- US DoD can't, in peacetime (wrt the US), technically force an unwilling US company to be complicit in attacking foreign military assets (see below vs status of "war").
- also various int'l treaties on space assets, and various other ones applicable by analogy would bore a deep hole on SpaceX's insurance premiums, and on any derivates liabilities based on SpaceX's stock (6.3 Billion $ loan SpaceX made to Elon so he could buy Twitter/X ahem...).
- Similarly Russia probably privately warned SpaceX about a private company being possibly ^ complicit in an act of war against them outside of the home country of SpaceX being at war with them - huge liability issues SpaceX'd lose big time.
- also the matter the system relies on ground stations in a variety of countries also comes into it.
...not much anybody can do unless US or NATO formally declares war. US and Russia might be in a cold snap, but there is no violence, moreover outside of a declared war zone (surprisingly neither Russia nor Ukraine technically declared war, for a variety of intl' legal reason which are advantageous to both - hence the "Special Military Operation" b---s--t moniker everybody mocks publicly, but everybody respects legal--ly).
Thanks for your thoughts!
It absolutely can, with a long line of court precedents on war powers being actual without formal state of war being declared
Imagine the outrage if Musk did the same to the special forces team flying to kill Usama into Pakistan telling everyone that Pakistan would nuke us.
