Pentagon Inspector General Declines Bipartisan Senate Request to Investigate Starlink and Starshield Disruptions in Ukraine
The Defense Department’s inspector general has turned down a request from nine senators, four Republicans and five Democrats, to investigate this month’s disruptions to Starlink and Starshield satellite service in Ukraine. In a reply dated October 27, the watchdog said the questions were better answered by the department itself, and pointed the senators to the Air Force. A spokeswoman for the office said it could reconsider if new information comes to light.
The senators wrote to Inspector General Platte Moring III on October 15. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, and Thom Tillis led the letter. Dick Durbin, Susan Collins, Jack Reed, John Cornyn, Chris Coons, Lisa Murkowski and Richard Blumenthal signed it. They asked for written confirmation of an investigation and a first briefing by November 1.
Photo: Support Forces of Ukraine Command, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
What the senators wanted answered
The letter describes speed restrictions placed on Starlink terminals between October 12 and 14. Ukrainian military tests on October 14 reportedly found service cut off for terminals moving faster than about 63 miles per hour. SpaceX reportedly acknowledged a limit at 100 miles per hour. Ukraine’s earlier arrangement had no speed cap. A cap like that falls on drones and aircraft. Ukrainian officials said it hurt their ability to intercept Russian attack drones.
The senators also flagged a second problem. Intelligence-sharing and threat-warning tools used in Ukraine reportedly suffered “glitches” in the same period, and some US diplomatic, military and security staff couldn’t reach their bunkers during Russian air raids.
They asked six things. Whether the warning failures kept Americans from reaching shelter. Whether any US official directed, approved or knew in advance of changes to intelligence sharing or to Starlink and Starshield service. Whether the two sets of failures were linked. Whether the embassy in Kyiv and Ukraine got notice. Whether SpaceX acted on its own and stayed within its US government contracts. And what is being done to keep it from happening again. The senators noted that at least some of the service is bought under Space Force contracts. In 2024 the Space Force’s commercial satellite office extended Starshield access to about 3,000 terminals in Ukraine across two contracts.
Conflicting accounts of who decided
Full speeds came back overnight into October 24, after more than a week of disruption. That day Elon Musk said on X that SpaceX had throttled Starlink. He said Ukraine’s military had broken the commercial service’s terms by using it for offensive drone strikes, and that SpaceX had closed the “loophole.” Kyiv denied breaching the terms. Musk also said any change to Starshield, the military version, is controlled by the US government.
Washington’s answers haven’t lined up. President Trump said he didn’t make the call. Vice President JD Vance hinted at coordination between the White House and Musk. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied any administration involvement. The Pentagon referred questions about the inspector general’s decision to the inspector general, and both the Pentagon and the Air Force have previously declined to answer questions on the throttling.
Shaheen said the administration and SpaceX had given conflicting accounts and called for an independent review to settle responsibility.
Why the referral matters
Sending the senators back to the department leaves the question with the people whose decisions are in doubt. If US officials asked for the change, the Air Force and Space Force would be reviewing their own chain of command. If SpaceX acted alone, the question is whether a contractor can change service the Pentagon pays for without warning, and what the contract allows. An inspector general is the office built to look at both. A congressional aide told the Associated Press the refusal reads as a reluctance to take on Musk and Starlink.
Moring took office on December 22, 2025, after Senate confirmation, one of the inspectors general confirmed to fill posts after the January 2025 firings. That rebuilding, and the posts still empty, are covered in our post on inspector general vacancies.
Concern in Congress over one company’s control of a war’s communications is not new. In 2022 Musk ordered Starlink coverage cut over parts of Kherson and Donetsk, citing fear of Russian escalation, and worry over that kind of control helped drive the creation of Starshield, the military version the Pentagon contracts for. This month Starshield users in Ukraine lost speed too.
With the inspector general out, the remaining routes run through Congress. The Armed Services committees can call the Space Force and SpaceX to testify, ask GAO to review the contracts, or write notice and continuity rules for commercial satellite service into the annual defense bill. Reed is the ranking Democrat on Senate Armed Services and signed the letter. None of those steps has been announced.