After months of praise for Starlink and its role in keeping Ukrainians online, the US Air Force is making plans to work with the satellite internet company.
The 86th Airlift Wing based at Ramstein Air Base in Germany will be supported by the purchase of service from Starlink.
The contract was awarded in July of this year and is expected to start in August. Until a broader agreement is reached, it is an interim solution. After the contract was announced, it was reported by Politico.
The intent is to provide either First-Generation or High-Performance satellite terminals and internet service either static/fixed site or portable/ mobile to the terminals enabling users to connect devices to the internet, according to the Air Force.
The document says that Starlink is the only commercial company that can provide low-earth orbit satellite communications in both Europe and Africa.
The document states that Starlink is the only network currently being used in a "contested environment".
According to the document, the Air Force is pursuing several efforts that could require support for tactical missions, and the research laboratory has found that low-earth orbit satellite constellations are more resilient to signal jamming and also provide the low latency required to support tactical missions.
The document says that the communication requirements within and around eastern European areas expand daily. The requirement of reducing processing times and increasing theater based operations was fulfilled by Starlink.
According to the document, "After extensive research it was found that the only vendor that could provide this specialized communication service in the current areas of operation was SpaceX-Starlink."
In the hours before Russia launched its offensive, the internet and communications networks of Ukraine were attacked. After Moscow launched its attack, Musk said that Starlink had been activated inUkraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has praised the effectiveness of Starlink since then.
The US military has praised Starlink for its resilience in the face of increased hacking attempts by Russia.
The director of the space portfolio at the Pentagon said that the satellite network had destroyed Russia's information campaign. The US military has contracts with SpaceX.
The US Air Force started researching internet service in Europe and Africa in June. Amazon, OneWeb, and Telesat are expected to provide service in the next few years, according to the document.
At a Defense Writers Group event in July, Gen. Stephen Townsend, who retired this month after three years as head of US Africa Command, said that he had seen how Starlink was being used in Ukranian.
"I've asked my staff, 'Hey, can we use that capability and if so tell me how,'" he said when asked if Starlink could be useful for militaries in Africa. I don't know, but I asked the same question you asked.
In the event of a conflict, the Chinese military should be able to interfere with or destroy Starlink satellites, according to a research paper written this spring.
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