Lessons from Ukraine war: Poland wants its own Starlink; where does India stand?

Poland is moving to develop its own military satellite communications system in partnership with Finnish space company ICEYE and state-run defence giant PGZ, in a programme that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described as a potential “Polish Starlink”.The two companies signed a letter of intent for the project at the MSPO defence show in Kielce on Sept. 9. Tusk said the planned system would be modelled on SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, highlighting the critical role of communications in modern warfare.Under the new partnership, ICEYE will serve as the technology partner, developing the satellite architecture, manufacturing the spacecraft and conducting satellite operations, while PGZ will establish the domestic industrial base and coordinate Polish companies contributing production capabilities, expertise and infrastructure.According to Defense News, PGZ said the programme is planned for implementation between 2026 and 2030. The system is expected to use a distributed satellite architecture, alongside domestic ground infrastructure and industrial capabilities that would allow Poland to independently develop and maintain the system.“Anyone closely following the Russian-Ukrainian war knows how important communications are,” Tusk said, adding that communications are “absolutely critical” on the modern battlefield.Starlink's role in the Ukraine warThe Ukraine war has demonstrated the military value of satellite communications, with SpaceX’s Starlink becoming an important communications network for Ukrainian forces.According to Reuters, Ukrainian military units were heavily reliant on thousands of Starlink terminals for battlefield communications and some drone operations, with the systems proving resistant to espionage and signal jamming.The dependence on Starlink has also exposed the risks of relying on a privately operated system during a war. In July 2025, a global Starlink outage disrupted Ukrainian military communications for about two and a half hours, affecting drone operations and battlefield coordination. A Ukrainian drone commander said several combat operations had to be postponed during the outage.European governments have increasingly looked at reducing their dependence on US satellite communications infrastructure, with the war highlighting both the value of Starlink and the vulnerabilities that can arise from reliance on a single provider.Where India standsIndia has dedicated military satellite communications capabilities for more than a decade. The Indian Navy was the first service to receive a dedicated communications satellite with GSAT-7, launched in 2013. The Indian Air Force later received GSAT-7A, launched in 2018, which provides communication capability to users over the Indian region.A recent assessment by Germany's Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik notes that the GSAT series has increasingly been used to meet India's military communications requirements, with GSAT-7 providing the Navy's sovereign communications infrastructure and GSAT-7A extending such capability to the other armed forces.India has now added a newer and more capable layer to this architecture. CMS-03, also designated GSAT-7R, was launched on November 2, 2025, and was developed specifically for the Indian Navy. The government describes it as India's most advanced communication satellite for the Navy, designed to strengthen space-based communications and maritime domain awareness. The satellite provides coverage across the Indian Ocean Region and weighs about 4,400 kg, making it India's heaviest communication satellite launched from Indian soil.The CMS-03 satellite is intended to support naval communications across a very large maritime area, giving the Navy a dedicated space-based communications layer for operations across the Indian Ocean.