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VH-92
The U.S. Marine Corps has quickly deployed SpaceX’s Starshield, the military version of its Starlink proliferated low-Earth-orbit internet system, on the Sikorsky VH-92 presidential helicopter, making ”Marine One” the first helicopter in the world outfitted with the system.
The integration of Starshield comes after the Marine Corps has struggled with development of the VH-92’s Mission Communications System (MCS), a specially designed suite to provide line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight, nonsecure and secure voice and data communications. Following an extended development process, MCS was declared operationally effective by the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation in its 2023 report.
The VH-92 flew its first “Marine One” mission in August 2024, carrying then-President Joe Biden in New York City. Sikorsky announced the same month that it had delivered the 23rd and final VH-92 to the Marine Corps.
The news that Starshield was deployed on VH-92 came in an April 28 Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) press release on a series of awards earlier this month. The release says that Starshield achieves “system performance 366.25 percent above objective with an increase of 18,550 percent over existing capability.”
NAVAIR is rolling out Starshield to a series of aircraft, including the F/A-18 Super Hornet and E-2D Hawkeye.
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