SpaceX Acts to Disable Russian Starlink-Guided BM-35 Drones

Privately owned networks steering weapons is not new: during the 1855 Siege of Sevastopol the telegraph let commanders direct artillery beyond line-of-sight, and in 1944 Germany used commercial radio beacons to guide V-1s into London. Starlink’s militarisation continues this arc—dual-use civilian tech rapidly weaponised once conflict incentives appear. It also exposes the limits of sanctions and end-user licences in a world where hardware crosses borders through grey markets. Over a century scale, the episode illustrates a structural shift: strategic command and control is migrating from nation-state infrastructure to corporate constellations in low-Earth orbit. Whether firms can—or will—police access may shape the effectiveness of electronic warfare far beyond Ukraine, just as control of undersea cables shaped imperial power after 1900. This moment matters because it tests the governance of near-space assets before mega-constellations become as ubiquitous as GPS, potentially determining who controls the digital high ground in mid-21st-century conflicts.