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SpaceX told the Pentagon it has been underpaying for the Starlink satellite connections guiding U.S. kamikaze drones over Iran, demanding a fivefold price increase that the Defense Department ultimately agreed to pay, according to Reuters.
In the weeks after the bombing campaign began, the gap between what the Pentagon was paying — roughly $5,000 per terminal — and what SpaceX believed it was owed became the subject of executive-level meetings, with company officials contending that actual usage reflected a service tier priced closer to $25,000, Reuters reported, drawing on unnamed sources and Pentagon documents. The dispute centered on LUCAS suicide drones — a low-cost U.S. loitering munition comparable to Iran's Shahed — which rely on Starlink's satellite network for guidance and targeting.
At issue was how to classify the drones' usage: SpaceX maintained that operational demands placed the LUCAS squarely in aviation-tier territory, a category that commands significantly higher fees than land or mobility plans. Defense officials countered that a $25,000 monthly charge made no sense for a weapon that connects to the network for only a short window before destroying itself, Reuters reported. Faced with ongoing strike operations and no viable alternative supplier, the Defense Department capitulated, accepting SpaceX's new pricing structure — a concession that pushed the per-unit cost of each LUCAS drone to nearly twice its original figure of around $30,000, Reuters reported.
