The Wall Street Journal reports that the US, Ukraine, and its allies are paying companies with spy satellites to collect intelligence on Russian troop movements.
Western counties have worked with several firms that maintain hundreds of satellites making passes over Ukraine each day. While the satellites have different abilities, some can scan the entire country daily with a nine-foot resolution. Other companies collect intelligence through clouds and at night.
HawkEye 360’s fleet of satellites can actively follow Russian troop movements. John Serafini, the firm’s CEO, said it has been following Russian forces using GPS jamming equipment. Maxar Technologies is contracting with various media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal. The firm provides journalists with images of a broad range of Ukraine with a 12-inch resolution.
Officials have recently discussed giving Kiev more detailed intelligence as the battle moves to Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. The US claims it assisted the Ukrainian military in downing a Russian troop transport, killing hundreds.
Senior national security officials told the outlet that the more affordable space-based technology is making it more difficult for Russia to hide its troop placements. Officials also noted that it is easier for the White House to declassify its intelligence because the data collected from private satellites is public information.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
Well it looks like in the near future, Star Wars will have a new meaning.
And suddenly they go blind….
Commercial satellite just use an ASAT missile!
First they privatized telecoms to get people chained to the digital networks. Then they privatized road, rail and air transportation. Then they privatized water supplies to squeeze a profit from the last drop of water. Then they privatized health care to relieve the state of it’s obligation to care for its people. Then they privatized war with private companies recruiting killers as mercenaries. Then they privatized censorship by giving the IT giants the right to disappear users and contents at their discretion. Then they privatized intelligence by charging private companies for spreading disinformation and for arranging for false flag operations to start wars because this is too dirty even for national intelligence agencies, which may come under public scrutiny.
Finally, the public still has the right to elect clowns and actors to the highest office so the show can go on, while the actual administration of the State has been placed safely out of reach of democratic accountability. What sick mind could have possibly conceived of such a sinister plan?
“Then they privatized censorship by giving the IT giants the right to disappear users and contents at their discretion.”
That seems to be somewhat out of order. It happened in the late 1700s with ratification of the US Constitution, long before there were digital networks to be “chained to.”
Why would anybody privatize telcos before telcos existed? Perhaps you could make a case that it all started with Adam and Eve? Divine failure of communication about the apple?
Meanwhile in the real world, countries like the US, the Philippines, etc., have pioneered private telcos for about a century; however, the main thrust of privatizing telecos worldwide only started about 40 years ago with the dismantlement of AT&T and the privatization of BT in the 1980s. It’s an ongoing process even as I’m writing this.
All it (proxy war) means is escallation & the war will get nastier. The
lines between private citizens and combatants will blur. State sponcered terrorism can increase. Ukrainians and Russians do the dying and US does the supplying. All it does is increase the power of the state. Ask a Syrian, Libyan or Egyptian, if they are better off today.
Hmmm… The Russians claim the S-500 air defense system has anti-satellite capability……
A few years ago China took out one of its own satellites to demonstrate their capability. Pretty sure Russia has the same capability.
They also said they would have a stealth fighter called Su-57 and thousands of new T-14 armata tanks…
Jacque Baud, a retired Swiss intelligence officer who has worked for Nato in Ukraine, has noted that the Ukraine conflict is driven by private intelligence companies in the service of a narrow political agenda, while the national intelligence agencies, which try to inform government decisions by more balanced intelligence, have been sidelined. He also observed that the same phenomenon led to the Iraq war.
https://www.thepostil.com/author/jacques-baud/
Every-time I read Jaque Baud’s name, I can only think of a Swiss James Bond…
Either Russian Victory Or Nuclear War. There Is No Midway
I am going with Russian victory, I simply cannot fit in a nuclear war, at this time…
Choice is America’s. No. Not America’s. Choice is of neocon handlers of the zombie who is known as president of U S A
Unfortunately the Russian forces aren’t winning on the battlefield.
And who can blame them? They aren’t motivated, their leadership is subpar and they lack proper equipment and support.
Not for you maybe, good thing you aren’t in power.
Neither are you
Looks like a job for ASAT!
Commercial Satellites? Ask the share holders if they want their investment placed in harms way to support a thug like Zelensky. The sooner Zelensky is assassinated the better for all humanity!
Zelensky needs to be captured not assassinated. He’s more valuable alive than dead. We don’t want him turned into a martyr.
No a public tractor pull each arm and leg secured to a tractor and let the pull begin. Mid-evil yes but what a great spectacle.
Idiots. Since that data is public information, you think Russia doesn’t already know what it’s showing – and thus how to manipulate it. Not that it matters, since Ukraine no longer has the ability to do anything effectively on the battlefield.
national security ? what a joke.