A new incident in Ukraine related to SpaceX’s Starshield network has once again raised uncomfortable questions in Europe: how much of its defense capabilities really belong to it and how much depends directly on decisions made in Washington. One of those systems is Palantir’s Maven which is used by NATO and the company says we can be assured.
The problem is that Trust is broken… and there is no alternative.
maven. Louis Mosley, Palantir’s executive vice president for the UK and Europe, told Reuters that neither the company nor the US government could disable the Maven Smart System. It is an AI platform that processes data from satellites, radars and other sensors to give commanders a detailed picture of the battlefield in order to speed up decision-making.
NATO bought it in 2025 and it has been in full operational capacity for several months. The gist is that it allows decision times to be reduced from hours to minutes, and it blindsides NATO if the US decides to stop it. But it is not only in NATO, but in several European armies.
According to Mosley, anyone who buys the software has full control because there is “no shutdown button” or a way to remotely shut it down. To provide guarantees in countries where the customer is, it is the customer who decides whether Palanti employees are involved. Almost positively, they will be citizens of the country in question and with the required security clearance.
Starshield bomb. But of course, then there is the Ukraine thing and which have raised their eyebrows about handing over some American technology. In the war with Russia they use the Starshield, which is the military version of Starlink. It relies on the same constellation and is used for telecommunications, but also to control systems such as drones. Last week, Ukraine said that the terminals stopped working on drones that travel at speeds above 160 km/h, so they could not optimize the use of interceptors against Russian attacks.
Elon Musk said without looking at it that StarShield was owned by the United States, and Reuters reported that the order to restrict the systems came from the White House. The suspected motive is political, as the move comes just after Donald Trump demanded Kiev stop attacks on Russian refineries.
One caveat is that, as the New York Times points out, Ukraine can never use StarShield-controlled drones to attack Russian territory because the system does not operate in Russia and can only be used for internal defense.
speed. A few days later, Ukraine assured them that the connection had been restored, but the cut was enough to once again raise the question of whether Europe should start working together with its own technology rather than relying on core systems controlled by external agents. And Palantir, in this case, has also been criticized for engaging in open conflicts and questions with the US immigration agency ICE.
In that context, and the current US not being the ally it once could have been, there are countries in Europe that are beginning to drift away.
- Germany: The Bundeswehr has shortlisted three European suppliers for its security project. For its internal intelligence service, it chose the French company ChapVision.
- France: Palanti has the system, but the domestic intelligence service is working to use ChapsVision’s security solution and the government will implement it once it is fully integrated.
- Denmark: Signed a seven-year deal with Palantir, but is now looking for a local solution.
- Switzerland: Rejected relationship with the company many times due to security reasons.
- United Kingdom: A contract is in place, but they are studying whether they can terminate it early, develop their own alternative or find an alternative supplier.
- Spain: A contract with Palantir has been in place since October 2023, but will expire on November 30. The defense has not confirmed this, but La Vanguardia has confirmed they will not renew
There is no alternative. However, while there are countries like Germany that are very active in this, commenting that it is “inconceivable” that Palanti is the brain of some of their military systems, the reality is that it is difficult to find a viable and European alternative that meets the needs of the Union. In France there is doubt that ChapsVision can be a viable option in the short term, and in Spain, Indra and Telefónica are expected to fill the void left by the American company.
However, and regardless of whether alternatives may be ready, above all there is the multi-million dollar NATO contract to purchase the Maven Smart System with Allied approval.
Picture | Starshield (edited)
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