‘No substitute’: Europe’s battle to break Elon Musk’s stranglehold on the skies

Europe is proposing to fund a homegrown alternative to Elon Musk’s Starlink, following US threats to switch off the dominant satellite company’s broadband services in Ukraine. In a boost to the bloc’s struggling satellite operators, the European Commission’s defence white paper said that Brussels “should . . . fund Ukrainian [military] access to services that can be provided by EU-based commercial providers.” Miguel Ángel Panduro, chief executive of Spain’s Hispasat, said that Brussels had asked his company, Eutelsat, and SES to present an “inventory” of services for Ukraine. “These are capabilities we could offer right now,” he said. The prospect of a new European push for space sovereignty has boosted shares in heavily indebted operators such as Eutelsat and SES in recent weeks. But even with EU funding, success will not come easy. Starlink has 40,000 terminals in Ukraine serving consumers, government and, in particular, the military on the front line. Troops have even strapped Starlink’s compact user terminals on to drones to transmit live video footage to help direct attacks.