SpaceX Reportedly Pressured The Pentagon Into Paying More For Starlink Access
Lacking real competition, the company won the showdown.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
The Iran war has demonstrated the US military's inability to be cost-effective. To make matters worse on that front, SpaceX is now reportedly using its market leverage to pressure the Pentagon into spending more on satellite internet.
The disagreement between SpaceX and the Pentagon was reported by Reuters on Tuesday. Weeks after the US military began its campaign against Iran, SpaceX executives reportedly met with Department of Defense officials to talk about pricing. The message from Elon Musk's company was essentially: You're paying about $5,000 per Starlink terminal monthly, but you're using it like a higher-tier aviation subscription that costs $25,000 per month. Time to upgrade.
The Pentagon's conflict with SpaceX arose over its use of the service with the LUCAS kamikaze drones. In their meeting, DoD officials reportedly argued that the more expensive aviation-grade Starlink
service was...
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