diff --git a/core/network/src/commonMain/kotlin/org/meshtastic/core/network/radio/BleReconnectPolicy.kt b/core/network/src/commonMain/kotlin/org/meshtastic/core/network/radio/BleReconnectPolicy.kt
index cef746af0..887448c36 100644
--- a/core/network/src/commonMain/kotlin/org/meshtastic/core/network/radio/BleReconnectPolicy.kt
+++ b/core/network/src/commonMain/kotlin/org/meshtastic/core/network/radio/BleReconnectPolicy.kt
@@ -148,7 +148,18 @@ class BleReconnectPolicy(
     companion object {
         const val DEFAULT_MAX_FAILURES = 10
         const val DEFAULT_FAILURE_THRESHOLD = 3
-        val DEFAULT_SETTLE_DELAY = 1.seconds
+
+        /**
+         * Delay applied before every connection attempt (including the first) so the BLE stack and the firmware-side
+         * GATT session have time to settle.
+         *
+         * Empirically validated against the meshtastic-client KMP SDK probes (Apr 2026): with a 1.5 s pause between
+         * disconnect→reconnect cycles, 3/5–4/5 attempts failed mid-handshake (Stage1Draining timeouts) because the
+         * firmware had not yet released its GATT session from the previous cycle. With ≥ 5 s pause, success rate rose
+         * to 5/5 against a strong (-53 dBm) link. 3 s is a conservative compromise on Android, whose BLE stack is
+         * more mature than btleplug+CoreBluetooth, but the firmware-side cleanup constraint is the same.
+         */
+        val DEFAULT_SETTLE_DELAY = 3.seconds
         val DEFAULT_MIN_STABLE_CONNECTION = 5.seconds
 
         internal val RECONNECT_BASE_DELAY = 5.seconds