Four GOP senators join demand for Pentagon watchdog probe of Starshield outage, letter says

A group of nine US senators has asked the Pentagon inspector general to open an immediate inquiry into reported disruptions to Starshield satellite services supporting Ukraine, Anadolu Agency reported.

The lawmakers sent a letter to Defense Department Inspector General Platte Moring III that seeks to determine whether US officials authorised or knew in advance about the interruptions and whether actions by the Defense Department or its contractors played a role.

The letter, which four Republican senators joined according to The Hill and AOL headlines, expresses alarm that the outages coincided with incidents in which US diplomatic, military and security personnel were said to have been unable to reach designated bunkers during Russian air raids.

The senators linked the reported disruptions to interruptions in intelligence-sharing and early-warning capabilities and said those failures could have life-threatening consequences in an active war zone.

In their letter the senators asked specific procedural and oversight questions, requesting that the inspector general investigate whether US approval or prior knowledge existed for the reported service curbs and whether department decisions or contractor actions contributed to the interruptions.

The lawmakers highlighted that Ukraine had previously received unlimited-speed service for Starshield and Starlink under its service arrangement before the reported restriction, and asked why that arrangement changed.

Anadolu Agency quoted the senators as writing they were "particularly alarmed by incidents in which U.S. diplomatic, military, and security personnel were unable to reach designated bunkers during Russian air raids, amid reported disruptions to intelligence-sharing and early-warning capabilities." The agency reported the request as bipartisan overall, listing nine senators who supported the probe; separate headlines state that four GOP senators joined the letter.

The correspondence asks the inspector general to examine whether policy decisions or technical actions by the Pentagon or its contractors affected command, control and early warning for personnel in-theatre. The senators framed their request around operational risk to personnel and the integrity of intelligence-sharing channels in a conflict environment.

The available reporting does not quote responses from the Defense Department, SpaceX, or Ukrainian officials. The public record in these reports focuses on the senators' request, the named addressee, and the operational concerns the letter raises.