SpaceX Wins $1.9 Million Starlink Air Force Contact

The US Air Force Special Operations Command has awarded SpaceX a 1 year, $1.9 million contract to evaluate Starlink for internet services in Europe and Africa, with trial starting this month.

The contract iis for Starlink hardware and service to support military airlift units bases at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The trials will be used to evaluate Starlink for operational service at fixed sites and for mobile operations when teams need to be able to access the internet. 

The contract requirements were for a commercial satellite internet solution using low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites with available services in Europe and Africa to support the Air Force’s 86th Airlift Wing. 

“After extensive research it was found that SpaceX Starlink is the only vendor able to provide this specialized communication service in the current areas of operation in the required time”

Statement from Contract Justification Document released Aug. 5.

“Starlink is the only LEO constellation communications company that currently provides this commercial satellite solution with services to Europe and Africa.”

All pricing information that was used to determine the value of the contract was redacted from the document.

The document continues on to start that OneWeb was the next best option to Starlink when the market research was conducted in late 2021; but the AFRL and the Space Force determined that OneWeb could not provide service south of 50 degree north latitude. 

“OneWeb can only provide service north of 50 degrees north latitude starting in November 2021. This does not cover the majority of the EUCOM area of responsibility and does not cover any of the AFRICOM area of responsibility.”