Internet for the Armed Forces: Pentagon and Musk extend Starlink deal for another six months
The Pentagon has extended the contract with Elon Musk’s SpaceX for Starlink communications in Ukraine for another six months, until November 30, 2024, and increased the total amount by $14.1 million to $40 million. Apparently, the parties have finally come to an agreement in the dispute over the use of terminals in the war zone, Bloomberg emphasizes.
“The contract provides access to the Starlink system, hardware and customer support on agreed terms.”
Bonnie Poindexter, Space Systems Command spokesperson
The Pentagon has provided Ukraine with a large batch of about 10,000 tons. Starlink terminals – during 2022.
In the fall of the same year, the “peacemaker” Musk threatened to cut off financial support for Starlink in Ukraine. He blackmailed the Pentagon by saying that his company could not bear the costs indefinitely. He also said that the terminals were not intended for military use. In 2023, he wrote in X that he would not allow “an escalation of the conflict that could lead to World War III.”
At the same time, billionaire Musk rolled out his own peace proposals to end the war in Ukraine, according to which Ukraine should give up its demands to return Crimea, occupied by Russia in 2014, and agree to hold elections in the territories occupied during the full-scale invasion.
In 2023, the Pentagon signed a $23 million contract with SpaceX to pay for the use of the terminals. Then Musk calmed down the claims a bit.
Later, the contract amount increased to $26.4 million. Currently, representatives of the US military are working with SpaceX to stop the unauthorized use of terminals by Russia in the war zone (where there is no official Starlink coverage at all).
In May 2024, John Hill, the U.S. Department of Defense’s representative for space and missile defense, told a congressional hearing that “SpaceX has not only been very cooperative with the entire United States government and the government of Ukraine. They are ready to provide us with information” about Russia’s actions.
So far, the contract for Ukrainian Starlink with the Pentagon has exceeded $40 million.
This is, of course, a small fraction of the $2.5 billion in deals SpaceX has received as part of its military satellite launch program.
SpaceX is also participating in a new round of satellite tenders. Its competitor is the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co.
