US Army to Evaluate Reliability, Security of SpaceX’s Starlink Broadband Written 28 May 2020

In continuing coverage, Space News reports that on May 20, the US Army “signed a three-year agreement with SpaceX to experiment using Starlink broadband to move data across military networks.” The “upcoming evaluation of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband by the U.S. Army will look primarily at the reliability of the service and potential vulnerabilities of the satellites to hostile attacks, a senior Army official said May 27.” Commander of the US Army Futures Command Gen. John Murray said that the experiment is “about figuring out what capabilities they can provide, and what vulnerabilities do they have?” He continued, “Yes, we are interested in commercial broadband capability from space, and from low Earth orbit. ... But I would be lying to you if I said there were absolutely zero concerns.” The Army “will want to test the cyber security of the data moving through the network and also will examine the risks that an adversary could target low altitude satellites with weapons from the ground.”
Full Story (Space News–Subscription publication)