Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), one of Pete Hegseth’s harshest critics among Senate Republicans, said on Oct. 14 that he and his Senate colleagues would ask the Defense Department’s inspector general to investigate Ukraine’s sudden loss of access to Starshield, the military version of Starlink, reported The Hill. Tillis said the “snafu” that left Ukrainian civilian and military targets exposed now appeared to have originated at the Department of Defense, which operates Starshield.

“The latest reporting suggests this strategic snafu may have occurred more locally within DOD Starshield systems, not with Starlink or SpaceX,” Tillis posted late Oct. 14 on X. “I’m not holding my breath for Defense Secretary Hegseth to offer transparency, so we’ll be asking the DOD Inspector General to initiate an investigation and report back to Congress and the American People.” Tillis added that Ukraine’s inability to access the data speeds it needed to track fast-moving threats was “at best” an “unacceptable error or lapse” and “at worst” a conscious “decision to clear the field for a Russian attack.”