La Señal que Cayó: Thuraya, los Satélites y la Guerra en el Espacio

And under the laws of armed conflict, communications infrastructure is technically a dual-use target.

It serves both civilian and military purposes.

So legally, in the fog of war, it's complicated.

That's always been the argument.

But the effect on civilians is enormous.

La verdad es que esto no es nuevo.

The truth is that this is not new.

En la Primera Guerra del Golfo, en 1991, los Estados Unidos atacaron las comunicaciones en Iraq.

In the First Gulf War, in 1991, the United States attacked communications in Iraq.

En Serbia, en 1999, la OTAN atacó la televisión nacional.

In Serbia, in 1999, NATO attacked the national television station.

Atacar las comunicaciones es parte de la guerra moderna.

Attacking communications is part of modern warfare.

No, you're absolutely right about that.

And the Serbia case is instructive.

When NATO bombed RTS, the Serbian state broadcaster, sixteen journalists were killed.

The argument was it was a propaganda tool, so it was a legitimate target.

The debate about that never really ended.

Mira, pero Thuraya es diferente a una televisión nacional.

Look, but Thuraya is different from a national television station.

Thuraya no es propaganda.

Thuraya is not propaganda.

Es solo una empresa que vende conexión, como el agua o la electricidad.

It is just a company that sells connectivity, like water or electricity.

Cuando atacas Thuraya, atacas a todo el mundo que depende de esa señal.

When you attack Thuraya, you attack everyone who depends on that signal.

So let's talk about the geography for a second.

Sharjah.

That's one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE.

It borders Dubai, basically.

You're talking about one of the most densely populated, economically critical regions on earth.

An Iranian missile landing there, that's not a small thing.

No, es muy importante.

No, it's very important.

Sharjah está a solo quince kilómetros de Dubai.

Sharjah is only fifteen kilometers from Dubai.

Los Emiratos trataron de mantenerse neutrales en este conflicto.

The Emirates tried to stay neutral in this conflict.

No quieren la guerra cerca de su economía.

They don't want the war near their economy.

Pero ahora un misil cayó en su territorio.

But now a missile landed on their territory.

Look, the UAE's position has been delicate throughout this whole crisis.

They have deep economic ties with Iran, they share maritime borders, they have a massive Iranian diaspora community.

And at the same time, they're formally aligned with the Gulf states that are backing the U.S.

position.

That's a very uncomfortable place to be.

A ver, y también hay algo humano aquí.

And there is also something human here.

Las dos personas heridas por el misil eran trabajadores pakistaníes.

The two people injured by the missile were Pakistani workers.

No eran soldados.

They were not soldiers.

Eran empleados de una empresa de tecnología.

They were employees of a technology company.

Esto es parte de la realidad de los Emiratos: millones de trabajadores extranjeros.

This is part of the reality of the Emirates: millions of foreign workers.

Right.

The UAE is, what, roughly ninety percent expatriate population.

The people who actually run the infrastructure, the ports, the technology companies, they're from South Asia, from Southeast Asia, from everywhere.

And they're the ones getting hurt when missiles fall on office buildings.

Es que esta es la cara invisible de la guerra.

This is the invisible face of war.

No sale en los titulares.

It doesn't make the headlines.

Dos pakistaníes heridos en Sharjah.

Two Pakistanis injured in Sharjah.

Pero esas personas tienen familias, tienen historias.

But those people have families, they have stories.

Viajaron miles de kilómetros para trabajar en una empresa de satélites.

They traveled thousands of kilometers to work at a satellite company.

So let's come back to the technology, because the implications here go well beyond one building in Sharjah.

What actually happens to Thuraya's services if the company's ground infrastructure is seriously damaged?

Bueno, el satélite en el espacio está bien porque no puedes atacarlo fácilmente.

Well, the satellite in space is fine because you can't attack it easily.

Pero necesitas estaciones en la Tierra para controlar el satélite y para enviar las llamadas.

But you need stations on the ground to control the satellite and to send calls.

Si atacas esas estaciones, la comunicación se corta.

If you attack those stations, communication is cut off.

And there are competitors.

Iridium, Inmarsat, Starlink now.

But here's the thing.

They don't all cover the same regions equally, they don't all offer the same services, and switching to a different provider in the middle of a crisis is not simple.

People, organizations, ships, they build their whole communications system around one provider.

Y Thuraya es especialmente importante para el Medio Oriente y África.

And Thuraya is especially important for the Middle East and Africa.

Iridium funciona mejor en los polos, en las zonas muy frías.

Iridium works better at the poles, in very cold zones.

Starlink es más nuevo y más rápido, pero necesita una antena especial.

Starlink is newer and faster, but it needs a special antenna.

No todos pueden usarlo.

Not everyone can use it.

The Starlink story is fascinating and worth a minute.

Because Elon Musk's satellite internet service became arguably the most strategically important technology of the Ukraine war.

The Ukrainians used it for everything, battlefield communications, drone operations, keeping civilian internet running.

It changed the character of that conflict.

Sí, en Ucrania, Starlink fue fundamental.

Yes, in Ukraine, Starlink was fundamental.

Los soldados usaban Starlink para comunicarse cuando los sistemas militares normales no funcionaban.

Soldiers used Starlink to communicate when normal military systems were not working.

Esto fue una ventaja enorme para Ucrania.

This was a huge advantage for Ukraine.

Cambió la forma en que el ejército ucraniano operó.

It changed the way the Ukrainian army operated.

And that creates what's sometimes called the dual-use dilemma.

When satellite communications infrastructure is used by both civilians and soldiers, it becomes a legitimate military target, at least in some interpretations.

Which means every journalist, every aid worker, every fisherman using that same system is suddenly sharing risk with a military operation.

La verdad es que la tecnología no es neutral.

The truth is that technology is not neutral.

Cuando inventamos el internet, o el teléfono por satélite, pensamos que era solo para comunicación pacífica.

When we invented the internet, or the satellite phone, we thought it was only for peaceful communication.

Pero la guerra siempre toma las nuevas tecnologías y las usa para sus objetivos.

But war always takes new technologies and uses them for its own purposes.

The extraordinary thing is that this pattern is as old as technology itself.

The telegraph was invented for commerce and communication.

Within thirty years it was being used to coordinate troop movements in the American Civil War.

Radio.

Radar.

GPS started as a purely military system.

Now it's in every phone in every pocket on earth.

Y el GPS es un buen ejemplo.

And GPS is a good example.

El sistema GPS fue creado por el ejército de los Estados Unidos en los años setenta.

The GPS system was created by the United States military in the seventies.

Hoy lo usamos para ir al supermercado, para llamar a un taxi, para encontrar un restaurante.

Today we use it to go to the supermarket, to call a taxi, to find a restaurant.

La tecnología militar se convierte en tecnología civil, y después la tecnología civil se convierte en objetivo militar otra vez.

Military technology becomes civilian technology, and then civilian technology becomes a military target again.

So strategically, what is Iran signaling by hitting a Thuraya building in Sharjah?

I mean, is this about disrupting communications specifically, or is the message aimed at the UAE?

Mira, creo que es las dos cosas.

Look, I think it is both things.

Es un mensaje para los Emiratos: «No estáis fuera de esta guerra».

It is a message to the Emirates: 'You are not outside this war.' And it is also a message about communications: 'We can affect your capacity to talk, to report, to coordinate.'

Y también es un mensaje para las comunicaciones: «Podemos afectar vuestra capacidad de hablar, de informar, de coordinaros».

And the UAE has tried very hard to stay out of this.

Dubai is still functioning as a global business hub.

Emirates airline is still flying.

The financial markets are open.

There's a real economic logic to staying neutral.

But a missile in Sharjah makes that neutrality harder to maintain.

Es que la guerra de 2022 entre los Houthis y los Emiratos fue un aviso.

The 2022 war between the Houthis and the Emirates was a warning.

Los Houthis atacaron Abu Dhabi con drones y misiles.

The Houthis attacked Abu Dhabi with drones and missiles.

Los Emiratos cambiaron su política en Yemen después de esos ataques.

The Emirates changed their policy in Yemen after those attacks.

Iran sabe esto.

Iran knows this.

Sabe que los ataques en el territorio de los Emiratos tienen consecuencias políticas.

It knows that attacks on Emirati territory have political consequences.

And I think there's a broader point here about the vulnerability of what you might call the space layer of modern civilization.

We have become so dependent on satellites, for communications, for navigation, for financial transactions, for weather forecasting, that losing them would be catastrophic in ways most people have never thought about.

A ver, esto es algo que me parece muy importante.

This is something I find very important.

Los satélites no son solo para el teléfono.

Satellites are not just for the telephone.

Los bancos usan satélites para sincronizar sus transacciones.

Banks use satellites to synchronize their transactions.

Los aviones necesitan satélites para navegar.

Planes need satellites to navigate.

Incluso las redes eléctricas usan señales de satélite para coordinarse.

Even electrical grids use satellite signals to coordinate.

Sin satélites, el mundo moderno se para.

Without satellites, the modern world stops.

I mean, right now there are more than seven thousand active satellites in orbit.

The number has exploded in the last decade, mainly because of companies like SpaceX making launch costs so much cheaper.

But that also means more targets, more debris if things start getting destroyed up there, and a concept called Kessler syndrome, where one collision creates a chain reaction of debris that makes low Earth orbit basically unusable.

Bueno, esto es algo que los científicos estudiaron mucho.

Well, this is something scientists have studied a lot.

Si un país destruye un satélite, los pedazos pueden chocar con otros satélites.

If a country destroys a satellite, the pieces can collide with other satellites.

Y esos pedazos chocan con otros.

And those pieces collide with others.

En pocos años, el espacio puede ser demasiado peligroso para los satélites nuevos.

In a few years, space can become too dangerous for new satellites.

Toda la tecnología satelital del mundo puede terminar.

All the world's satellite technology can end.

Nobody's shooting satellites down in this conflict, at least not yet.

But hitting the ground infrastructure of a satellite company is a step along that road.

You degrade the system without the catastrophic legal and strategic escalation of an actual anti-satellite weapon.

It's a way of attacking the space layer from below.

Exacto.

Exactly.

Y esto es lo que hace que el ataque a Thuraya sea diferente a otros ataques en esta guerra.

And this is what makes the attack on Thuraya different from other attacks in this war.

No es un ataque a un campo de petróleo o a un puente.

It is not an attack on an oil field or a bridge.

Es un ataque a la infraestructura de la información.

It is an attack on information infrastructure.

Es un ataque a la manera en que el mundo se comunica.

It is an attack on the way the world communicates.

So here's where I want to land.

We started with one missile, one building, two injured workers in Sharjah.

And what it opens up is this entire question about how dependent modern civilization has become on technology infrastructure that we barely think about, that most people couldn't name, but that runs underneath everything.

Sí.

Yes.

Y yo quiero terminar con algo personal.

And I want to finish with something personal.

Yo escribí sobre la guerra en los Balcanes para El País.

I wrote about the war in the Balkans for El País.

En aquella época, sin teléfono por satélite, el trabajo era muy difícil.

In those days, without a satellite phone, the work was very difficult.

Un día, perdí el contacto con mi editor durante cuarenta y ocho horas.

One day, I lost contact with my editor for forty-eight hours.

Cuarenta y ocho horas en silencio, sin saber si mis artículos llegaron, sin poder llamar a mi familia.

Forty-eight hours in silence, not knowing if my articles arrived, not able to call my family.

La señal, cuando volvió, fue como el aire.

The signal, when it came back, was like air.

Sin comunicación, los periodistas no pueden hacer su trabajo.

Without communication, journalists cannot do their work.

Y sin periodistas, la guerra se vuelve invisible.

And without journalists, the war becomes invisible.

Por eso, un edificio de Thuraya no es solo un edificio.

That is why a Thuraya building is not just a building.