Russia has launched a second batch of Rassvet low-Earth orbit satellites, a project designed to become Moscow’s domestic alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink. “Russia has launched the second batch of Rassvet satellites, which are intended to become an analogue of Starlink. There are now up to 40 satellites in orbit,” Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov, an adviser to the President of Ukraine on defense technology wrote on Telegram.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. According to him, the newly launched satellites have not yet taken their positions within the orbital constellation, but this is expected to happen soon. Beskrestnov noted that Russia will need to deploy at least several hundred satellites before the system can be used effectively for military purposes of C3 (command, control, and communications). For comparison, he said SpaceX currently operates more than 15,000 satellites, while OneWeb has around 600-700 in orbit and Amazon’s Project Kuiper has deployed roughly 400-500, with plans to expand to about 4,000. Russia claims the Rassvet network will provide broadband internet with global coverage, offering speeds of up to 1 Gbps per subscriber terminal and latency of up to 70 milliseconds. Western and Ukrainian analysts have warned that, beyond civilian use, the constellation could have significant military applications by providing secure communications, command-and-control capabilities, and connectivity for Russian forces.