The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter on Saturday to SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk demanding that U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan get access to SpaceX’s Starshield, a satellite communication network designed specifically for the military.
The letter, obtained by CNBC and first reported by Forbes, claimed that by not making Starshield available to U.S. military forces in Taiwan, SpaceX could violate its Pentagon contract, which requires “global access” to Starshield technology.
Why TF are we renting military stuff from any 3rd party and essentially giving them control to override the military chain of command in the first place? I can’t see this sitting well with anyone on the military side of this.
Outsourcing is the new thing, you don’t have to take the blame and that’s value for a lot of decision makers.
Also it always, ALWAYS results in a shittier product. Which is part of the reason why the world is fucked right now.
Presumably for the same reason that many US prisons are run by private individuals.
“We demand that you make us reliant on you for communications!”
JFC we spend a trillion bucks a year on the military. Why don’t they have their own satellite internet already?
We do. They’re all geostationary. So high latency and low bandwidth. Been in operation early 2000.
They do, it just not as fast or reliable. SpaceX put more into infrastructure whereas the Military just did bare minimum. Now that Starlink is so much better, it’s cheaper and more efficient to rent from them than to continue building their own.
Who do you think paid for SpaceX to launch all those satellites?
You know what would be even cheaper? Seizing Starlink as a national security asset.
Do you really want to give the government the power to do that, and then hand that power over to the military… I don’t like Musk but I see so many worse scenarios with this being controlled by the military.
I see so many worse scenarios with this being controlled by the military.
Do you? Musk is already letting the Russian military use Starlink after refusing to let Ukraine us it in a major military operation.
What would be worse than giving aid to Russia?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/12/ukraine-accuses-russia-forces-using-elon-musk-starlink
This is crazy talk. Anybody can smuggle some terminals into their country. That doesn’t mean they’re being “helped”. The US government would come down on SpaceX with unprecedented force if they violated sanctions like that
It’s crazy talk? No. It’s reality. Elon shut down Starlink for the Ukraine military with the excuse that they would have started World War 3. Meaning he has the power to shut down Starlink for the Russians as well.
I’d love to better understand your position. it seems like you think that Starlink is aware of who is using a terminal. how can Starlink differentiate between a Ukrainian and Russian user in the same general area? should Starlink randomly turn off user terminals it suspects? what if it accidentally turns off a Ukrainian one? billing is obv not a good indicator
I want to understand your thoughts a little more clearly on this
US military should build its own damn starlink as a matter of national security
You are correct, but if they try it’ll just get diverted and used to feed the oligarchs.
I’d rather the U.S. government just seize all of the muskrat’s businesses and nationalize them.
Something something military industrial complex
You never demand anything from an egotist, it’s like our politicians have no idea…
