Starlink speeds are too slow for Ukraine's unmanned ground vehicles
Ukraine has leaned hard on SpaceX's Starlink internet since the war began, with about 200,000 terminals in action—more than anywhere else in Europe.
But there's a catch: Starlink's limited bandwidth is slowing down Ukraine's unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), which handle everything from supply drops to evacuations on the battlefield.
With Starlink, UGVs are stuck crawling at around 9.66km/h
With Starlink sometimes offering just 10 megabits per second, UGVs are stuck crawling at around 9.66km/h (10km/h).
Add rough terrain and bad weather, and video feeds get even choppier—making these robots harder to control and putting missions at risk near the front lines.
Ukraine is working on solutions, but Russia is also preparing
Ukrainian engineers aren't giving up. They're using tethered drones as flying signal boosters to stretch coverage over 40km into Russian-held areas like Donetsk.
AI navigation is also helping fight off jamming and dropped signals.
Still, relying so much on Starlink leaves Ukraine exposed—and now Russia is reportedly working on its own satellite network to try and even things out as the conflict continues.