SpaceX Forms New Defense Industry Vertical: Starshield

Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX said Starshield, will provide “government entities” with secure communications and satellite designs "capable of integrating a wide variety of [military-grade] payloads."

According to SpaceX website, the new subsidiary, which appeared as a new top-line category alongside Dragon, Starlink and Starship, builds modular satellite buses for diverse mission types, to include earth observation services, and processing and delivering of encrypted data.

The company says the service will require “Starshield user equipment,” which likely resembles Starlink’s in operation but meets certain special standards of ruggedness, access, documentation and compatibility with existing networks and assets. Starlink has multiple tiers of ground station, from ordinary consumer rooftop type to paired extra-tough nautical type.

Starshield helps separate SpaceX's government work from its more consumer-facing Staarlink internet service. The company has lamented that its deployment of thousands of terminals in Ukraine to help the country in its war against Russia, has resulted in a quagmire of legal and financial finger-pointing: Ukraine can’t pay, its allies didn’t agree to pay and SpaceX can’t provide the expensive service for free indefinitely.

The new subsidiary will help SpaceX streamline its consumer and government services and avoid the blurred lines between being a global broadband provider and being a supplier of military intelligence. Musk had in the past tweeted about going into the defense industry, which the rocket and satellite company arguably already is.