Sometimes the devil is quite literally in the detail. Speculation is now mounting as to the extreme nature of the Russian military technology unleashed in Iran to essentially shut down Starlink Internet for the first time. Hitting Starlink was the final piece of Iran’s “kill switch.” But that particular kill switch really belongs to Putin, not Khamenei.
When Iran first blocked Starlink as its internet blackout began, it was immediately attributed to Russian tech, such as trucks armed with radio equipment to overwhelm ground-based receivers. Then when Starlink telemetry fingerprinted GPS spoofing as a “electronic warfare” escalation, it was again attributed to Russian military tech.
But the latest analysis goes further, and strays into more alarming territory. “Did Iran just use Russia’s ‘Kalinka’ jamming system on Starlink?” National Interest asks. This is an offensive technology designed to hunt down even military Starlink deployments.
“What makes Kalinka particularly worrisome,” Space News notes, “is its alleged ability to detect terminals connected to Starshield, the military version of Starlink designed with enhanced security features.”
Space News cites a Secure World Foundation report into counter-space technologies. In short, this is intended as a genuine Starlink killer rather than a localized point and shoot solution as had been assumed was in use.
And it may not just have been Putin’s tech at work in Iran. Per National Interest again, counter-satcom tech deployed by Iran was likely “designed to negate the advantages that Starlink allows its users to enjoy. And it is more than likely that those tactics were not created by the Iranians. Instead, they were likely crafted by the cutthroat space warriors in Beijing and Moscow and shared with their besieged partners in Tehran.”
We don’t know exactly what was used on the ground in Iran, but it now seems beyond doubt that the more effective technologies in use were shipped in from Russia. A mix of lessons learned from Ukraine and a testbed for new capabilities in a more benign environment than the military hot-zone on Russia’s own borders.
The fear is that the capabilities deployed in Iran have connotations for actual space-based military comms technology that would be deployed in an actual nation state conflict involving the U.S. and its major allies.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s UNN says, “the probable use of such systems in Iran indicates the globalization of technological confrontation in space. Russian developments in the field of electronic warfare are becoming a tool for regimes seeking to limit access to independent communications and intelligence in areas of geopolitical crises.”
Just as we have seen in Iran, where the almost complete internet blackout is now feared to preface permanent restrictions on communications across the country. This “kill switch,” Simon Migliano told me on the release of his report into such shutdowns, “is a blunt instrument intended to crush dissent,” costing the regime millions per day.
