Plus: Ukraine's Starlink lessons for the Pentagon
By Dan Robitzski
Welcome back to our weekly newsletter highlighting the opinions and perspectives of the SpaceNews community.
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The recently announced U.K. Space Strategy 2026 formally recognizes that space is a contested military domain and recognizes defense and national security as top priorities for the U.K. But still the strategy falls short in ensuring those priorities are met, argued Daniel Molland in a recent commentary. Molland, the CTO of Shield Space, wrote that by declining to list space control as a dedicated funding category, the U.K. "gives itself no route to back the companies building these systems or to buy what they produce."
"The forthcoming defense space policy should state how the U.K. will field counterspace, with a budget attached, rather than deferring the question again," Molland wrote. "Until it does, the U.K. has committed to controlling a domain while paying only to watch and service it, which is all show and no go."
Read the full SpaceNews article here. |
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A Ukrainian soldier sets up a Starlink terminal. Credit: Ukraine Military Center
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The critical role Starlink played in Ukraine's war effort against Russia has revealed important lessons and warnings for the value connectivity plays in modern military engagements, according to a commentary by Cailabs CEO Jean-François Morizur.
Outages and disruptions illustrate the importance of redundancy and resilience, Morizur wrote.
"My point isn’t that Ukraine should cease to use Starlink or use it less," he wrote. "Starlink has played a vital role in the war effort. It’s that Ukraine should have several ways to stay connected. Militaries — all militaries — need networks that can route data through several providers and transmission methods when a path fails. A network in which data can be distributed by several providers and kinds of technology would help to consolidate and build on the extraordinary progress that Ukraine has made this year."
Read the full SpaceNews article here.
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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