When the war was turning in Ukraine's favor and they were about to push into Russia, he shut it off and crippled their counter offensive. I remember. Fuck Elon and fuck starlink.
IIRC that was long after that. The initial shutoff of Starlink happened around the explosions targeting the Crimean bridge and them introducing their naval drones.
Which is why Starlink needs to be confiscated and managed by NATO. Somebody has to operate it, and it should be an entity who is on the side of Freedom amd Democracy.
Musk and Starlink aren't major difference makers in this war. It's a years-long slog where the main takeaway is "cheap and reliable in volume is more than a match for the newest and fanciest." It hasn't been on the verge of turning in Ukraine's favor since the end of Russia's initial push towards Kyiv.
I have a buddy who's been eating/sleeping/breathing this war and, hands down, cheap and reliable FPV drones have changed how warfare is done. It's the main reason why trench warfare came back, and one of the things that fucked Russia up in the mid-term. Apparently they have a long-standing strategy that involves armor and something something something that my buddy explained and I don't remember, but because there's always drones watching every inch of the front at all times, Ukraine was able to bust that strat by being able to dial in artillery fast and early. At least, that's how I'm remembering what was explained.
cheap and reliable FPV drones have changed how warfare is done
We're in agreement here. I'm not saying new technology is useless, I'm saying there aren't any wonder weapons (or wonder communication systems) that would have given Ukraine a decisive advantage.
Long-term, it's still a matter of which side can outproduce the other when it comes to the cheap and reliable equipment we're talking about. At this point that's clearly Russia.
It's not rly the ability of drones to observe that makes them so strong, but the ability to attack. Russia's air defense is unable to stop a drone swarm, especially because its something the world hasn't yet seen. And if two drones armed with explosives take down a bigass helicopter, that's a massive win.
A few weeks ago, Ukraine decimated an oil refinery on russian territory with a swarm of drones of which only 40% were taken down by the russian air defense.