State of play: that of musk SpaceX, which is Starlink’s parent company, is by far the world leader in space connectivity with more than 11,000 satellites, according to data from the American Enterprise Institute. Eutelsat, a SATCOM company based in France, is behind them with more than 600 satellites in its OneWeb network.
- This summer, Starlink announced that it had reached 12 million customers in more than 160 countries and territories.
- SpaceX’s massive advance has made it difficult for European countries to establish independence from the Musk-led company.
Driving the news: Now, non-US companies looking to compete with SpaceX are offering their services with more urgency.
- Last week, Finnish companies ICEYE and Nokia announced an agreement with Ukraine’s Defense Ministry to explore “sovereign satellite communications.”
- The duo’s first satellites “are expected to launch in 2028,” an ICEYE spokesperson told Axios, adding that the need for reliable satellite communications has been “obvious for years, particularly in Europe.”
- “Modern warfare has proven that reliable communications are a matter of national security,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in the ICEYE and Nokia statement.
- “We all need to rely on abilities that we can control.”
Zoom: The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Musk had ordered Ukraine’s Starlink service to be slowed down. Other media outlets claimed the White House was involved, which President Trump denied.
- Musk responded on October 24 that Ukraine “violated Starlink’s terms of use” by using it for offensive drone strikes. This “gap”, he added, was recently “filled”.
Follow the money: After Starlink’s connection was throttled, Eutelsat shares soared.
- In an interview on French television last week, Eutelsat CEO Jean-François Fallacher said the company’s service was already available. in Ukraine and its service can be used for drones.
- “If one day we wanted to decide to cut off a country or no longer offer services in a country, it is not a decision made only by the CEO. It is a decision made by our board of directors with a traditional governance system found in Europe,” Fallacher said, according to a translation.
Threat level: Rebecca Wasser, defense chief at Bloomberg Economics, said the Starlink incident shows a “loss of confidence” not only in the U.S. security commitment but also in the ability of a U.S. company to provide key services.
- “I think we’re going to see more of this push toward a European sovereign capability when it comes to space communications,” Wasser told Axios..
Our thought bubble: This is the latest development in battlefield networking and coordination, without which troops can fight but cannot win.
The bottom line: “Satellite communications are no longer simply a support function,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) wrote in a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth last week.
- “Events in Ukraine show how a single point of control can backfire on the forces that depend on it.”
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