Pentagon Inspector General Declines Senators' Request to Investigate Starshield Slowdown in Ukraine

The Defense Department's inspector general has declined a bipartisan request to investigate the slowdown of Starshield, SpaceX's military version of Starlink, in Ukraine. Platte Moring said in a letter dated Tuesday that the senators' questions belong with the Air Force and Space Force, which he called "better suited to address the matters raised."

Nine senators, led by Republican Thom Tillis and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, had asked for "an immediate investigation." Inspector general spokesperson Mollie Halpern said the office "carefully considered the congressional request." She added: "Should new information come to light, we may reconsider."

Shaheen said it is "concerning" that the office decided not to investigate. "The Trump Administration and SpaceX have provided conflicting accounts of what led to those disruptions, which weakened Ukraine's defenses and put American personnel in Ukraine at risk unnecessarily," she said. She called for "an independent accounting and review."

What happened on the front line

Ukrainian drone crews saw aircraft dropping off the network after midnight on Oct. 14. Satellite terminals on interceptor drones lost their link above roughly 160 km/h. Those interceptors are built to chase Russia's jet-powered Shahed attack drones, which fly at around 400 km/h.

Michael Kofman of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told the Wall Street Journal that lifting the cap would "do much to enable Ukraine's strike capabilities at operational depths and its current effort to scale up deployment of jet-powered interceptors."

The Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump called Musk on a Wednesday and asked him to lift the restrictions. Service improved the next day, though some Ukrainian officials said it was not fully back. Trump would not confirm the call. "I don't comment one way or the other," he said. "The bottom line: He put it back."

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on a Saturday that Starlink and Starshield speeds had been restored to what they were before the restrictions.

Three accounts that don't match

Musk first wrote on X that Starshield "systems are owned and controlled by the US government," and that "any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS."

A few days later he said SpaceX had acted on Starlink, the commercial service. "Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people," he wrote. "That loophole was closed last week." He added that Starshield "is controlled by the US government. What they decide to do is up to them." He did not say who closed the loophole. Musk also wrote that Starlink "remains critical to the defense of Ukraine" and that the front line would "collapse immediately" without it.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was not aware the administration knew about the decision beforehand. He called the matter "a private commercial contract as to how their stuff can be used and what speeds they'll allow it to be used at." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the company could make such decisions under its terms of service. Trump has denied ordering the slowdown.

Two U.S. officials told Reuters the decision came from the White House. U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that Musk ordered it, and that it caused confusion inside the administration.

Zelenskyy told NBC's Meet the Press that Ukrainian officials believed the U.S. government was behind it. He said SpaceX acted on a "message from [the] American government."

The political backdrop

The disruption came after the administration threatened to withhold intelligence from Kyiv over Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries. It also came after Trump announced a diesel deal with Vladimir Putin. Trump has blamed the refinery strikes for higher fuel prices. Musk wrote on X that Zelenskyy had "gone too far." No source has publicly tied the speed cap to any of those events.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) opened his own inquiry, sending letters to Musk and Hegseth. He asked who controlled the service and what safeguards exist to prevent a repeat.

Why control is the question

Starshield was announced in December 2022 as SpaceX's national security line. Britain's Ministry of Defence has said its Starshield service runs over the same satellites and ground infrastructure as Starlink, but through dedicated terminals and separate gateways. The ministry has said it moved operational traffic to Starshield because SpaceX limits military use of ordinary Starlink to morale, welfare, recreation and training. The British plans cost £5,500 a month for five terabytes or £25,000 a month for unlimited data.

Whether Musk could throttle a government-controlled system on his own, without anyone in Washington approving it, remains unanswered in public. Musk says the government sets the limits. The administration says it's SpaceX's contract. Both can't be fully right.

The hardware keeps going up

SpaceX launched the classified USSF-432 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Friday, Nov. 6, at 4:48 p.m. PST. It was the 125th SpaceX launch of 2026. The Space Force has released no details about the payload. Independent analysts cited by Tech Times link the R-series flights to the Space Force's Space Based Sensing and Targeting program, with roughly 70 satellites on orbit before this launch.

Another Vandenberg launch, USSF-317, is listed for no earlier than 04:23 UTC on Friday, Nov. 13. A tracking site says it may carry Starshield-based satellites, though the Space Force has confirmed nothing.

The inspector general has pointed the senators to the Air Force and Space Force. Neither has publicly answered Shaheen's call for an independent accounting of who ordered the cap.