The European satellite network Eutelsat will not be able to fully replace the American Starlink terminals used by the Ukrainian military.

Politico reports that the European Union is exploring alternatives to the U.S.-based Starlink system should American officials disconnect it. The leading candidate for this role is the French-British network Eutelsat.

However, today’s alternatives to Starlink are not yet ready to compete with Elon Musk, including Eutelsat, acknowledges Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke. Other companies, like Amazon’s Project Kuiper, are even further behind.

“If we took all the available capacity that could be connected to Ukraine, we wouldn’t be able to do it. Let’s be honest. But I think we can provide the potential for some critical needs,” says Berneke.

The American network already operates about 7,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, which is significantly more than Eutelsat’s fleet of 600 satellites. According to Politico, there were over 42,000 Starlink terminals in Ukraine last year.

“I don’t think we need to approach that, but you could consider having at least a couple of thousand… to support critical needs,” Berneke comments when comparing the capabilities of the two networks.

In addition to the many times higher bandwidth, Starlink has a significant advantage in terms of usability thanks to its compact communication terminals, which are important parameters when deploying them on the front lines.

Currently, Eutelsat is in talks with the European Union government regarding funding for the transfer of more communication terminals to Ukraine, as well as likely support for launching new satellites that will expand the capacity of the European network in the coming years.

“Discussions are indeed ongoing at the EU level, with our member states and the industry,” European Commission spokesperson Thomas Rainier reported.

He also previously mentioned that Ukraine had expressed interest in switching to alternative communication systems, particularly Govsatcom — a unified network of existing national government satellite capabilities in the EU.

Meanwhile, the European Union is also working on a fully sovereign satellite communication system, IRIS², which could become a competitor to the American Starlink. However, its launch is not expected until the early 2030s.