Pentagon contracting Starlink to provide satellite communications for Ukraine

The Pentagon is shopping for satellite communication capabilities from SpaceX’s Starlink to support the Ukrainian army in its struggle with Russia, DefenseScoop has realized.

The Pentagon has beforehand disclosed that “SATCOM terminals and services” have been included in U.S. safety help packages, though it hasn’t been figuring out the businesses offering them.

However, on Thursday a protection official revealed that the division is contracting with Starlink.

“We continue to work with a range of global partners to ensure Ukraine has the resilient satellite and communication capabilities they need. Satellite communications constitute a vital layer in Ukraine’s overall communications network and the department contracts with Starlink for services of this type. However, for operational security reasons and due to the critical nature of these systems, we do not have additional information regarding specific capabilities, contracts, or partners to provide at this time,” the protection official mentioned in an announcement to DefenseScoop on situation of anonymity.

Commercial area applied sciences have had a big effect on the Ukraine-Russia struggle, officers say.

SpaceX had been offering Starlink capabilities to Ukraine by itself dime and from non-DOD funding sources after the struggle kicked off final 12 months. However, issues had been raised that in some unspecified time in the future Ukraine might lose entry to Starlink over funding points or different problems, and within the fall the corporate reportedly tried to stress the Pentagon to begin footing the invoice.

Starlink satellite web terminals and related capabilities have enabled Ukranian troops to keep related even when their typical comms networks are hindered in the course of the battle with Russia.

“It’s been huge in terms of their ability to communicate, and then to coordinate planning and operations,” a senior U.S. army official informed reporters throughout a background briefing in October.

“In terms of its employment, I mean, well, I don’t think you can overestimate or overemphasize the impact that being able to communicate has. You know, one of the first things you try to do in a fight is to reduce your opponent’s ability to communicate, and in this case, you know, Starlink has proven exceptionally effective on the battlefield because it’s allowed the Ukrainians multiple connections, and in that regard, has been very, very helpful in their efforts at the tactical and strategic level,” the official added.

Starlink has been in a position to rapidly replace its techniques to counter Russian jamming makes an attempt.

“When we compare that to the kind of the latency of our ability to get capability out there, how long it takes us to make capability upgrades, the process we have to go through to do the analysis of what happened, what’s the appropriate way to fix it, how do we then acquire the system, how do we get the contract in place — we’re talking about a significant timeline to make those types of corrections,” Dave Tremper, director of digital warfare supporting the platforms and weapons portfolio supervisor within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, has mentioned.

A communications director at SpaceX didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark about Starlink contracts with DOD.