An investigation by The Insider, Der Spiegel and Le Monde has revealed documents suggesting China and Russia are cooperating far more closely than previously acknowledged on military technology, including strategies aimed at countering SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband network. Ars Technica examined the claims with former US defence officials and space security experts to gauge how credible the reported threat actually is, given Starlink's importance to Ukraine's war effort and to US military operations more broadly.

The leaked material reportedly includes slideshows from a previously undisclosed China-Russia Military-Technical Cooperation Forum held in 2023, with further meetings continuing since, including a sixth planned for late 2026 in St Petersburg. Topics covered air and missile defence systems, autonomous swarm munitions, armoured vehicles and military aviation. Starlink currently comprises more than 10,000 satellites, a scale neither China nor Russia can yet match, though China's recent recovery of a reusable rocket booster could accelerate its own mega-constellation ambitions.