去年8月，负责无人舰艇测试的美国海军官员意识到他们遭遇了一个单点故障：“星链”。埃隆·马斯克旗下的卫星网络发生全球性故障，影响了数百万用户，导致24艘无人表面艇在加利福尼亚海岸漂流，通信中断并导致操作停止了近一个小时。
根据路透社查看的海军内部文件及知情人士透露，这起涉及旨在增强美方在冲突中军事选择的无人机/艇事件，是数起与SpaceX星链相关的海军测试中断事件之一。这些故障导致操作员无法与自主化船只连接。随着SpaceX有望在今年夏天实现2万亿美元的估值（预计将是历史上规模最大的IPO），该公司已通过一系列从卫星通信到空间发射及军事人工智能的技术，成为美国政府不可或缺的伙伴，确立了其全球最有价值空间公司的地位。
特别是“星链”，已证明是无人机和导弹追踪等关键项目的核心。其拥有近10,000颗卫星的低轨星座为军方提供了抵御对手攻击的韧性网络。但海军在自主无人机项目中使用“星链”时发生的事故（此前未经报道），凸显了美国军事日益依赖SpaceX所带来的挑战以及给五角大楼带来的风险。
战略与国际研究中心（CSIS）航空航天安全项目副主任Clayton Swope表示：“如果没有星链，美国政府将无法获得全球性的低轨通信星座。”五角大楼未回应有关无人艇测试或SpaceX与海军合作的问题。五角大楼首席信息官Kirsten Davies表示，“国防部正在利用多个强大且具有韧性的系统”。
Last August, U.S. Navy officials carrying out a test of unmanned vessels realized they had hit a single point of failure: Starlink. A global outage across Elon Musk’s satellite network affecting millions of Starlink users had left two dozen unmanned surface vessels bobbing off the California coast, disrupting communications and halting operations for almost an hour.The incident, which involved drones intended to bolster U.S. military options in a conflict with China, was one of several Navy test disruptions linked to SpaceX’s Starlink that left operators unable to connect with autonomous boats, according to internal Navy documents reviewed by Reuters and a person familiar with the matter. As SpaceX rockets toward a $2 trillion public offering this summer – expected to be the largest ever – the company has secured its position as the world’s most valuable space company in part by being indispensable to the U.S. government with an array of technologies spanning satellite communications to space launches and military AI. Starlink, in particular, has proved key to crucial programs - from drones to missile tracking - with a low-earth orbit constellation of close to 10,000 satellites, a scale that provides the military with a network resilient against potential adversary attacks. But the Navy’s mishaps with Starlink for its autonomous drone program, which have not been previously reported, highlight the challenges of the U.S. military’s growing reliance on SpaceX and the risks it brings to the Pentagon.“If there was no Starlink, the U.S. government wouldn’t have access to a global constellation of low earth orbit communications,” said Clayton Swope, a deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Pentagon did not respond to questions about the drone test or SpaceX’s work with the Navy. The Pentagon’s chief information officer, Kirsten Davies, said the “Department leverages multiple, robust, resilient systems for its broad network.”The Navy and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.Elon Musk at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, March 22, 2025. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) Despite facing growing competition from Amazon.com, which announced an $11.6 billion agreement this week to acquire satellite maker Globalstar, SpaceX remains far ahead in low-earth orbit communications.Beyond drones, SpaceX has cemented a near-monopoly for space launches and provides satellite communications with Starlink and its national security-focused constellation, Starshield, generating billions of dollars for the company. Last month, U.S. Space Force said it had reassigned its upcoming GPS launch to a SpaceX rocket for the fourth time, due to a glitch in the Vulcan rocket made by the Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance.WARNINGS ABOUT RELYING ON SPACEX Democratic lawmakers have warned the Pentagon about the risks of its reliance on a sin
