Russia has begun deploying the first operational elements of Rassvet, its emerging low-Earth-orbit satellite internet system. The project is still far from matching Starlink in scale, but it already deserves close attention: not as a copy of a Western model, but as a sovereign communications layer with potential consequences for Russian military resilience, remote civilian connectivity, Arctic operations, and state control over critical infrastructure.

As space becomes a fully contested warfighting domain, ground forces now face near-constant orbital surveillance that must be mitigated without escalating conflict into orbit.