As US kamikaze drones guided by Elon Musk's Starlink network began to notch visible gains in the war against Iran, senior SpaceX executives reached a blunt conclusion: the Pentagon was getting that firepower on the cheap. Within weeks of the United States launching its bombing campaign, SpaceX executives met defence officials and argued that the military had been paying about $5,000 (£3,700) per Starlink terminal while drawing on a premium aviation service tier priced at roughly $25,000 (£18,500), according to people familiar with the talks and Pentagon documents cited by Reuters.
The Defence Department initially resisted the change. Pentagon officials argued that the $25,000 package was designed for aircraft that stay online continuously, not kamikaze drones that only tap the Starlink connection for minutes or hours before destroying themselves. Despite those objections, the Pentagon ultimately agreed to pay the higher rate, nearly doubling the cost of each LUCAS drone and significantly increasing the revenue SpaceX could book from the conflict.
