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See the full story · 1 sourcesA Ukrainian service member uses a Starlink-connected tablet to communicate with fellow soldiers and pilot a drone. Heidi Levine for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Ukraine's drone campaigns increasingly rely on US technology that it does not fully control.
Starlink, AI technologies from Palantir, and US-made Hornet drones play roles in its strikes.
Ukrainian officers worry political or corporate decisions could suddenly weaken that edge.
Long-range Ukrainian strike drones have brought Russian President Vladimir Putin's war home and are increasingly affecting the everyday lives of millions of his own people.
In Moscow, cars line up for hundreds of meters at gas stations as fuel has become scarce . In illegally annexed Crimea, electricity disruptions have left residents without power for days. And across Russia, logistics warehouses belonging to Wildberries and Ozon, the country's largest online retailers, have been destroyed, causing tremendous revenue losses for thousands of merchants and delivery disruptions for customers.
Fires are burning across Putin's empire.
Smoke rises above residential buildings from a warehouse for a Russian e-commerce giant near Saint Petersburg after being hit by Ukrainian drones AFP via Getty Images
Closer to the front lines, Ukrainian medium-range strike drones are devastating Russian logistics, severely disrupting the fuel, ammunition, and supplies Moscow needs and significantly slowing its advance.
At the heart of these effective strike campaigns is a growing dependence on a stack of US technology and American intelligence that Ukraine does not control.
Starlink internet terminals from Elon Musk's SpaceX have become the operational backbone of many Ukrainian drone missions. The Hornet drones produced by Perennial Autonomy, the company founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt , are Ukraine's best mid-range strike drones. And Palantir, led by CEO Alex Karp and co-founded by Peter Thiel, provides AI software that plays a major role in route planning and mission outcomes for long-range strikes.
War analyst Austrian Col. Markus Reisner said that the combination of capabilities like US intelligence, AI for operational execution, and Starlink as the communications infrastructure "is what makes it possible for the Ukrainians to conduct and sustain this medium- and long-range campaign against Russia in the first place."
Ukraine's drone war runs on US technology
When Donald Trump returned to the White House, his early clashes with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and outreach to Vladimir Putin fueled fears that Washington might attempt to cut a deal at Kyiv's expense.
The situation has instead changed fundamentally, with Ukraine deepening its reliance on US intelligence, technology, and weaponry, but the same capabilities enabling battlefield wins are also a potential point of failure outside Kyiv's control.
Ukrainian officers involved in these drone campaigns — who know the consequences when foreign support falls short, be it artillery shells or Patriot interceptors — say they fear that decisions in Washington or by American tech companies could abruptly weaken Ukraine on the battlefield and its hand in future negotiations.
"Many of my colleagues, and I as well, are very nervous about how we would work without Starlink," a Ukrainian officer who goes by the call sign Jura told WELT, which is part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network.
"We have discussed this issue several times: What if Elon Musk or somebody at SpaceX turns it off?"
Starlink has changed the way Ukraine executes its mid-range strike campaign . Jura said operating with and without Starlink is "absolutely two different paradigms." The shift began in spring and accelerated in recent months, as Ukrainian forces started regularly equipping mid-range strike drones — including systems such as the Ukrainian FP-2 — with Starlink terminals.
Starlink has been a game-changer for Ukrainian operations. Andriy Dubchak/Frontliner/Getty Images
Without Starlink, crews have to understand radio communications, calculate terrain and antenna heights, deploy relay drones, and optimize radio links over long distances. Starlink removes much of that complexity.
"Starlink gives you the possibility not to study radio physics," Jura said. "It simplifies everything."
Starlink allows operators to maintain a live video connection with a drone until just before impact. Operators can correct the drone's course during final approach, observe targets, and assess whether a strike was successful. When using conventional radio-controlled systems, Jura said, drone operators often lose the video feed shortly after locking onto a target.
Starlink can also provide what he calls "synthetic GPS coordinates," which can help the drone navigate when conventional GPS is jammed, he said.
Those battlefield advantages, however, come with a dependence on SpaceX's rules and permissions. After SpaceX moved to block Russian military use of Starlink earlier this year, the Ukrainians also faced stricter registration requirements, Jura said. For instance, terminals used on drones now have to be individually registered and authorized for high-speed operations.
SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment on Ukraine's Starlink use.
Alex, an officer in Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, told Business Insider, also part of the Global Reporters Network, that no other American technology is as irreplaceable as Starlink right now. He described it as a "highly critical" element of Ukraine's battlefield drone operations.
The American drone at the center of the mid-range strike campaign
Perennial Autonomy's Hornet, which is supported by Starlink connectivity, is one of the most widely used mid-range strike drones in service.
Several thousand US-made Hornet drones were launched over the course of this summer. The drone can carry warheads weighing up to five kilograms and strike targets between 50 and 150 kilometers...
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