A group of Russian satellites «Rassvet» is already forming short communication sessions over Ukraine, which could potentially be used by the Russian military as a partial alternative to Starlink.
A group of Russian satellites «Rassvet» is already forming short communication sessions over Ukraine, which could potentially be used by the Russian military as a partial alternative to Starlink.
This is what «Military» writes in its study. Analysts tracked the orbits of three prototype satellites of the company «Bureau 1440» and recorded their movement in a compact group. During the observation, it turned out that the devices regularly fly directly over the territory of Ukraine.
Each flight creates a communication «window» of approximately 15–20 minutes. During this period, it is possible to establish an Internet connection and transfer data. Even with such a limited configuration, this already allows for individual communication sessions.
According to the researchers, expanding the constellation will significantly increase the efficiency of the system. In particular, the first batch of 16 satellites can provide several regular sessions per day, the total duration of which will reach several hours. This means that the connection will not remain continuous, but predictable.
Analysts also note that such capabilities open the way to practical use — in particular, for coordinating units and controlling drones. Previously, Russian forces have already used satellite Internet to control drones, so the emergence of their own system may partially close this need.
The study emphasizes that the first cases of use are possible even before the full deployment of the network, so countermeasures should be developed now.
The Rassvet project is being developed by Bureau 1440, which is working on creating a low-orbit satellite network. Current results show that even a few devices can form regular communication sessions over individual territories. As the number of satellites increases, such «windows» can become more frequent and longer, which will gradually bring the system closer to a full-fledged satellite Internet.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how the Russian aerospace company BYURO 1440 launched 16 broadband Internet satellites into space. This is the first stage of deploying a constellation in low Earth orbit, which in Russia is called an analogue of SpaceX’s Starlink.
