UK spends nearly $40 million on SpaceX satellite links

Britain is the first country outside the United States to publicly acknowledge buying SpaceX's classified Starshield service, after a Ministry of Defence FOI response showed roughly 1,000 Starshield terminals and 500 Starlink terminals in inventory. Reuters reported about 13 million pounds ($17.6 million) spent on Starshield and 16.5 million pounds on Starlink, or nearly $40 million combined, with Starshield airtime first bought for Starlink terminals in 2024 and dedicated Starshield hardware arriving last year. SpaceX did not comment; New Zealand is trialling Starshield.