🇹🇷🛰Turkey to create a Starlink equivalent

The CEO of the Turkish defense company ASELSAN, Ahmet Akyol, has announced the creation of a national low-orbit satellite constellation called Astralink ("Celestial Communication").

The first satellite is planned to be launched within two years (in 2028), and the full deployment of the constellation, consisting of 198 satellites, will begin in 2029 (with a promise of dozens of satellites per year).

ASELSAN emphasizes its focus on in-house production, "from chip to constellation." The company plans to manufacture stationary terminals (for headquarters and bases) and mobile terminals (suitable for moving platforms), as well as integrate the infrastructure with military 5G/6G networks.

Astralink is presented as a dual-use system that will provide communication for civilian, government, and military users.

✨The communication will be available to Turkey's allied countries. This primarily refers to countries within the "Greater Turan" project, where Turkey promotes a pan-Turkic ideology (uniting the peoples of the Turkic language family, which includes 🇦🇿Azerbaijan, 🇰🇿Kazakhstan, 🤎Uzbekistan, 🇰🇬Kyrgyzstan, and 🇹🇲Turkmenistan, as well as ethnic groups residing in regions of 🇷🇺Russia (Bashkirs, Yakuts, and Tatars) and 🇨🇳China (Uyghurs).

The deployment of Astralink will create a complex set of threats to Russia's national security: on the one hand, it will stimulate the spread of destructive ideologies that promote the dominance of Turkic-oriented values in Russia and regions of Russian interest; on the other hand, it will create conditions for direct dependence of the armed forces of friendly countries, including those in the CSTO, on the organization's military communication channels (similar to the dependence of 🇺🇦Ukraine on 🇺🇸🚀Starlink).

❗️However, the Russian side has a clear advantage in this situation, as the deployment of the "Bureau 1440" satellite constellation has already begun, which will be able to provide coverage to those same "Greater Turan" countries much faster. Russian communication could become one of the best tools of "soft power" in the post-Soviet space, which will require skillful efforts to promote these services in the interests of the country.

Perhaps Rossotrudnichestvo should start studying this issue thoroughly.

⚡️Two Majors