Pentagon Inspector General Declines Starlink-Ukraine Probe Request

The Department of War's inspector general has declined a bipartisan request from nine US senators to investigate recently imposed restrictions on Ukraine's military use of SpaceX's Starlink and Starshield satellite networks, according to a letter reported by Ars Technica.

Inspector General Platte Moring told the senators in a letter dated Tuesday that their questions were better directed to the US Air Force and Space Force. "They are better suited to address the matters raised in your letter and to coordinate any Department responses to your questions," Moring wrote, according to CNN's reporting cited by Ars Technica.

What restrictions did Ukraine report on Starlink and Starshield?

Kyiv, Ukraine, said earlier this month that its military drones lost satellite connectivity when traveling above 161 kilometers per hour, or about 100 miles per hour, Ars Technica reported. The limit was lifted after roughly 10 days. Starlink and Starshield, the military variant of SpaceX's satellite internet service, underpin command and control, unmanned-systems operation and battlefield coordination for Ukrainian forces, according to the senators' letter.

The reported slowdown surfaced, Ars Technica wrote, citing CNN, after the Trump administration threatened to withhold intelligence sharing with Kyiv over Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, and after President Donald Trump struck a deal to buy Russian diesel and ease sanctions on Moscow. Ars Technica's account does not establish a causal link between those developments and the connectivity restrictions; it presents them as the context in which the problems were discovered.

Why did senators ask for an investigation?

Five Democrats and four Republicans signed an October 15 letter to Moring seeking a formal inquiry. The signatories were Senators Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Thom Tillis of North Carolina; Dick Durbin of Illinois; Susan Collins of Maine; Jack Reed of Rhode Island; John Cornyn of Texas; Chris Coons of Delaware; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

The letter asked whether restrictions on Starlink or Starshield service "were directed, authorized, or implemented by SpaceX, the Department of Defense, or other US government entities," and whether any such restrictions complied with existing government contracts, Ars Technica reported. The senators wrote that the disruptions "reportedly degraded Ukraine's ability to conduct defensive operations against Russian drone and missile attacks on civilian infrastructure."

Why did the Pentagon inspector general decline to investigate?

A spokesperson for the Department of War Office of Inspector General told Ars Technica that the office "carefully considered the congressional request and determined that the matters raised were best addressed by the DOW," referring questions back to the department it oversees rather than opening its own review. The spokesperson added, "Should new information come to light, we may reconsider."

The inspector general's letter did not dispute that connectivity restrictions occurred, nor did it offer an account of who ordered them. It redirected the inquiry to the two military branches — the Air Force and Space Force — that oversee satellite communications programs connected to the Starshield contract.

What happens next?

Ars Technica reported that it had asked the Department of Defense whether it plans to open its own investigation and would update its article if the department responds. As of publication, no public Pentagon review of the Starlink and Starshield restrictions has been announced.

The bipartisan composition of the original letter — split evenly along party lines in the Senate and crossing committee assignments on Foreign Relations, Judiciary, Armed Services and Appropriations — signals that congressional interest in the episode is not confined to one party. Whether that interest produces a separate inquiry through the Air Force, Space Force or a congressional committee remains open. Moring's letter leaves the door ajar for his own office to revisit the matter if "new information" surfaces, without specifying what would qualify.

For Kyiv, the practical question is narrower and more urgent: whether the speed-based connectivity limit on its drones, lifted after about 10 days according to Ukrainian officials cited by Ars Technica, could recur, and under what authority. Neither SpaceX nor the Department of Defense has publicly detailed the technical or contractual basis for the original restriction, according to the available reporting.