“I thought this was already addressed.
If so, what is the purpose?”
This is the DoD trying to get full and absolute control of Starlink/Skynet.
I figured something nefarious.
I suspect this is a second try or a second report of the first try.
It makes sense that DOD wants to lock Musk out more than Russia needs Starlink.
“This is the DoD trying to get full and absolute control of Starlink/Skynet.”
The DOD has already contracted SpaceX to put up based on its gen 2 starlink birds a dedicated DOD version for Space Force. Some of the recent classified launches likely contained the initial birds. the last falcon heavy was launched in partially disposable mode they splashed the main booster which means they had enough payload on board to need the extra delta V leaving no fuel for a booster recovery.
The only official payload was the military space planes which is small and not more than 11,000lbs in mass...The falcon heavy throwing away its core can chunk 126,000lbs to orbit so there was over 115,000lbs of payload capacity on that flight inquiring minds would love to know what else was thrown into orbit.
“With just the core booster expended, and two side-boosters recovered, Musk estimates the payload penalty to be around 10%, which would still yield over 57 t (126,000 lb) of lift capability to LEO.”