Starlink: If There Are No Alternatives, Welcome to Musk. It's National Security, Not "Friendship"

(To Philip Del Monte)
08/01/25

The war in Ukraine has shown how important it is for an army to have a low-latency, broadband and radar-free connection system guaranteed by a widespread satellite network. Traditional cable connections are no longer secure, as demonstrated by attacks and sabotage on underwater network infrastructures. This is why the use of a satellite connection network with these characteristics can no longer be postponed for the Italian Defense.

This explains part of the military priorities linked to the SpaceX affair, with the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, who, taking a "snapshot" of the current situation of military networks, explained that today's Europe “it will take at least ten years to reach SpaceX levels” and that the system of Starlink it has no competitors at either the national or continental level capable of guaranteeing, in terms of technology and timing, the service that Musk's company would provide to Rome.

The issue is objective: the Italian Armed Forces have a priority - also because the doctrinal framework of reference, that of multi-domain operations, to be effectively transposed from theory to practice has one of its pillars in effective, widespread and secure connectivity - that cannot wait for the evolution of the European project (led by France) iris2, which will be operational from 2030.

Through the operation SpaceX - Starlink Italy could cover the delays of iris2, while also maintaining sovereignty over the Gateway, which is one of the main points of political contention. The central issue in this respect is linked to the lack of a real alternative to Starlink, the result of both European short-sightedness on the creation of a satellite connection network and the impossibility for the Italian industrial system to respond autonomously to state requests in this regard (not to mention that the Telecom Italia network is now owned by the US fund KKR, chaired by the former general and director of the CIA, David Petraeus).

If there is a political error in the whole affair, it is linked to the way in which the Italian government is communicating with Parliament and the media its "approaches" with SpaceX, trying to show how little a certain amount of "friendliness" (which is a term often used by the opposition to belittle and attack many of the strategic operations of the Meloni executive) has to do with Musk rather than highlighting the needs of the national defense and security apparatus (not only military stricto sensu) also emerged with the evolution of the tactical and strategic framework of reference.

The last aspect to consider is that the evolution of the space economy has led to the “commercialization” (and hence the militarization and politicization) of outer space, with companies like SpaceX o Blue Origin which have technological and financial capabilities superior to those of nation states. The “dual use” implications are enormous and this also requires considering Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos as political actors as well as entrepreneurs, therefore as interlocutors, also in order to protect their national security through a significant technological investment..

Photo: Presidency of the Council of Ministers