Iran Announces Development of 'Weapon' Capable of Disabling 'Starlink'

Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, Secretary of Iran's Supreme Council for Cyberspace and Head of the National Cyberspace Center, announced that his country "has developed and tested" local systems capable of detecting Starlink ground stations and affecting their communications with satellites.

Aghamiri confirmed at a press conference on Tuesday that technical interventions led to "widespread disruptions in the network."

He stated that communication between Starlink service ground stations and satellites relies on advanced communication technologies, but the complexity of this technology does not make it immune to management or technical confrontation, noting that dealing with it is possible, just like other technologies used around the world.

He added that Iran designed and tested dedicated local systems to locate terminal stations and cut off communication between ground stations and satellites, as part of developing its technical capabilities to deal with this network.

According to the Iranian official, international reports mentioned a significant decline in data transmission efficiency due to technical interventions.

He noted that Data Packet Loss rates reached 80 percent, which he said proves the possibility of influencing network performance and managing it through technical measures targeting terrestrial and space communications.

In a related context, Aghamiri announced his country's readiness to share experiences and local technologies developed in this field with countries he described as compatible, adding that the Iranian Ministry of Communications is also following up on legal and technical moves within the International Telecommunication Union regarding this issue.

The Iranian official did not specify the nature of the systems used or provide independent technical details clarifying the scope of their impact, nor were his statements accompanied by detailed data allowing for independent verification of the mentioned data loss percentage.

Starlink, belonging to the American company SpaceX, is a satellite internet service that provides internet connectivity through ground terminal stations communicating with the satellite network located in low Earth orbit.