's all rubble. Also, getting realtime video uplink from a drone in the middle of the black sea or in the middle of Moscow is not possible for them by any non-satellite means. In theory the front line connections could be partially replaced by much much more heavily deployed terrestrial data radios, but they're by default easier to both jam and home in on with RF-seeking drones, simply due to the angle of intended emissions.
The internet is somewhat resilient, yes. However, its resilience is highly overestimated by folks who don't work on carrier networks. The whole thing is held together with very expensive ducktape and bailing wire and constant efforts by thousands of people. Fiber breaks are a constant problem. The only intact fiber at the Ukrainian front is attached to FPV drones.
@dymaxion @macronencer I mean, all technology is held together by duct tape, yeah. Such is the nature of squeezing margin out of capital. That doesn't mean deploying a hecto-mesh of satellites is the approach to go with for resilient remote miltary operations. I mean, think about it this way: did Iran need Starlink to strike Dubai with drones?
@wallabra
@macronencer Iran is mostly shooting at stuff that doesn't move and doing without manual terminal-phase guidance. Again, I'm not saying that it's justified. That said, making the argument to governments that capability is not worth the risk and impact on a way that will be heard requires acknowledging the use cases where there is no direct replacement and the infrastructural dependencies that attempts to replace it imply. The EU and China are both working toward their own constellations, multiplying the problem, because having a sovereign LEO data capability is seen as a critical defense capability.