Elon Musk's SpaceX 'fantastically' fought Starlink hacking in Ukraine; Pentagon impressed

Elon Musk's SpaceX was successful in defending its Starlink internet service network in Ukraine from Russian hackers and the Pentagon is pretty impressed with it. Speaking at the C4ISRNET Conference, Dave Tremper, from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, confirmed that SpaceX 'rapidly' fought off any attempts by the Russians to jam Starlink signal. He even admitted that even the US military would have taken longer to defend itself from such attacks. 

The California-based firm had activated its Starlink satellites over Ukraine at the request of Ukrainian officials after Russia disrupted Kyiv's communication services after invading the ex-Soviet state on February 24. Just days after activating the satellites and sending Starlink terminals to Ukraine, Musk had warned its users that Russian hackers might try to jam the signals. His prophecy came true as in March, he revealed that attempts were made but they have "resisted all hacking and jamming attempts". 

Tremper asserts US military should learn from SpaceX

Asserting that the US military "needs to be able to have (SpaceX's) agility", Tremper said as per Daily Mail, "There's a really interesting case study to look at the agility that Starlink had in their ability to address that problem". He even went on to describe SpaceX's defensive technique 'eye-watering' and called the company's line of countermeasure 'fantastic'. "We need to be able to change our electromagnetic posture to be able to change, very dynamically, what we’re trying to do without losing capability along the way", the official added. 

According to multiple reports, around 5,000 Starlink terminals are currently operational in Ukraine and are helping the war-torn nation in fighting off the Russian forces. 

Interestingly, Ukraine is using Aerorozvidka (Aerial Reconnaissance) through the satellite internet and is targeting Russian drones to hamper their invasion attempts. Currently, Ukraine is suffering constant internet and power outages owing to the Russian invasion and Starlink is offering internet for Kyiv to operate drones of its own. Miffed over Musk's help to Ukraine, Russian had even declared a war on Starlink saying it would take down the satellites hovering over its territory.