Pentagon Reportedly Pays $25,000 Per LUCAS Drone for Starshield Connectivity (twz.com)

• Cost per LUCAS terminal rose from $5,000 to $25,000 monthly.
• Pentagon denies report but acknowledges SpaceX dependence.
• LUCAS is a reverse-engineered copy of the Shahed-136.

"Reuters reports that the cost to connect each LUCAS one-way attack drone to SpaceX's Starshield network rose from $5,000 to $25,000 per terminal, after SpaceX demanded a higher service tier. The Pentagon agreed but denied the report. The case highlights the US military's growing dependence on SpaceX for satellite communications."