Russia plans to launch hundreds more satellites for its Starlink alternative in 2027, Ukraine says

Russia plans to initiate nearly 20 additional satellites this twelvemonth and hundreds additional next twelvemonth as it accelerates the deployment of its Starlink alternative, Rassvet, Ukraine's armed forces intellect agency stated Friday.

The new appraisal comes as Ukraine continues to visage restrictions on its Starlink services, which it says are disrupting its drone operations.

Russia has already launched 30 satellites this twelvemonth for Rassvet, a low-Earth-orbit moon net constellation that it has billed as comparable to SpaceX's Starlink, which is extensively used by Ukrainian forces.

Rassvet's deployment has faced setbacks, including difficulties alongside initiate and requirements on abroad components, Ukraine's GUR armed forces intellect agency stated in a statement.

Two of the 30 Russian satellites launched this twelvemonth have already "deorbited," and during 26 have reached a stable stance at an altitude of approximately 320 miles, none have reached the planned 500-mile altitude — although they are maneuvering toward it, the GUR said.

Russia plans to develop the constellation to up to 48 satellites by the end of the twelvemonth and initiate another 240 next twelvemonth to shield 94% of Russian district alongside speeds of up to 150 Mbps, the GUR said. Moscow plans to bring the constellation up to 408 satellites by 2031 and 924 by 2035.

The Rassvet satellites, all weighing small additional than 600 pounds, depend on laser communication alternatively of dirt stations to transfer data.

Russia uses the Soyuz-2.1b three-stage missile to initiate its satellites into orbit. Ukraine has attacked manufacturing facilities that industry this family of rockets in an attempt to disrupt Moscow's area industry.

Rassvet's chief authority center is in Moscow, but the GUR stated Russia plans to build a network of dirt stations throughout the country.

Neither Russia's defence ministry nor its US embassy responded to a petition for comment on the GUR's assessment.

Rassvet is considered to be Russia's substitute to Starlink, SpaceX's business moon net assistance that has been crucial for Ukrainian battlefield operations. Kyiv's forces additionally use Starshield, the military-grade variant.

Russia was capable to use Starlink in Ukraine until before this year, whenever Kyiv pressed SpaceX to disable its terminals. Starlink became a particularly important asset for Ukraine in the months that followed, supporting a mix of combat operations by providing dependable communications for its drones.

Last month, however, Ukraine was hit with sudden restrictions on its Starshield services. Its forces endured speed limits for additional than a week that seriously affected its front-line operations.

The shocking disruption came amid elevated tensions between Kyiv and Washington complete Ukrainian strikes against Russian energy infrastructure. Starlink services are accessible in Ukraine and Russian-occupied territory, but not inner Russia.

Ukraine appears to be in the center of another Starlink outage. On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Kyiv had formerly again detected speed limits of 100 miles per hour.

On Friday, Ukrainian defence ministry sources told Business Insider that these speed limits were being recorded throughout all Russian-occupied territory, but not on Ukrainian-controlled land. Zelenskyy stated the disruption is affecting Kyiv's capability to obstruct Russian assault drones.

Ukraine's defence ministry is in talks alongside SpaceX to determine the matter and is seeking additional data from the US Defense Department, the sources said.

Ukraine's assault in August on Russia's Progress Rocket Space Center, the Rassvet moon deployments, and the impacts of repeated Starlink outages underscore how space has emerged as a key focus of the war.