The distinction here is that ships are built by nongovernmental private enterprises, whilst Starlink is operated by a nongovernmental private enterprise. With a somewhat volatile executive.

Which isn't unprecedented. But it's also far from the equivalence your comment suggests.

The US military already uses commercial satellite communication systems.

and commercial sensor system like 'Planet'.

and commercial cargo transport.

And lots of other stuff.

Note that, historically, the US Navy had plenty of its own shipyards, and did produce many of its own ships.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:United_States_Navy_sh...

But that's mostly been "optimized away" in more-recent times, in the name of Capitalism and Campaign Donations.

>did produce many of its own ships.

Problem is that we're talking about how it works currently. US also used to send its own specifically owned spacecrafts into space. But it hasn't in ages.