The Department of Defense is in communication with Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, over its contribution of Starlink mobile internet systems, which have been an invaluable asset for the Ukrainian military, but come with a massive cost.
Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh acknowledged this during Friday’s briefing, a day after a CNN report that SpaceX sent a letter to the Defense Department last month asking for them to pick up the accruing tab from the Starlink service being provided to Ukraine due to mounting costs.
“I can confirm that the department has been in communication with SpaceX regarding Starlink,” Singh said. “We’re working with our partners and allies trying to figure out what’s best.”
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Singh declined to confirm that the DOD received a letter from SpaceX or when communications with Musk began.
“There are certainly other Satcom capabilities that exist out there,” she added. “There’s not just SpaceX. There are other entities that we can certainly partner with when it comes to providing Ukraine with what they need on the battlefield.”
Musk tweeted on Friday that the “operation has cost SpaceX $80 million and will exceed $100 million by the end of the year,” while CNN reported that the company believes maintaining the use of Starlink would cost more than $120 million for the rest of the calendar year and could cost nearly $400 million for the next 12 months.
SpaceX’s director of government sales wrote to the Pentagon: “We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time.”
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SpaceX has provided roughly 20,000 terminals to Ukraine, roughly 85% of which were paid for by countries including the United States, Poland, or other entities. Ukrainian commander in chief Gen. Valerii Zaluzhniy praised the terminals in a July letter to Musk, and he asked for roughly 6,200 more terminals and another 500 monthly to offset the losses in the war.
