--- title: "SpaceX wants the Pentagon to pay five times more for Starlink in the Iran war" url: https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-wants-the-pentagon-to-pay-five-times-more-for-starlink-in-the-iran-war-lhslhb3vb source_url: https://thenextweb.com/news/pentagon-spacex-starlink-price-hike-iran-war type: article source: "The Next Web" published: 2026-05-26T11:28:18.056Z updated: 2026-05-26T11:28:46.958Z tags: ["spacex"] reading_time: 3 upvotes: 0 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # SpaceX wants the Pentagon to pay five times more for Starlink in the Iran war **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary SpaceX has asked the US Defense Department to pay approximately $25,000 per Starlink terminal — five times the current $5,000 rate — citing the high-bandwidth, low-latency demands of guiding LUCAS suicide drones over Iran. SpaceX also wants up to $500m upfront plus $100m/month for a direct-to-cell capability to help Iranians bypass government internet blackouts. The Pentagon has pushed back on both requests. The dispute highlights the DoD's growing single-vendor dependency on SpaceX across launch, connectivity, and Starshield services, and the timing is notable: SpaceX is targeting a ~$1.75tn IPO valuation with a roadshow starting June 8, meaning any pricing uplift booked now would appear in the S-1. Competing alternatives like Amazon's Project Kuiper and Sweden's TERASi RU1 exist but haven't yet matched Starlink's scale. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [A $1.75 Trillion IPO Would Be Overpaying 30% for SpaceX](https://daily.dev/posts/a-1-75-trillion-ipo-would-be-overpaying-30-for-spacex-qgjj93l2l) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Starlink price increase: SpaceX raises residential and Roam plans by $5-$10 and doubles Standby Mode to $10](https://daily.dev/posts/starlink-price-increase-spacex-raises-residential-and-roam-plans-by-5--10-and-doubles-standby-mode-ljnar29kk) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#spacex](https://daily.dev/tags/spacex) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-wants-the-pentagon-to-pay-five-times-more-for-starlink-in-the-iran-war-lhslhb3vb)