ST PETERSBURG, Russia, June 5 (Reuters) - Russia plans to launch its own, smaller version of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite broadband system next year, Alexei Shelobkov, CEO of Iks Holding, the company developing the service, said on Friday.
"The good news is that it is already being created. Satellites are already being launched. In the coming weeks, we will begin testing, and as promised, it will start operating commercially in 2027," Shelobkov told a panel discussion at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.
Successful Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries and other industrial sites in recent months have been linked by some military experts in part to the ability of the latest generation of AI-powered Ukrainian drones to connect to SpaceX's Starlink network, which is more resilient to jamming.
Ukraine said in January that Russia was using Starlink terminals to guide its drones into Ukrainian territory and that it was working with SpaceX to stop this.
The company Bureau 1440, part of Iks Holding, said in March that it had launched its first 16 low-orbit Rassvet satellites, aiming to increase their number to 900 over several years. SpaceX currently has over 10,000 satellites in orbit. Starlink is banned in Russia, and the use of its equipment is subject to fines.
(Reporting by Gleb Bryanski, Editing by Franklin Paul)
