In December 2022, SpaceX announced the creation of Starshield, a “secured satellite network for government entities.” The network is built on the back of SpaceX’s commercial constellation of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that provide broadband service under the brand name Starlink. Instead of the commercial retail broadband service that Starlink provides, Starshield aims to serve government customers to support “Earth observation,” communications, and hosted payloads. SpaceX boasts of the security and interoperability of the network, among other features. The company also lists proven partnerships including “ongoing work with the Department of Defense and other partners.”[1]

Starshield has received little media coverage compared to Starlink or other subsidiaries of SpaceX. This article tackles what Starshield is, how it is funded, and raises questions about its uses and operations.

Starshield Operations

Starshield is a military-grade version of Starlink. Both are LEO satellite internet networks. LEO connectivity offers upload and download speeds faster than traditional geostationary satellite service, though slower than terrestrial internet service.

Significantly, Starshield purports to be a separate network from Starlink. However, outages in Starlink connectivity have affected Starshield’s ability to provide service. These joint outages indicate that the two networks are linked in at least some capacity. The unknown amount of dependency between the two networks makes it difficult to evaluate risks of outages.

A primary selling point of Starshield for the military is security. Starshield promises end-to-end encryption made possible through vertical integration: SpaceX builds every piece of infrastructure that supports Starshield. This kind of vertical integration is growing in the space industry, both as a business strategy and for security purposes.[2]

Defense contracting is an extremely lucrative business. In 2026, SpaceX won over $6 billion in its largest government contracts to date:

1. $2.29 billion, for development of the U.S. Space Force’s Space Data Network.
2. $4.16 billion, to build satellite network for airborne target tracking.

Starshield’s government contracts come from the Department of War broadly and one specifically from the U.S. Space Force within the DoW fund network development. SpaceX manufactures the materials necessary to create the broadband connectivity for Starshield, and the government agency that purchases goods and services will decide how to use them in defense strategy.

Is Elon Musk Involved in U.S. Defense?

The founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, was a public supporter President Trump’s 2024 campaign. Musk was a major donor to President Trump and the Republican Congressional candidates in the 2024 election, and has donated more than $15 million to Republican candidates so far for the 2026 midterm elections. Musk is the CEO of SpaceX and he is an active founder. After SpaceX went public, he now owns 200 million performance-based shares.

There is traditionally some separation between defense contractors and the government’s development and execution of defense strategy. However, Elon Musk is an advocate of drone warfare, a major strategic use for Starshield. He stated that “drones are going to be overwhelmingly what matters in any conflict between powers that have significant technology.”  Musk would profit from such uses.

The Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX and Elon Musk

Starshield’s Customers

Specific details of defense contracts are not always public. Some contracts are entirely confidential, and unreported even in the official financial paperwork if part of the Pentagon’s “black budget.” This makes it difficult to nail down specifically how much federal funding has been awarded to Starshield. However, we do know that Starshield is swimming in government money. Before SpaceX even publicly announced Starshield’s existence, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2023 that Starshield had won a $1.8 billion classified contract in 2021 during the Biden administration. And Starshield continued to win contracts during the Biden administration: In the midst of Starlink’s highly scrutinized involvement in the Ukraine War, Starshield was awarded a $70 million contract.

While the Pentagon is a major customer for Starshield, it may not be the only customer. Initially, it appeared that Starshield would be available for non-U.S. national government defense bodies. However, the current FAQ page for Starlink states that Starshield is “designed to support U.S. National Defense use cases for the Department of Defense and other Government partners,” implying that only U.S. government customers are welcome.

What is Starshield For?

Starshield advertises three primary features: (1) ‘Earth observation’, (2) communications, and (3) hosted payloads. The $3.8 trillion Earth observation industry predates Starshield. The focus is capturing images of the Earth’s surface, enabling the tracking of wide-scale phenomena and collection of Earth surface data for purposes including environmental tracking and civil protection. The communications feature encompasses the end-to-end encryption that keeps communication between military operatives secure. Hosted payloads refer to data storage services that allow Starshield to offer “satellite buses” to hold data for its clients.

In practice, two major use cases for Starshield based on these features have emerged: (1) drone warfare and (2) target acquisition and surveillance. 

Drone Warfare

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are unpiloted aircrafts that can be used for finding targets and dropping bombs, among other things. Use of drones is a prominent tactic of modern warfare, especially as practiced by the United States. Drones require broadband service to operate, making broadband critical in war operations. For this reason, Starlink became imperative for drone-based Ukrainian defense efforts in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Starshield has been used recently for drone connectivity in the U.S. military operations against Iran.

Target Acquisition and Surveillance

Earth observation is a major feature of the Starshield abilities. The network purports to have advanced capabilities for observation due to its vast constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites, which allows for increased image capture compared to other services.  

This capacity is relevant for finding drone targets and for general surveillance. Starshield’s capabilities enable it to “help the military spot targets anywhere in the world.” While the particular uses of Starshield are classified, the Washington Post writes that Starshield is “dedicated to surveillance.” An anonymous source, identified only as working at the Pentagon, said to Reuters that Starshield would “significantly advance the ability of the U.S. government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe”, and that “no one can hide” from the reach of the satellites.

Starshield’s initial contract was granted by the same agency that grants U.S. spy satellite system contracts, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). In 2025, the accidental discovery of Starshield emitting an unidentified signal led to increased fears about the surveillance capabilities of the network. SpaceX was found to be “downlinking”—sending messages from a satellite to the Earth—in a channel reserved for “uplinking”—sending signals the opposite direction. This practice is against the policy of the UN’s International Telecommunications Union, which specifically designates some frequency bands for each specific purpose. Satellite tracker Scott Tilley, who discovered the signal, said to NPR, “SpaceX is smart and savvy. It's possible they decided to just do it and ask forgiveness later.”

Where We’re Going

Starshield’s surveillance capacity is concerning based on the current priorities of the U.S. government. Public interest groups, especially those concerned with First Amendment rights and immigrant welfare, might want to take note. The Trump administration has made moves to monitor the social media of immigrants, visa-holders, and U.S. citizens, taken data from the Social Security Administration, and plans to expand “targets” to include supposed “anti-ICE protesters and anyone who allegedly funds them.” The Administration has also signaled that it plans to increase surveillance domestically, including the desire to collect social media information and DNA from all entering the country, as well as significant other personal information. The American Civil Liberties Union has criticized Trump’s data grabs and policies as “Big Brother” levels of surveillance, a reference to the dystopian government in Orwell’s 1984.

Because of the lack of transparency around Starshield uses, it is not entirely clear who or what Starshield is surveilling. The Department of Homeland Security’s data driven dragnet is an immense tracking infrastructure. U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) utilizes this dragnet, primarily facial recognition and license plate/vehicle tracking. Earth observation imaging would support this tracking by adding a new technological dimension.

Given the immense government funding and high surveillance capability, the public interest community should continue pay attention to Starshield.

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