By now, readers of this newsletter are well informed of Elon Musk’s heel turn as “WWE villain of the year.”
We even had some fun with a Starshield whodunit.
The Starshield Whodunit: Somebody Murdered Ukraine’s Battlefield Internet - Nobody Wants to Confess
At roughly 100 miles per hour, Ukraine’s internet died.
So, I set out to write today about Ukraine working toward breaking its dependence on Starlink.
But as I’m writing, a question kept creeping, unbidden, into my head:
Will Elon Musk eventually see jail time now that Democrats control both houses of congress?
Let’s pause to appreciate the fact that multiple smart people must have thought Republicans would be in charge forever. I mean, did it not occur to them that someday there may be a different government in charge, and thus, accountability?
They’re like toddlers unable to anticipate future consequences, acting in the moment with reckless abandon!
I distinctly remember seeing some insane Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) news hook earlier this year: Elon’s DOGE kids get access to millions of Americans IRS personally identifiable information and then hide activity logs. I turned to my wife and I asked, “Do these people not realize they will go to jail if they ever lose another election?”
I think that’s an interesting article worth writing. But, I’ll save whether Elon is going to jail for later this week. I see two separate areas that deserve scrutiny:
DOGE: Whether Musk improperly participated in government decisions affecting his own companies, whether sensitive government records were accessed unlawfully, and whether any federal contracts or regulatory decisions were improperly influenced.
Ukraine and Starshield: Who ordered the October 2026 restrictions, whether SpaceX acted independently or under government instructions, and whether anyone violated a federal contract or made false representations to the government.
Plus, Trump will likely pardon him in any case.
Anyways, let’s refocus on Ukraine.
A Ukrainian company has now developed a device that could help reduce that Starlink/Starshield dependency.
It’s called Grim, or Hrim, the Ukrainian word for thunder. The manufacturer is Militech Group, and the device is essentially a cellular LTE modem with more transmitting power than the equipment most people use.
No revolutionary artificial intelligence. No exotic quantum communications. No secret satellite constellation hiding somewhere over the Carpathians.
It’s a modem…
Interestingly, according to the company’s own website, its 1.5-watt LTE modem was listed on Ukraine’s Brave1 defense-technology marketplace back in May 2026. Militech says its research team began developing the higher-power communications technology in 2024.
So, the engineers had identified a genuine battlefield vulnerability long before it became a Musky headline. And their proposed solution is straightforward.
Six times the power
Militech’s Grim modem increases LTE transmission power to approximately 1.5 watts.
A typical cellular LTE device transmits at roughly 0.25 watts.
