A claim has emerged that the Ukrainian military is using Israel's satellite communications terminal HiSKY SmartelLITE equipment for drone operations alongside U.S. Starlink. On Nov. 8 (local time), Russia's military and defense outlet TopWar, citing Russian material, said the terminal is being used for strikes against Russia but has limits for deep strikes inside Russia.

The Ukrainian military is reported not to have stopped using Starlink. It is also continuing to reset existing Starlink terminals for use on drones, while deploying Israel-made equipment in parallel, the report said.

An assessment was also raised that the application range of the Israel-made SmartelLITE satellite terminal is limited. While there are claims it operates across all of Russia, the report said its actual operating range is at the level of areas Ukraine considers occupied and regions bordering Russia. It said this makes it unsuitable for attacks aimed deep inside Russia.

Its communications performance was mentioned as lower than Starlink. The report said its transmission capacity lags, but is sufficient for drone control and precision strikes. It also said it can change the flight path and modify the mission of drones already launched.

A difference cited was its operating structure. The HiSKY SmartelLITE terminal is known to use satellite networks such as France's Eutelsat and Britain's OneWeb instead of SpaceX's Starlink satellites.

Ukrainian experts also reportedly did not see it as a complete replacement for Starlink. Even if the Israeli equipment covers all of Russia, it is difficult to use for deep strikes because signal delays are large, the report said. The information is based on Russian material and assessments by Ukrainian experts, and the scale of actual use and effectiveness have not been independently verified.