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SpaceX has established itself as an influential contractor for the US military, allowing the Pentagon access a proprietary intelligence-based satellite network dubbed Starshield.
The related network of Starlink broadband satellite services has also played a major role in ongoing military conflict, with Ukrainian soldiers making use of thousands of Starlink terminals to bypass internet blackouts amid the country’s war with Russia.
But who gets to use which network, and what SpaceX is getting out of the agreement, remains a hotly contested subject. As Reuters reports, SpaceX officials hiked up the price for Starshield connectivity of the US military’s LUCAS (Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System) suicide drones, which are uncrewed kamikaze aircraft that can identify targets and detonate on impact.
According to the news agency’s sources, SpaceX successfully convinced the military to pay closer to $25,000 per connection, instead of just $5,000, a fivefold increase in the cost per drone.
Since then, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk both angrily accused Reuters of making “false” claims — while simultaneously confirming the agency’s reporting in the very same tweet.
“Reuters article is false,” he wrote. “They made improper use of the Starlink civilian system for military purposes. Direct violation of terms of service.”
In other words, it’s Musk versus Musk: he’s broadly denying Reuters‘ claims while confirming its central thesis that the military and his space company have been butting heads over how its suicide drones were connected.
In a follow-up tweet, Musk clarified that “there is a US government arm of SpaceX called Starshield, which has a different set of satellites than Starlink, which is for civilian use.”
“The company that makes the suicide drones incorrectly used the civilian system, instead of the Starshield,” Musk added.
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