Russia's national Starlink alternative project has just imploded - RFU News

[TexasTowelie]

Today, there are important updates from Russia.

Here, Russia’s space program has hit a record-low stalling point, with its long-promised Starlink alternative failing to advance and effectively grinding to a halt. What was meant to connect and modernize the Russian military has instead imploded into delays, funding gaps, and missed launches, leaving forces blind, disconnected, and structurally cut off from modern network-centric warfare.

Russia’s attempt to develop a domestic alternative to Starlink-style satellite internet is increasingly set back by structural and financial difficulties, raising doubts about its viability. The project centers on the low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation, developed by the private firm Bureau 1440 in cooperation with the state space corporation Roscosmos. The initiative is formally embedded in the national project Cosmos, approved by President Vladimir Putin, and calls for the deployment of 365 low-Earth-orbit satellites to provide broadband internet coverage across the Russian Federation. In practice, however, low-orbit satellites don’t remain fixed over national territory, but they continuously traverse the globe along orbital paths. As a result, a constellation designed to cover only Russia would simultaneously provide connectivity over large portions of Ukraine, Europe, and other regions where Russian military or hybrid operations are likely to occur. This allows the program to be framed as mainly for domestic use, while effectively establishing the technical foundation for broader, expeditionary military communications capabilities. The launch of the first 16 satellites, originally scheduled for the end of 2025, has not yet taken place. According to some claims, the delay stems from an inability to meet production obligations by the specified deadline, with the launch now postponed to an unspecified later date in this year, but it is likely to face more delays.

The absence of a resilient, Starlink-class satellite communications network has cascading effects across Russian military operations, beginning with command. A reliable space-based internet allows military leaders and frontline units to stay constantly connected, sharing information quickly and clearly, even in areas where fighting, jamming, or damage has knocked out normal communication networks. Without it, command structures become episodic, dependent on vulnerable line-of-sight radios. This degrades tempo, slows decision-making, and increases the likelihood of outdated orders reaching frontline units. Control is equally affected, as modern military control relies on persistent connectivity to synchronize maneuver, logistics, and air defense. A strong satellite internet network lets different units work together instantly, use shared digital maps and command tools, and quickly change their actions as the situation on the battlefield evolves. In its absence, control becomes fragmented, which forces units to operate semi-independently or without orders, which has historically not worked well within Russia’s military culture of highly centralized hierarchy. Lastly, intelligence flow is critically impaired because space-based internet facilitates the rapid dissemination of drone feeds, satellite imagery, and intelligence down to operational and tactical levels. Lacking such infrastructure, intelligence arrives late or only partially. The result is a force that fights with degraded situational awareness or effective drone coverage and struggles to convert information into actionable decisions.

As a consequence of these shortcomings, Russian battlefield units remain heavily dependent on vulnerable and outdated communications systems, such as the aforementioned line-of-sight radios and intermittent relay networks, which are easily disrupted by jamming, physical destruction, or simple distance, causing delays, disruptions, and inaccuracies to fester. By contrast, Ukrainian forces benefit from stable, satellite-enabled connectivity through Starlink, which provides resilient, mobile communications even under combat conditions. This asymmetry enables Ukraine to maintain real-time coordination, rapidly distribute intelligence, and sustain operational tempo, while Russian units are increasingly isolated and fragmented on the battlefield.

Overall, Russia’s attempt to replicate Starlink has effectively collapsed, as persistent funding shortfalls driven by mounting pressure on state finances under sanctions and wartime conditions undermine its ability to sustain capital-intensive, high-technology projects and make the outlook even less favorable going forward. The failure of Russia’s domestic satellite internet effort forecloses its ability to transition toward true network-centric warfare. Without resilient...

[ChicagoTeamster]

1. Good. The more their operational capabilities are degraded the sooner they'll collapse and this will be over.