GoKawiilOne week ago, three widely respected European news outlets published the results of an investigation into what they described as a “joint plan” by China and Russia to “defeat Elon Musk’s Starlink.”
The story was the product of a long-running inquiry by The Insider, Der Spiegel, and Le Monde. Reporters at those publications said they reviewed a cache of documents detailing growing military cooperation between China and Russia. The documents covered discussions between the nuclear powers on integrated air and missile defense systems, autonomous “swarm” loitering munitions, next-generation armored vehicles, and military aviation, the report said.
According to the papers, the investigation found evidence of a partnership between China and Russia in the field of space weapons far deeper than either country has acknowledged. One particular focus for China and Russia has been developing strategies to counter SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband network.
Among the documents the reporters reviewed were a series of slideshows presented at a previously undisclosed China-Russia Military-Technical Cooperation Forum held in 2023. The bilateral meetings have continued since then, with a sixth gathering on tap for the end of this year in St. Petersburg, the reporters said.
“The documents show a partnership that has moved well beyond shared rhetoric into a structured, multi-disciplinary program to build weapons neither country could develop alone,” the publications wrote.
Ars spoke with several former US defense officials and space security experts to assess the seriousness of China and Russia’s efforts to counter Starlink. First, is this a big surprise? Does the reporting make sense? And what does this mean for the ever-growing number of satellite constellations the US military relies upon for navigation, missile warning, communications, surveillance, and soon, tactical battlefield targeting?