What is Starshield, SpaceX's military version of Starlink?

Ukraine said on Wednesday that Elon Musk's SpaceX had restricted "military-grade" Starlink services, hampering Ukrainian drone strike missions and air defences.

The complaint has drawn renewed attention to the distinction between Starlink, SpaceX's commercial satellite internet service, and Starshield, a military version developed for the Pentagon. While Musk has said the two systems are separate, in many cases they share the same underlying satellite technology.

"Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government," Musk said on Wednesday in a post on X, adding that any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military or the president. "Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company."

What is Starlink?

Starlink, the main profit engine of SpaceX, is a satellite internet network of more than 11,000 satellites that beam broadband services directly to user terminals about the size of a folded newspaper. Its roughly 13 million subscribers range from households and hikers to shipping companies and major airlines.

Since launching its first Starlink satellites in 2019 aboard reusable SpaceX rockets, the company has built a vast low-Earth-orbit constellation that blankets much of the planet, delivering faster connections than traditional communications satellites, which typically operate much further from Earth and in far smaller numbers.

Starlink gave Ukraine a critical communications advantage early in the war, reshaping how militaries operate on the battlefield. But Musk has restricted Starlink for certain military uses while highlighting Starshield, a more secure network developed for government and military missions.

What is Starshield?

Starshield is a SpaceX business unit that develops military and intelligence satellite systems for the Pentagon.

While its missions are separate from Starlink's commercial broadband service, the distinction is not always clear-cut: Starshield's secure communications services use enhanced encryption and dedicated terminals, but rely on the vast Starlink constellation as their backbone.

Starshield leverages the technology, engineering and operational experience of Starlink, according to SpaceX. In addition to secure communications, the company says the militarised version can also provide users with Earth observation and the ability to integrate sensors or other payloads.

The Pentagon, Starshield's largest customer, has spent billions of dollars on both Starlink and Starshield services. It has also bought dedicated Starshield satellites, including communications spacecraft for missile-warning missions and a spy constellation for the National Reconnaissance Office, Reuters reported in 2024.

Questions over the relationship between Starlink and Starshield have persisted since Russia threatened Western satellites supporting Ukraine in 2022. SpaceX unveiled Starshield later that year, but the secrecy surrounding national security space programmes has left the precise boundaries between the two systems opaque.

Those distinctions became a point of contention earlier this year when the Pentagon clashed with SpaceX over higher prices for satellite services used by military drones during the Iran conflict, Reuters reported. SpaceX argued that some customers paying roughly $5,000 per terminal for Starlink should instead have been using a Starshield service costing about $25,000 per terminal.

Britain has also adopted Starshield. Under that arrangement, the service uses the same satellite constellation, ground stations and terrestrial infrastructure as Starlink, but operates through dedicated terminals and separate network gateways, Britain's Ministry of Defence has told Reuters.

Other US partners are evaluating the system as well. New Zealand is trialling Starshield to assess its usefulness for military operations, the New Zealand Defence Force previously told Reuters.