Elon Musk Says America’s Kamikaze Drones Used the Wrong Starlink Subscription

As SpaceX continues to dominate low Earth orbit, the U.S. military’s growing dependence on the rocket company may be creating an uncomfortable new reality for modern wartime. Explaining on X, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said there’s “a US government arm of SpaceX called Starshield, which has a different set of satellites than Starlink, which is for civilian use,” and that the “company that makes the suicide drones incorrectly used the civilian system, instead of the Starshield.” SpaceX executives accordingly sought higher payments from the Pentagon for the satellite service used on the drones during the Iran war, arguing the military should be paying for a higher tier of connectivity, according to a Reuters report. SpaceX operates two different satellite networks. Starlink is a commercial broadband constellation that provides internet and connectivity services for commercial use. Starshield, on the other hand, is a more secure, military-focused version built for defense, intelligence, and national security operations. The Reuters report claims that the Pentagon had been paying $5,000 per terminal connection for the drone operations. SpaceX, however, argued that the military should pay