> At only $70M it's doubtful this specific contract includes any dedicated satellites. A single Falcon 9 launch is close to that price.

While I broadly agree with you, if SpaceX is selling a service and not a launch, I think the proper number is the internal cost to launch which probably sits around $20m-$25m.

You are about right on cost. Elon stated that a full reuse of a first stage + new second stage is about $15m, adding in the Elon-number correction and 20-25 feels right.

IIRC the $15m is the per-unit costs (booster refurb, second stage production), the rest are the costs that can be divided up by increasing flight rate (launch pad operations, staff and other infrastructure).

Why would this need a dedicated launch? Starlink satellites launch in a stack of up to sixty at a time.

Starshield probably just swaps one or two of these for an alternate configuration (i.e., same bus, different payload).