Russian military bloggers have been anxiously tracking the new one-way attack drones of the US military, Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS), following their first reported use in combat against Iran this weekend, reports Business Insider.
These pro-war bloggers, many of them with close ties to the Kremlin, were particularly concerned about the satellite communication terminals installed on these drones, which they suspect are connected to SpaceX’s Starshield network.
Video recordings of the LUCAS test launches, made public by the Pentagon in December, quickly circulated among Russian pro-war commentators after news of the drone deployment emerged on Saturday. Analysts and bloggers sought out a specific detail: the satellite terminal on the drone, interpreting it as a possible connection via Starshield, which would allow for global jam-resistant communications.
“The inevitable has happened: Starlink terminals have been installed on the American ‘Geran’ type LUCAS drones, allowing for jam-resistant communications anywhere in the world where Elon Musk’s network operates,” wrote Rybar, a popular military channel on Telegram with 1.5 million followers, on Monday. The post added that such technology “will increase the efficiency of enemy drone strikes by an order of magnitude.”
Another Telegram channel, Obsessed with War, expressed its concern on Sunday, noting that the apparent Starlink antenna could allow for precise guidance of drones to targets in real time, right up to the final moments before an attack.