The New Zealand Defence Force has completed a six-month trial of Starshield, the secret satellite network set up by Elon Musk, marking the first confirmed evaluation of the two-year-old system by a government outside the United States.
RNZ reported that the trial showed potential utility for the military.
The assessment follows a December 2025 signing by Judith Collins, who approved an indemnity agreement required by the US Foreign Military Sales system. Documents released under the Official Information Act show that defense officials argued the NZDF would have fewer satellite communications options to conduct operations without Starshield.
Internal emails from June 2024 revealed that capability managers faced severe institutional bandwidth issues while pursuing the technology. One official wrote to a Foreign Military Sales manager asking about an expedited path, noting that when you are as hollow an organisation as we are, we have to wear many hats throughout the day.
Military leadership has repeatedly described the New Zealand Defence Force as hollowed out since the pandemic. By mid-2026, the army remained short 700 personnel, particularly in critical leadership and instructors’ ranks, driving a strategy to acquire minimum viable products and rely heavily on commercial partnerships.
| System | Network Scale | Primary User |
|---|---|---|
| Starlink | 10,000+ satellites | Global public & military |
| Starshield | Hundreds if not thousands | Pentagon & allied defense |
While the New Zealand military already utilizes the commercial Starlink network, Starshield offers heightened encryption designed to counter growing space-based threats. However, reliance on these private networks has drawn intense international scrutiny following operational disruptions experienced by Ukraine.
Those European concerns prompted Palantir to issue public reassurances regarding software control. A Palantir executive told European clients that where customers have bought our software, they are in full operational control of that software.
New Zealand Defence withheld specific details of its Starshield trial outcomes, citing national security and international relations. Future capability acquisitions will proceed through standard capability management processes, though officials estimated any unlikely indemnity loss would not exceed $10 million.
