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I hadn't thought about it before but starlink's model of "large number of cheap low earth orbit satellites" has some great robustness properties against being s

• dmix 3y ago
  Even before Starlink type networks I don't think the feasibility of shooting down satellites at scale ever really made sense. The risks are so high to your own satellites, and would start a dangerous escalation against a near peer that it's basically only for nuclear war type situations. There's also the scale... There's a lot of GPS satellite redudancy, plus the US has about 8 active Keyhole, a bunch of radar ones, etc. NATO as a whole adds way more on top of that. Otherwise Russia only has 2 Persona optical reconnaissance satellites and both are at the end of their life and only have 50cm resolution which is awful compared to commercial stuff you can buy online, let alone the US ones. GLONASS has 23 satellites. China is probably a better example here but again I don't think ASAT is a huge priority, rather than just something you want to be capable of doing.
• George83728 3y ago
  Yes, this is the core idea behind the Space Development Agency's NDSA / PWSA (Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.) To this end, the SDA has already contracted SpaceX to launch large dual-use Starlink satellites (called Starshield) specialized for military use.