SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk has asked the Defense Department to seek funding for its satellite network, which supplied essential battlefield communications for Ukrainian military troops during the conflict with Russia, according to a US official.
The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said the issue has been raised in meetings and senior leaders are evaluating it. No decisions were made.
More than 150,000 Ukrainian ground stations have access to high-speed Internet through Musk’s Starlink system of more than 2,200 satellites in low orbit. Musk tweeted early Friday that SpaceX is spending $20 million a month to meet Ukraine’s communications needs.
According to his tweet, apart from terminals, the corporation will have to build, launch, manage and refill satellites and ground stations.
CNN was the first news Source to report Musk’s proposal.
After a fight on Twitter between Musk and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, the world’s richest Man has asked the Pentagon to take responsibility for the hundreds of millions of dollars they claim have cost the system. And overnight, Musk tweeted about the friction, which means it could affect his decision to stop sponsoring the company’s system.
Musk claimed in a Twitter exchange this week that achieving peace should allow Russia to keep the Crimean peninsula, which it seized in 2014. He said Ukraine should adopt a neutral position and give up its NATO membership bid.
Musk also launched a Twitter poll asking whether the “will of the people” should determine whether the occupied territories should remain part of Ukraine or join Russia.
Ukraine’s leader counterattack
Zelensky responded sarcastically by posting a Twitter poll, “Which Elon Musk do you prefer?” “supporter of Ukraine” or “supporter of Russia.” Musk told Zelensky, “I continue to strongly support Ukraine, but I believe that a major escalation of the war will cause significant damage to Ukraine, and perhaps the entire world.”
Andrzej Melnik, the late Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, reacted with obscenity to Musk’s initial tweet.
Musk’s petition for the Pentagon to introduce the bill comes as an investigation into the role of commercial suppliers in national security by the Space Force and the Pentagon.
More Ukrainian civilians were killed by Russian bombing. 08:52
In March, the commander of the US Space Command, Army General James Dickinson, said that providing necessary capabilities to several vendors, such as satellite imagery of Maxar’s stalled Russian convoy, became necessary because it would allow limited military satellite assets to be used for other tasks. allows to allocate. ,
Musk also highlighted a topic that various suppliers and the Pentagon are considering as the importance of space for military operations grows. If a trade vendor assisting the United States is attacked, is the United States obligated to provide security?
“We have also had to deal with increasingly difficult cyberattacks and jams,” Musk tweeted.
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