APOGEE STAFF

Private satellite operators supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia have helped counter the Kremlin’s vast electronic warfare (EW) and cyber arsenal. Commercial satellite communications (SATCOM) have exponentially changed the tactical, operational and strategic environment to Ukraine’s advantage, helping to coordinate counterattacks, guide drone strikes and distribute medicine, aid and other support. Commercial satellite operators have provided photos to help strategists in Kyiv while shining a light on atrocities and potential war crimes by Russian soldiers.  

This is the “first war where commercial space capabilities have really played a significant role,” Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, former U.S. Space Force chief of space operations, summed up to the BBC in late 2022. 

How commercial satellites have aided Ukraine is one of the lessons the U.S. is examining since Russia invaded the country without provocation in February 2022. Early predictions had the better-equipped Russia notching a quick victory, especially after hackers disabled a U.S. Viasat satellite to take out Ukraine’s broadband internet. Ukraine, which could not field its own satellites, was at a disadvantage from the outset, not only when it came to communications, but also with reconnaissance and the ability to assess enemy positions and strategy. 

However, in a stunning rebuke to Russia courtesy of SpaceX founder Elon Musk, hundreds of mobile Starlink satellite kits started to trickle into the beleaguered country. By June 2022, Ukraine had taken delivery of an estimated 15,000 kits, the billionaire Musk tweeted.

Ukrainians use their mobile phones near a Starlink satellite-based broadband station in Kherson on November 13, 2022, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared Kherson “ours.” AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Ukraine’s military, meanwhile, found other uses for space-based assets to further its defensive aims, including commercially available satellite imagery. The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which collects, analyzes and distributes satellite imagery to support U.S. national security interests, said during a geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) conference in April 2022 in Denver that it had more than doubled the commercial satellite imagery available over Ukraine during the war’s run-up and has provided imagery to its partners, including NATO.

“We’ve been able to be a key part of the how the West has helped Ukraine prevent Russia from overrunning Kyiv and installing a puppet government subservient to Russian control,” then-Vice Adm. Robert Sharp, former director of the NGA, said at the conference.

What’s more, said the agency, it has encouraged U.S. companies to help NATO as well. “As far as what U.S. imagery companies are providing to assist NATO and the West in this situation, is NGA OK with all that, even encouraging it? Absolutely. Heck yeah. No restrictions,” Sharp said.

“Publicly available imagery of Ukraine is now providing unprecedented public insight that until recently would’ve been only available through government agencies and officials, and it’s helping a democratic country fight for its survival and preserve its independence. We support and applaud those efforts 100%,” he said in his remarks.

Space-based assets have enabled offensive capabilities as well, aiding Ukraine’s forces while provoking Russian threats against the West and western companies. According to the NGA, private satellites have provided Kyiv with intelligence that U.S. spy satellites could not, due to secrecy constraints, to aid in counterattacks — and, in some cases, give Ukraine the upper hand on the frontlines. David Gauthier, head of commercial operations for the NGA, said in a Breaking Defense report that he was surprised Ukraine’s “information advantage on the battlefield,” had been able to counter Russia’s “superior equipment and mass” during the war’s early months.

Meanwhile, commercial remote sensing satellites — including those operated by Maxar, Planet, Capella and BlackSky — have shed light on the war’s civilian toll and uncovered evidence of Russian atrocities, helping to sustain the inflow of weapons, medicine and other supplies.

A Ukrainian military instructor helps Oksana Johannesson solve a
GPS issue while flying an older drone during a class in the Kyiv region. GPS-guided drones are playing a key role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. AFP/GETTY IMAGES

In remarks published in 2022 in Defense One, Volodymyr Usov, former chairman of the State Space Agency of Ukraine, said that without access to satellite imagery, it would be nearly impossible to document the atrocities. Speaking at the Space Innovation Summit, held virtually July 11-12, 2022, Usov said the war could become the first where the International Criminal Court relies on satellite imagery to prosecute the accused.

“I think that’s almost impossible without having really high-precision remote sensing services,” said Usov, now at a new space-based consultancy, the Space Initiatives Center.

In addition to helping build a case for war crimes, satellites have given Ukraine the ability to effectively employ precision GPS-guided weapons, including drones, highly accurate M982-Excalibur artillery shells — which can hit a truck more than 62 kilometers away, according to U.S. military tests — and M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) rocket launchers, accurate to more than 72 kilometers. Collectively, PNT-supported systems have helped level the playing field for Ukraine forces. 

Not everyone is happy to see commercial satellites making such an effective contribution to the war. To the disappointment of the Pentagon and many U.S. lawmakers, SpaceX objected to what it called the “weaponization” of its technology to conduct GPS-enabled counterattacks. In February 2023, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told the 25th Annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference that the company will no longer support offensive operations in Ukraine.

The company’s sudden pullback raised eyebrows in Washington and prompted questions around commercial IT resources in times of war – especially given their effectiveness in Ukraine and potential role in the event the U.S. becomes embroiled in a conflict.

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing a month later, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly asked then-U.S. Space Command Gen. James Dickinson about the impact of private industry partnerships on the nation’s readiness.

Dickinson responded that the Pentagon was already exploring the issue of “shared understanding” with private satellite operators. “There is an initiative that is [being worked on] right now within the department, within the Space Force that is actually looking at what you just described there,” he told Kelly, according to a hearing transcript. “How do we make sure during times of conflict that if we’re relying on commercial companies for certain services, that they’ll be available to us?”

One potential solution is the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program or CRAF, the general said. Introduced in 1952, CRAF ensures that commercial airlines provide dedicated airlift resources to the military under specific circumstances and with military oversight of the resources.

Shared agreements between the military and private industry are nothing new. That goes for Pentagon-supported research and development at SpaceX, as well. In 2004, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and U.S. Air Force awarded $8 million to the DARPA Falcon program, in part to lower launch pad processing times to quickly add satellite coverage during emergencies. SpaceX was happy to oblige the DOD. 

“With this program, the Department of Defense is continuing a tradition of supporting new American space launch capabilities,” Musk said in a news release at the time. “We are honored to be selected by DARPA and the U.S. Air Force. We will work hard to exceed their expectations.”

Dickinson also described to the committee the importance of commercial satellites as the war in Ukraine unfolds and why it’s important for commercial operators engaged in shared agreements with the United States to understand their legal obligations, ensuring continued access to their technology.

“There’s no question that SpaceX’s Starlink system has been used extensively by Ukraine and its response to the Russian aggression,” Dickinson said. “I think the use of Starlink has been described in numerous media accounts almost since the beginning of that conflict. I think this demonstrates that commercial space capabilities can play a significant role in our modern high-intensity conflicts. And the concerns I think SpaceX representatives recently expressed about Ukraine’s use of Starlink highlight the importance of shared understanding between commercial service providers and their customers and users,” he added.

Earlier in 2023, U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman also underscored the importance of space as a warfighting domain. Assessing the war in Ukraine for the Space Force Association, a professional association that supports the U.S. Space Force, he said, “[I] think it would be fair to say that what we’re observing is the criticality of space in modern warfare.”

Saltzman, who took over from Gen. Raymond in November 2022, is among those scrutinizing the war. In a briefing with reporters in early 2023, he said it’s not enough to field effective space-based systems in today’s warfighting domain. Those systems need to be backed by combat-ready forces. “The personnel have to be trained,” Saltzman said, according to a January 2023 report in Space Policy Online. “We have to have operational concepts. We have to have tactics that are validated, and the operators have to practice those tactics. We need intelligence to underpin how we’re going to continue to use those systems.” 

Russia’s inability to quickly overpower Ukraine as it had hoped and despite a larger, more sophisticated arsenal occurred because it lacked a comprehensive approach, Saltzman said. “High-quality equipment alone doesn’t make you successful if you don’t have the training, the logistics, the sustainability, the operational concepts to operate in multidomain axes,” he said. “I think the Russians had on paper very good equipment, but it didn’t necessarily have the sustainment behind it. It didn’t necessarily have the logistics.”

Reports emerged in early 2024 that in addition to trying to hack commercial satellite systems like Starlink, Russia has turned to exploiting them. Kremlin forces have reportedly captured or acquired dozens of Starlink terminals for military purposes, including front-line communications and, possibly, to guide drones.

“Starlink is a commercial product. It’s available on the commercial market. Of course, companies, countries all over the world — certainly Russia has no problem trying to buy things through the black market,” John Plumb, then assistant secretary of defense for space policy, said at the April 2024 Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, according to Breaking Defense.

SpaceX for its part is working with U.S. officials to resolve the matter. Meanwhile, Russia’s reliance on U.S.-based commercial satellites points to apparent inadequacies in its PNT-based GLONASS system. According to a report in the spring 2024 issue of Æther: A Journal of Strategic Airpower & Spacepower, published by the U.S. Air Force’s Air University, Ukraine’s effective use of commercial SATCOM to communicate with warfighters when it had no satellites of its own offers a remarkable lesson.

“The use of space in Ukraine has shown that commercial data sources provide effective alternatives to classified space-derived information, enabling more efficient information sharing across partners and Allies,” Robin Dickey and Michael P. Gleason wrote in their report, Space and War in Ukraine: Beyond the Satellites. “Information-sharing policies and practices combined with the space-derived information itself have allowed the United States and its Allies and partners to coordinate a comprehensive response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine across military, diplomatic, and economic sectors.”  

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