UK spends nearly £30m on SpaceX satellite services as military shifts to Starshield

The UK has spent nearly £30 million on SpaceX satellite communications and now operates around 1,000 terminals for the company’s military-focused Starshield service, revealing the scale of the armed forces’ growing use of commercial low-Earth orbit connectivity.

The figures, first reported by Reuters following a Freedom of Information request, show the Ministry of Defence has spent about £13 million ($17.6 million) on Starshield terminals and airtime and another £16.5 million on Starlink. The MoD also has around 500 Starlink terminals.

The disclosure provides the clearest picture yet of the UK’s adoption of Starshield, which is based on the technology behind SpaceX’s much larger Starlink broadband network but is intended specifically for government and national-security users.

The UK began using Starlink in 2022. It subsequently started moving operational military communications to Starshield, a transition Reuters first reported in June. At the time, the extent of the Starshield deployment and its cost were not known.

Starshield uses the Starlink network but separates military traffic

The two services share much of the same infrastructure.

The MoD told Reuters that Starshield in the UK uses the same satellite constellation, ground stations and terrestrial infrastructure as Starlink. The difference comes in how military users connect to and move information through that network.

Starshield uses dedicated terminals and separate ground-based network gateways. The MoD said the service also provides enhanced encryption, greater network priority, expanded coverage and military-specific terms of service.

SpaceX describes Starshield as a secure network developed for governments, with three initial roles: communications, Earth observation and carrying specialised payloads on satellites.

It also offers additional cryptographic protection beyond the end-to-end encryption available through Starlink. SpaceX says this can support classified payloads and allow sensitive data to be processed securely.

The UK initially began buying Starshield airtime in 2024 while continuing to use existing Starlink terminals. The first dedicated Starshield terminals were purchased in 2025, according to the MoD information obtained by Reuters.

SpaceX restrictions helped drive the move from Starlink to Starshield

There is also a practical reason for the switch. The MoD said it adopted Starshield after SpaceX stipulated that Starlink should only be used by the military for morale, welfare, recreation and training. Operational communications therefore moved to the service designed specifically for defence customers.

That distinction has become increasingly important since the war in Ukraine demonstrated both the military usefulness and the complications of relying on a commercial satellite network.

Ukrainian forces made extensive use of Starlink after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, including for battlefield communications and drone operations. SpaceX later restricted some military applications. Company president Gwynne Shotwell said in 2023 that Starlink had not been intended to be weaponised.

Starshield gives SpaceX a separate product through which governments can buy military communications without relying on the commercial terms governing Starlink.

Military-grade service comes at a substantially higher price

That separation carries a premium. According to figures disclosed by the MoD, one Starshield package available to the UK costs £5,500 per month for five terabytes of data. An unlimited plan costs £25,000 a month.

Reuters reported that dedicated Starshield terminals cost between £4,000 and £7,000 each. That is at least twice the advertised price of business-grade Starlink equipment.

The higher cost buys more than bandwidth. Military users need priority access and secure communications that remain available when networks are congested or operating conditions deteriorate.

Starshield’s low-Earth orbit architecture also differs from traditional military satellite communications built around relatively small numbers of large spacecraft. SpaceX says distributing capability across many satellites provides greater resilience, while its launch capacity allows new spacecraft to be deployed rapidly.

The UK is adding Starshield rather than replacing Skynet

The SpaceX service does not replace Britain’s sovereign military satellite communications network.

The UK continues to operate Skynet, its long-established military satellite communications system. The country is also a shareholder in Eutelsat, whose OneWeb network is the other major operational low-Earth orbit broadband constellation competing with Starlink.

Starshield instead gives the armed forces another communications layer, particularly useful for deployed units that need high-bandwidth connectivity without relying on fixed terrestrial infrastructure.

Its adoption nevertheless comes as European governments are investing heavily in greater control over their own space-based communications. The EU’s planned IRIS constellation is intended to provide secure European connectivity, with initial launches expected from 2029.