{"id":1456618,"date":"2026-10-23T10:47:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T07:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/pentagon-and-spacex-under-scrutiny-us-investigating-ukraines-loss-of-access-to-starshield\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T10:47:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T07:47:33","slug":"pentagon-and-spacex-under-scrutiny-us-investigating-ukraines-loss-of-access-to-starshield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/pentagon-and-spacex-under-scrutiny-us-investigating-ukraines-loss-of-access-to-starshield\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon and SpaceX under scrutiny: US investigating Ukraine’s loss of access to Starshield"},"content":{"rendered":"

US Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal has launched an investigation into Ukraine’s loss of access to the Pentagon’s Starshield military satellite system. He wants to find out who made the decision to limit the service and whether the US Department of Defense has alternatives in case SpaceX’s services become unavailable.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reuters reports<\/a> this.<\/p>\n

In a letter to US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Blumenthal noted that the Ukrainian military lost critical access to Starshield late on the evening of October 13 after data transfer speed restrictions were imposed.<\/p>\n

“This incident raises urgent questions about who has the technical and legal authority to change the parameters of these systems,” the senator wrote.<\/p>\n

He said the restrictions put Ukrainian military and civilians at risk. The situation also raised questions about control over technology on which the US government has spent billions of dollars.<\/p>\n

Blumenthal intends to investigate who initiated the change in Starshield access terms \u2014 the White House, the Pentagon, or SpaceX. The Senate subcommittee will also examine the US government’s interaction with the company and the dependence of defense capabilities on its technology.<\/p>\n

The senator set a deadline of November 5 to provide answers to the questions outlined in the letter to Hegseth. SpaceX representatives familiar with the Starshield limitations are to hold a briefing by November 12.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Democrats’ ability to investigate is limited because the Senate is controlled by Republicans. Therefore, Blumenthal cannot forcibly subpoena witnesses or demand documents, but can only seek information and clarification from officials and company representatives.<\/p>\n

Starshield is SpaceX’s military satellite communications system based on Starlink technology. The Pentagon is its largest customer. The investigation is intended to help determine who controls access to these critical technologies and the extent to which the U.S. military and its partners are dependent on a private provider.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that the day before, US President Donald Trump said that SpaceX founder Elon Musk had restored access to the Starlink satellite system for Ukraine.<\/a><\/p>\n

As is known, US Republican Senator Tom Tillis is demanding an investigation into the problems with the Starshield military satellite communications system, which caused the Ukrainian military to face limitations in the system’s operation<\/a> . He plans to ask the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense to conduct an inspection and report to Congress and the American public.<\/p>\n

Recall that on the night of Wednesday, October 14, Starlink terminals began to lose communication while traveling at speeds over 160 km\/h<\/a> . This, according to preliminary data, disrupted a number of important missions. At the same time, conventional satellite communication terminals continue to operate.<\/p>\n

Later, Serhiy Beskrestnov, known by the call sign \u201cFlash\u201d, stated that SpaceX had introduced speed restrictions on Starlink terminals during movement<\/a> . Because of this, the Ukrainian Defense Forces were unable to complete a number of important missions.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the 7th Airborne Assault Corps reported that problems arose even at lower speeds. In particular, in the Hulyaipil direction , communication with drones could be lost for 10\u201320 seconds while flying at a speed of 110\u2013120 km\/h.<\/a><\/p>\n

As reported in the evening of the same day , Ukraine began to resume Starlink operations at speeds of up to 160 km\/h<\/a> . Thanks to this, the Ukrainian military will again be able to use strike drones and interceptor drones, the work of which was complicated by recent restrictions.<\/p>\n

By the way, the administration of US President Donald Trump denies involvement in the restrictions on Starlink operations in Ukraine<\/a> . Washington said it would contact SpaceX to find out the causes of the problems.<\/p>\n

In addition, Starlink antennas may have been set on fire in Bulgaria at a secret facility near Sofia. According to preliminary data, the fire damaged 11 of the 17 SpaceX antennas, and two masked men may have been involved in the incident<\/a> .<\/p>\n

Also follow \u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a> , X<\/a> , Telegram<\/a> , and Instagram<\/a> .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal has launched an investigation into Ukraine’s loss of access to the Pentagon’s Starshield military satellite system. He wants to find out who made the decision to limit the service and whether the US Department of Defense has alternatives in case SpaceX’s services become unavailable. Reuters reports this. In a letter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":1456604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76870,76871,76872,76874,76885],"class_list":["post-1456618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-war","category-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1456618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1456604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1456618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1456618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}