Starlink, the satellite-based internet division of SpaceX, successfully fought off a Russian jamming attack in Ukraine, according to a Pentagon official.
Dave Tremper, director of electronic warfare for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, detailed the attack at the C4ISRNET Conference on Wednesday.
According to a report on the C4ISRNET website, Tremper pointed to Starlink's ability last month to swiftly thwart a Russian effort to jam the satellite broadband service. The service has been keeping Ukraine connected to the Internet.
SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk said days after the Russian invasion that the company's Starlink service was available in Ukraine and SpaceX was sending more terminals to the country, whose internet had been disrupted by the war, according to Reuters.
"Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route," Musk announced.
He was responding to a tweet by a Ukraine government official who asked Musk to provide the embattled country with Starlink stations.
But after news of the Russian jamming attack circulated, "Starlink had slung a line of code and fixed it," Tremper said. "And suddenly that [the Russian jamming attack] was not effective anymore."
He said Starlink’s ability to ward off the attack was "fantastic."
According to Insider, Tremper added: "There's a really interesting case study to look at the agility that Starlink had in their ability to address that problem.
"In the way that Starlink was able to upgrade when a threat showed up, we need to be able to have that agility."