While SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has attached an annual price tag of $400 million on what it costs to provide Starlink communications service to Ukraine, SpaceX is unlikely to receive a big boost from the nearly $23 million annually that the Defense Information Services Agency (DISA) is funding for Starlink communications to aid Ukraine in its effort to defeat Russia.
Last summer came news that Musk had signed a contract in June with DoD to continue providing Starlink to Ukraine and its armed forces. An article last July 28 in the New York Times said that the contract included 400-500 new Starlink terminals and services beyond the 42,000 terminals already used in Ukraine by the military, hospitals, businesses and other organizations and that SpaceX had asked DoD to pick up what the company estimated to be $400 million in annual costs for the provision of Starlink to Ukraine. Since last summer, reporters have asked Pentagon officials which DoD department or agency had issued the contract and how much the latter was worth, to no avail. Defense Daily filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request last Oct. 18 for any such contract records.
On March 22, DISA responded to the FOIA and said that the agency had awarded a nearly $23 million contract to SpaceX for a period of performance of June 1 last year through May 31 this year. The web page for DoD contracts contains no listing for the contract.
Why? DoD has cited heightened operational security concerns related to the Ukraine conflict in not releasing specific information related to systems being used.
“As we said before, DoD continues to contract with Starlink for satellite communication services and support to Ukraine,” DoD said on April 9. “These services are a vital part of the security assistance we provide to Ukraine. The initial contract for these services is valued at approximately $23 million – with a period of performance from June 2023 to May 2024. Due to the critical and sensitive nature of these systems and operational security – we have not released additional, specific details of this support. We will continue to work closely with our Ukrainian partners to ensure they have the security assistance needed to defend their nation – and this includes satellite communications capabilities. However, we have nothing further to release today.”