At Starlink altitude a Kessler syndrome would last many years. At 550 km debris on average will last about 10 years, but some debris gets boosted by collisions (which also extends the debris field to higher orbits).
Russia doesn't have to take out any satellites with missiles, they just put up a grapeshot debris cloud going the opposite way from a Starlink orbit and the whole train of them will smash into it; one launch could do that. The resulting debris field would take out all the other Starlink orbits in a short time.
But that's just Starlink. Any 1st world country that wanted to make any orbit unusable wouldn't have a hard time doing it and it wouldn't matter how much launch capability you have because none of your satellites would last for any practical amount of time. If you could get your satellites very far away they would be safe from debris, but much less useful and easy to destroy with other means.
What would be the point? Completely cripple GPS for everyone which would not give you an advantage because you're just as fucked, cripple international communication via satellite? The cables that run across the Atlantic are still there so that won't really work either.
It'd be a shit tactical choice which would be easily countered by putting GPS transmitters on high altitude drones and over flying the battlefield. The US pretty much always has air superiority and we had it before GPS navigation was a thing.
Why would Ukraine use Starlink for attacking Russia? Because they don't have any alternative. They can't fly GPS drones over their own country let alone Russia.
But Russia would probably just nuke the starlink sats with a laser if Elon didn't stop Ukraine from using it on drones.
Kessler would be for if Russia itself is under threat, which is another reason why it's dumb that we're fighting proxy WW3 right now.
Except it wouldn't just destroy starlink and putting your own satellite infrastructure at risk instead of figuring out how to jam Ukraine's receivers is retarded.
At Starlink altitude a Kessler syndrome would last many years. At 550 km debris on average will last about 10 years, but some debris gets boosted by collisions (which also extends the debris field to higher orbits).
Russia doesn't have to take out any satellites with missiles, they just put up a grapeshot debris cloud going the opposite way from a Starlink orbit and the whole train of them will smash into it; one launch could do that. The resulting debris field would take out all the other Starlink orbits in a short time.
But that's just Starlink. Any 1st world country that wanted to make any orbit unusable wouldn't have a hard time doing it and it wouldn't matter how much launch capability you have because none of your satellites would last for any practical amount of time. If you could get your satellites very far away they would be safe from debris, but much less useful and easy to destroy with other means.
What would be the point? Completely cripple GPS for everyone which would not give you an advantage because you're just as fucked, cripple international communication via satellite? The cables that run across the Atlantic are still there so that won't really work either.
It'd be a shit tactical choice which would be easily countered by putting GPS transmitters on high altitude drones and over flying the battlefield. The US pretty much always has air superiority and we had it before GPS navigation was a thing.
Why would Ukraine use Starlink for attacking Russia? Because they don't have any alternative. They can't fly GPS drones over their own country let alone Russia.
But Russia would probably just nuke the starlink sats with a laser if Elon didn't stop Ukraine from using it on drones.
Kessler would be for if Russia itself is under threat, which is another reason why it's dumb that we're fighting proxy WW3 right now.
Except it wouldn't just destroy starlink and putting your own satellite infrastructure at risk instead of figuring out how to jam Ukraine's receivers is retarded.
What wouldn't just destroy Starlink? Using a laser? Just fry the antenna.