📝On "Spirit-030"📝 And why communications can't be reduced to "replacing Starlink" It appears that not only Russia is searching for solutions to communications problems for the Russian Armed Forces: one blogger who managed to become an advisor to the Ukrainian defense minister suddenly learned about the existence of space communications stations (SCS) "Spirit-030" and called them a Starlink analog. Unfortunately, his expertise was picked up by domestic media outlets, complete with sensational headlines. But these are completely different things in terms of technical design, capabilities, and even purpose. 🔻So why isn't it a Starlink analog? ▪️Starlink satellites orbit at low Earth orbit at 600 km, while the terminals now called "Spirit-030" operate with devices in geostationary orbit at 36,000 km. You can imagine the difference in signal delay. ▪️Starlink is a constellation of thousands of satellites, which allows it to provide communications in almost any point on Earth. "Spirit-030," on the other hand, consists of individual devices at orbital positions where coverage was primarily provided for Russia's main territory, which affects communications in other locations. ▪️Starlink terminals are equipped with phased array antennas (PAA), where the beam itself "tracks" the nearest passing satellite without mechanical guidance, making it easy to install them on a moving object. "Spirit-030" has no such capability, and with their signal delay, you couldn't control a drone anyway. ▪️Finally, the limited number of Russian geostationary communications satellites also leaves its mark. Especially if you remember that some were created by Europeans using modern European technology, and their replacement is only now being built. That said, "Spirit-030" and similar systems have long been successfully used on the front lines, finding many applications. But this is a completely different class, and if you're looking for a replacement for Elon Musk's creation, it's in the deployed "Rassvet" system. 📌 But there's another unpleasant issue here. Communications is a complex system where there's room for everything: radio stations, LTE networks, geostationary satellite communications, fiber optic channels and more, providing layered redundancy and backup. And the fact that even senior commanders have reduced the entire communications issue to "What could replace Starlink?" speaks precisely to a lack of understanding of these basic principles. Instead of considering the problem comprehensively, there's another search for some magic bullet that should fix everything. ❗️And as long as this approach persists, communications problems won't go away—even with "Rassvet." And where communications are poor, command and control are poor, and this extends all the way to strategic objectives. #space #Russia #communications ✈ RU | ✈ EN | ✉ MAX ✉️ VK | ✉️ RuTube | ✉️ OK | ✉️ Zen 💸Support us Original msg