- A Starlink outage meant 24 unmanned vessels were left bobbing in the water for almost an hour, according to a report
- Reuters claims previous incidents with flaky network connectivity highlight concerns with Starlink and controlling drones
- However, an autonomous warfare expert observed: “You accept those vulnerabilities because of the benefits you get from the ubiquity [Starlink] provides.”
Tests of US Navy drone vessels have seemingly exposed weaknesses in terms of the reliance on Starlink for network connectivity with these unmanned craft.
Reuters reports that in testing that took place in August of last year, some 24 of these drone vessels – which resemble speedboats without seats – were left floating listlessly in the water off the California coast for the best part of an hour, due to a global outage that hit the Starlink broadband network.
This worrying incident, and others where flaky network connectivity had proved problematic for US operations with drones, were highlighted by an anonymous source, and in internal documents from the Navy which Reuters gained access to.
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An intermittent network connection had proved problematic in tests in the weeks running up to the outage in August. Further to that, we’re told that in April 2025, Navy tests involving these unmanned boats (and also airborne drones) were disrupted as Starlink “struggled to provide a solid network connection” given the high bandwidth needed due to the number of craft involved.
Reuters observed that the Navy report stated: “Starlink reliance exposed limitations under multiple-vehicle load.” (Starlink wasn’t the sole point of failure here, though, as there were other issues with the radios used, and a network system provided by Viasat).
The Pentagon wouldn’t be drawn to respond to questions on the drone tests, and the US Navy and SpaceX declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
Analysis: spacing out
Clearly, this is a concerning report, and it raises questions as to whether the US military should be looking at alternatives to using Starlink for controlling drones (or indeed for missile tracking). The trouble is – what are those alternatives? Nothing on the scale of what Elon Musk’s SpaceX can offer, of course.
Starlink is, as Reuters points out, a cheap and commercially available service, one bristling with an array of some 10,000 low-earth orbit satellites. The report quotes Clayton Swope, a deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who said: “If there was no Starlink, the US government wouldn’t have access to a global constellation of low earth orbit communications.”
Regarding the network flakiness observed, Bryan Clark, an autonomous warfare expert at the Hudson Institute, added: “You accept those vulnerabilities because of the benefits you get from the ubiquity it [Starlink] provides.”
The online arguments then run along the lines of: well, the US government should be building its own satellite system. Of course, that’s a lot easier said than done, and not just from a financial perspective, because SpaceX has a key logistical advantage in terms of its capabilities to get satellites launched into orbit in a timely manner.
Just look at Amazon, which is currently engaged in building its Starlink rival, Leo. This satellite internet service was supposed to be available at the end of 2025, but it won’t be until mid-2026 now (it’s not yet clear if that means consumers or not, either).
As Engadget recently reported, Amazon was aiming to have 1,600 satellites in orbit by July 2026, and now it expects that Leo will comprise less than half that — around 700 — by that time. Currently, it has 241 satellites operational, a drop in a drone-filled ocean compared to Starlink – and of course it remains to be seen if that downwardly-revised 700 target for the middle of 2026 is hit.
You get the point, then, about the limited options here. Although that doesn’t mean the US government couldn’t investigate other ways forward in terms of much longer-term planning, mind, because clearly these kinds of systems must be robust and reliable when it comes to using them outside of testing.
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