SpaceX asks Pentagon to pay further for Starlink services
14 October, 2022 Starlink terminal for Ukraine. August 2022. Photo credits: Mykhailo Fedorov
Elon Musk's company SpecialX has appealed to the US Department of Defense to take over the payment for Starlink services. This was reported by CNN, whose journalists reviewed the letter that the company had sent to the military on September 8. "We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time," SpaceX's director of government sales wrote to the Pentagon.
SpaceX claims their services will cost £124 million and £400 in 2023 by the end of 2022. The company claims to have spent nearly £100 million of its own funds.
Ukrainian military with Starlink. June 2022.
Ukraine. Photo credits: ArmyInform
In the documents reviewed by CNN, there is information that 85% of the 20,000 terminals currently operating in Ukraine were paid by the United States, Great Britain and Poland. They also paid about 30% of subscription traffic.
Poland became the largest donor, it paid 9,000 terminals. Most users in Ukraine are subscribed to a tariff of £60/month. SpaceX instead claims to give everyone access at a tariff level of £4,500/month.
Therefore, the company believes that payment for traffic is only 1.3% of the amount for actually provided services. SpaceX's appeal angered Pentagon leadership. An unnamed interlocutor from the US Department of Defense told CNN that the company is trying to look like a hero while its services are generously paid for by others.
Starlink terminals arrived in Ukraine, February 2022
SpaceX turned to the Pentagon after receiving a new request from Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
He said that now 4,000 terminals are operating at the same time for defense needs. However, about 500 devices are lost every month in battles. The Ukrainian general asked Elon Musk for another 8,000 terminals.
It is noteworthy that after this correspondence, the founder of SpaceX on October 3 announced his scandalous "peace plan" for Ukraine, which essentially provides for the legitimization of the loss of 5 Ukrainian regions and the neutral status of Ukraine. CNN writes that Musk told the audience at a closed-door conference in Aspen that Ukraine should now make a peace deal with Russia. Media recalls the large-scale failure of Starlink on September 30, when Ukrainian troops conducted another successful offensive and de-occupied part of the Kherson region.
According to CNN sources, that failure had a significant impact on the entire front.
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