Reuters droppedanother misleading article today - this time attempting to manufacture drama between the Pentagon and SpaceXover Starlink usage during the Iran conflict.
The story framed routine commercial contract discussions and terms-of-service enforcement as major "tensions" and growing Pentagon reliance giving Elon Musk undue leverage.
Reuters' version of events was that SpaceX used wartime urgency to raise the price of Starlink connections on U.S. drones from roughly $5,000 to $25,000 per terminal, forcing the Pentagon to pay up while exposing how dependent the military has become on Musk-controlled infrastructure.
Musk was clear in multiple posts that this is a longstanding policy. Commercial Starlink is not authorized for weapons applications and is shut down when discovered.
The Pentagon also pushed back on the story.
The Fake News media has the story wrong, again.@SpaceXremains a strong and valued partner to the Department of War.The claims in this article are simply not based in reality and do not reflect the close, effective collaboration between our teams.https://t.co/872Maa5FX2
Pentagon officials have emphasized the strong partnership with SpaceX, which provides critical capabilities through its Starshield military variant. Starshield terminals are designed for secure government and defense use, connecting to both commercial and dedicated secure constellations.
The Reuters piece, of course, relied on anonymous sources and selectively presented pricing discussions while ignoring the core issue of contract compliance.Musk has consistently maintained that commercial Starlink terms prohibit weaponization, a point he has reiterated across multiple conflicts.
Source: ZeroHedge News
