Starlink and the Iran shutdown
- On January 8, 2025, faced with the scale of the popular uprising, Iranian political authorities shut down almost all internet access in Iran.
But this shutdown was different from those imposed during other uprisings, including the one in 2022.
- Indeed, the cybersecurity units of the Revolutionary Guards also managed to jam the signals of the Starlink satellite constellation, which Elon Musk had made freely available to opponents of the Mullah regime. To achieve this, thousands of Starlink antennas were smuggled into the country.
However, since 2022 and the war in Ukraine, Starlink has become a major US player in what we call “hyperwar,” namely the transformation of warfare by AI.
AI at War (1): Ukraine
The jamming of Starlink by Iranian authorities in the context of the near-total internet blackout they imposed sheds light on the extremely rapid evolution of the scope and methods of hyperwarfare and its consequences.
I. Starlink vs. Russia, Iran
- Since 2022, Elon Musk has decided to deploy Starlink satellite constellations over Ukraine to maintain the country’s connection despite the Russian offensive.
It was then that Starlink revealed its full strategic power, becoming the infrastructure that ensured the Ukrainian state’s access to the internet, particularly for the Ukrainian army.
Indeed, within the first 24 hours of the conflict, Elon Musk positioned a constellation of satellites over Ukraine, while also deploying tens of thousands of portable antennas.
AI at War (1): Ukraine
- It was this access to Starlink that enabled the securing of Ukrainian state administrative data in the Amazon Web Services cloud. Starlink also guaranteed uplink connections for Ukrainian drone fleets to US military satellites and Palantir’s private satellites, dedicated to analyzing the transmitted data and translating it into firing solutions, as well as for communications and coordination of Ukrainian troops.
Despite efforts, Russian cyberwarfare and electronic warfare units were unable to jam Starlink for a very long time. However, initial successes in this area were recorded starting in 2024.
In Iran, in 2022, a Starlink constellation was deployed to support the protest movement, maintaining open communication between the protesters and the rest of the world. Despite prolonged repression, Starlink communications remained open.
SpaceX/Starlink thus appears as much as an industrial player as a new communication, data transmission, and processing infrastructure, playing a strategic role by escalating these situations from “war” to “hyperwar” by encompassing them within and through its satellite constellations.
These constellations “channel” the flow of upstream and downstream signals and data, which are thus effectively integrated into American influence strategies.
II. The Iranian Strategic Rupture
- In this context, the extension of the complete internet blackout by Iranian authorities to Starlink represents a technological and strategic revolution: the adversaries of the United States have thus succeeded in countering the Starlink infrastructure, which played a crucial role in connecting domestic protest with communication to the outside world.
- It would appear that the Revolutionary Guards have at their disposal simple and accessible means of jamming the satellites’ GPS signals. Starlink communications operate on the principle of the signal transmitted from one satellite to another by a ground-based antenna.
But if the coordination between satellites is degraded by the jamming of their GPS signals, the coordination necessary to maintain the continuity of the signal emitted from Earth is no longer ensured, hence the resulting jamming, which neutralizes uplinks, VPNs, and even dedicated intranets.
- Conversely, this jamming allows the Revolutionary Guards to combine ultra-violent armed repression with the equivalent of cyberwarfare against their own population. This can only lead to the fragmentation and destabilization of the opposition, while, unfortunately, the regime retains its monopoly on the means of violence, as well as on access to the internet.
III. On the Future of Starlink and Hyperwarfare
- However, this effective jamming of Starlink in January 2026 is part of other forms of opposition to Elon Musk’s company. Thus, research published on November 5, 2025, by Chinese scientists highlights the possibility of jamming signals between ground antennas and a constellation of over 10,000 Starlink satellites.
This would require deploying a distributed fleet of at least a thousand drones and balloons equipped with jammers at medium altitude.
While this number may seem significant to a European observer, the chosen industrial production capabilities could almost certainly meet this demand without difficulty.
AI at War (4): The US and China drone and robot race
- Thus, in the event of a siege or attack on Taiwan, deploying a Starlink constellation over Taiwan would not diminish the effectiveness of the Chinese strategy.
- So, Chinese military research and Iran’s implementation of Starlink jamming demonstrate that the advantage the United States holds in terms of hyperwarfare knows now a relative degradation.
It is therefore crucial to monitor how SpaceX/Starlink will react to this situation, but also how US adversaries will exploit it.
Why is this important for French and European companies?
- A growing number of French individuals and companies, such as Air France, rely on Starlink services. They must therefore contact the company to explore how to maintain business continuity despite the asymmetric attacks that are sure to occur in the coming days, weeks, and months.
- SpaceX/Starlink is undergoing a major reorientation of its business due to the ongoing revolution in the deployment of data centers in space. Strengthening space equipment against jamming risks could present an opportunity for French electronics companies to support SpaceX/Starlink in meeting the new needs the company will express.
- From a cultural perspective, it is urgent that French companies understand that digital/cyber/AI infrastructure, both terrestrial, underwater, and in space, is rapidly becoming a battleground between global and regional powers. Training managers and appointing dedicated leaders to address these issues is now a very short-term existential imperative for businesses.
Published by Dr Jean-Michel Valantin (PhD Paris)
Dr Jean-Michel Valantin (PhD Paris) is a guest contributor. Views expressed are their own. He is specialised in strategic studies and defense sociology with a focus on environmental geostrategy. He is the author of "Menace climatique sur l’ordre mondial" (Climatic threat on the world order), "Ecologie et gouvernance mondiale" (Ecology and world governance), "Guerre et Nature, l’Amérique prépare la guerre du climat, "(War and nature: America gets ready for climate war) and of "Hollywood, the Pentagon and Washington".
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