Dem
53
Ties
4
GOP
43
Elon Musk's decision to downgrade Starlink to hurt Ukraine and help his buddy Vladimir Putin has caused a firestorm in the U.S. Some people have said that a private corporate executive should not be making U.S. foreign policy. That is the job of the president and Congress. There have been calls to nationalize SpaceX.
Musk's decision has not gone unnoticed in Europe, either, and that could have major ramifications down the road. In particular, Europe wants to replace Starlink as fast as it can to avoid having European security being dependent on the whims of one man, especially one who supports the fascist AfD Party in Germany.
That won't be so easy, though, as Starlink already has 11,000 satellites in orbit and 12 million customers. Its closest competitor is the French SATCOM firm, which has 600 satellites. Two Finnish companies, ICEYE and Nokia, have announced an agreement with Ukraine to explore satellite communications, but they won't launch before 2028. Nevertheless, the trend is clear. Europe will disengage from the U.S. militarily as fast as it can. This has always been one of Vladimir Putin's foreign policy goals and he won.
In addition, EU President Ursula von der Leyen is working on a deal to combine the satellite and space business of Airbus, Leonardo, and Thales into a single company that can match SpaceX, just as Airbus is now as good or better than Boeing. She is also working on reserving critical parts of the electromagnetic spectrum for European players only. In particular, she wants the bands used for satellite-to-home users to be for European companies only. Additionally, EU legislators are working on bills that would hamper or at least complicate Starlink's expansion into Europe in multiple ways.
Modern warfare is highly dependent on communications for guiding drones, finding targets, and more. The F-35 fighters are so dependent on satellites, that without them, the pilot is flying blind. Europe is fully aware of this and determined to keep Musk out of Europe and start a serious competitor as soon as possible, building on European companies that are already in the space business. No one in the EU trusts Musk for a millimeter. Smart people. (V)