Anything emitting radio waves can be a beacon for airstrikes. Is there any reason to believe the Russian military is going to start targeting random Starlink installations? Does Russia have air superiority to even conduct airborne EW to locate the beacons?

Or is this just FUD and someone wanting to get their voice in about any possible intersection of (HOT TOPIC) & (MY SPECIALTY)?

Russia hasn’t actually been deploying EW equipment in Ukraine at any meaningful capacity, and it’s rather unlikely that they will as they can’t really safely fly over the country.

Not sure why this guy decided to not mention this rather important detail.

One way to reduce the risk is to situate the dish as far as possible from the Starlink router, and again house the router as far as reasonably possible from yourself.

Aren't Starlink terminals hyper-directional? Seems like it would be hard to triangulate them.

EDIT 1: https://media.defense.gov/2022/Jan/25/2002927101/-1/-1/0/CSA...

Seems like the NSA recommends a vpn to obscure VSAT use. They don't have much else to say about anonymity.

EDIT 2: Found this thread:

https://old.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/t5y67a/updati...

EDIT 3:

After some thought, I think Starlink will be robust against tracking. They should be harder to locate then VSATs which the author mentions in the Twitter thread. In comparison:

1. They are beaming to a constantly moving swarms of satellites rather then a geostationary satellite: a. So timing attacks can't be used to find a search path. b. The beam is moving to even he a plane pickup on a signal it would quickly lose it as the beam moved. Although there is a workaround I won't mention.

2. They are lower powered so the signal is weaker. I assume they are just as directional.

3. They are smaller and harder to spot.

4. They are much more numerous.

5. They are portable.

If you don't have Starlink put your microwave oven outside with open lid, of course not near your home, to confuse the enemy. The enemy might think that there is an air defence system and lounch an unnecessary missile.

This is why most military communications equipment is cryptographically scrambled and shielded. Even with scrambling, transmissions are limited and antennas are displaced to prevent counter battery fire.

ELINT pods on jets are really good at targeting something that broadcasts on a known frequency. Even if the radiation is directed you still have leakage that is like a spotlight shooting into the sky marking your location. I wouldn't be surprised if Russia could log the location of every operable Starlink terminal if they could get air superiority in Ukraine.

However, without air cover running ELINT pods or at least a lot of ground based signals intelligence platforms they are going to have trouble pinning them down. Especially if they are only used for short periods and moved often. You essentially have to have drones orbiting with ELINT pods and laser guided weapons ready to drop.

Need to add ptp microwave relays!

well they are good decoys then