U.S. Army signs deal with SpaceX to assess Starlink broadband
The U.S. Army will experiment using Starlink broadband to move data across military networks. An agreement signed with SpaceX on May 20 gives the Army three years to test out the service.
The Army and SpaceX signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement known as a CRADA, an Army source told SpaceNews.
The project will be overseen by the Combat Capabilities Development Command's C5ISR Center based at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
CRADAs are commonly used by the military to evaluate technologies and services from the private sector before it commits to buying them. The Army in this case wants to be able to assess the performance of the Starlink low Earth orbit internet service when connected to military systems. The Army will seek answers to key questions such as what ground equipment it will need to use Starlink and how much systems integration work could be required.
Also at Ars Technica.
Update: Army's evaluation of Starlink broadband to focus on reliability, vulnerability
The upcoming evaluation of SpaceX's Starlink broadband by the U.S. Army will look primarily at the reliability of the service and potential vulnerabilities of the satellites to hostile attacks, a senior Army official said May 27.
[...] "I would view this as exploratory," Gen. John Murray, commander of the U.S. Army Futures Command, told reporters on Wednesday on a Defense Writers Group conference call.
"It's about figuring out what capabilities they can provide, and what vulnerabilities do they have?" said Murray.
The Army Futures Command advises Army leaders on what investments the service should make to modernize weapons and information systems. One of the priorities identified by Futures Command is high capacity, low latency communications for units in the field that need to move large amounts of data.
A space internet service from low Earth orbit like Starlink would be used by the Army to supplement geosynchronous satellite-based and terrestrial communications.
Murray said the Army has signed exploratory agreements with SpaceX and other companies to make sure the product works before it buys it. The Army wants to try it "before we lock ourselves into a multibillion dollar acquisition program," he said.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @10:17PM (3 children)
He's already got a Twitter account.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @11:09PM
And he'll soon have control over U.S. Army network.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @12:18AM (1 child)
https://twitter.com/JoeBiden [twitter.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @03:12AM
no
(Score: 2) by TrentDavey on Friday May 29 2020, @01:27AM (5 children)
I'm hoping the U.S. Army will test these G*d-D*mned, night-sky-destroying tin cans as practice targets.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @01:33AM (3 children)
No problem. Other countries are probably on it already.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @05:09AM (2 children)
Starlink needs guest mode network access for when the satellites are flying over countries like North Korea, China and Russia so that their citizens can get unfiltered access to the Internet. Knock the speed down if you must, but make it free...It would drive these censoring countries batshit crazy.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday May 29 2020, @05:38AM (1 child)
They could probably jam it, or start blowing up satellites. It looks like Musk has long since chickened out on providing internet to China:
Elon Musk's plan to blanket Earth in high-speed internet may face a big threat: China [businessinsider.com]
However, there are a bunch of nations that could potentially benefit because their governments are less capable of stopping it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_and_surveillance_in_Africa [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_and_surveillance_in_Asia [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_and_surveillance_in_Europe [wikipedia.org]
One good example is Egypt, which tried to cut off internet access entirely during the Arab Spring protests in 2011. If you can smuggle in a number of user terminals (before bad stuff happens) and put them on rooftops, that could help support a meshnet or at least provide Wi-Fi hotspots.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @05:44PM
good. he shouldn't provide internet to china. make them revolt.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @05:47PM
oh no they don't! i'm counting the days until i can dump my overpriced ISP for skynet.