UK Pays Nearly $40 Million for SpaceX Satellite Services

The United Kingdom has spent nearly $40 million on satellite services from SpaceX, the rocket and space company owned by Elon Musk. This information came out after a journalist asked the British government to share its records under a freedom of information law. The spending shows how much Britain depends on a private American company for military communications, even as other European countries worry about relying too heavily on U.S. technology.

Britain's defence ministry said it owns about 1,000 Starshield terminals and 500 Starlink terminals. It has spent roughly £13 million (about $17.6 million) on Starshield and £16.5 million on Starlink. These two services are both made by SpaceX but are meant for different users.

Starlink is the service most people have heard of. It provides internet to homes, businesses, and even soldiers who need a quick connection in the field. Starshield is a newer, more secure version that SpaceX built for governments and military forces. Britain is now the first country outside the United States to publicly say it uses Starshield.

SpaceX told Britain's military that Starlink should only be used for things like entertainment and training, not for actual combat missions. That rule pushed the UK to move its most important military communications over to Starshield. The ministry said Starshield provides stronger security and higher priority on the network, meaning military signals get through even when the network is busy.

Starshield costs a lot more than Starlink. In the UK, a Starshield plan can cost £5,500 a month for five terabytes of data, or £25,000 a month for an unlimited plan. By comparison, a regular Starlink business plan costs about £1,830 a month. Starshield terminals — the hardware used to connect to the satellites — cost between £4,000 and £7,000 each, at least double the price of standard Starlink hardware.

Armies around the world became very interested in Starlink after Ukraine started using it heavily following Russia's invasion in 2022. Ukrainian forces used the network to communicate on the battlefield and to operate drones. Britain started using Starlink in mid-2022 and has more recently been shifting its key military traffic over to Starshield.

Elon Musk has been clear that he wants militaries to use Starshield instead of Starlink for combat. Earlier this year, SpaceX raised the price it charged the U.S. Pentagon for Starlink services used to guide military drones by five times. Musk said the price increase happened because the Pentagon was using Starlink when it should have been using Starshield.

The U.S. Space Force has awarded SpaceX more than $6 billion in multi-year Starshield contracts. New Zealand is also testing Starshield to see if it could help its own military. These deals show that Starshield is becoming an important part of how Western militaries plan to communicate in the future.

Britain does have its own satellite system, called Skynet, and it also holds a share in a European satellite company called Eutelsat. But the UK's growing use of SpaceX services comes at a tense time in Europe. Many European governments are trying to build stronger, more independent defence systems because they worry that U.S. support for Europe could weaken in the future.

Musk also publicly criticized the UK's government several times, which raised questions about whether Britain should rely so heavily on his company. Some people think it is risky for a country to depend on a private company — especially one whose owner sometimes clashes with government leaders — for something as important as military communications. The debate over that question is likely to continue as Starshield spreads to more countries.