"Under contract and CRADA, partner with Commercial to test and demonstrate an initial one-way transport capability to an austere site."
It was only a matter of time. While the US military has the ability to respond almost anywhere in on the globe in <24 hours, 1-2 hours has some obvious utility. Assuming they are willing to expend the 2nd stage, burning 50 million to drop 100tons anywhere on Earth is attractive. But I've been pondering what sort of profiles would allow them to either land at a friendly base or at least glide far enough to land 100/500/1000km beyond the LZ to avoid the SS from landing in enemy/contested territory. Could SS release 50 tons of armed drones at a safe altitude and still return to a friendly landing pad? In a disaster situation how many MREs/day could SpaceX deliver in fully reusable mode?Or, if you want to get real fancy, how feasible would prepositioned assets in orbit be? If not constantly then perhaps when a regional conflict flares up the Space Force spends a week or two putting assets in orbit ready to deorbit burn. Maybe the first military space stations will be zero boil off tankage and tons of boring fuel and ammo instead of space lasers.And as silly as it is I'm also waiting for the first marines to pop out of orbital drop pods. There'd be no shortage of volunteers.
Quote from: novo2044 on 05/29/2021 12:56 pmIt was only a matter of time. While the US military has the ability to respond almost anywhere in on the globe in <24 hours, 1-2 hours has some obvious utility. Assuming they are willing to expend the 2nd stage, burning 50 million to drop 100tons anywhere on Earth is attractive. But I've been pondering what sort of profiles would allow them to either land at a friendly base or at least glide far enough to land 100/500/1000km beyond the LZ to avoid the SS from landing in enemy/contested territory. Could SS release 50 tons of armed drones at a safe altitude and still return to a friendly landing pad? In a disaster situation how many MREs/day could SpaceX deliver in fully reusable mode?Or, if you want to get real fancy, how feasible would prepositioned assets in orbit be? If not constantly then perhaps when a regional conflict flares up the Space Force spends a week or two putting assets in orbit ready to deorbit burn. Maybe the first military space stations will be zero boil off tankage and tons of boring fuel and ammo instead of space lasers.And as silly as it is I'm also waiting for the first marines to pop out of orbital drop pods. There'd be no shortage of volunteers.It's not even a new idea.
Provides a new, faster and cheaper solution to the existing TRANSCOM Strategic Airlift mission
Quote Provides a new, faster and cheaper solution to the existing TRANSCOM Strategic Airlift missionIs it safe to say the Air Force is planning for Starship to deliver materiel, weaponry, or personnel but NOT as a missile with 100 ton payload? Would we ever get indication if the latter was also planned?
complete initial AFRL wind tunnel testing to assess novel trajectories needed for air-drop capability, and high-speed separation physics
Quote complete initial AFRL wind tunnel testing to assess novel trajectories needed for air-drop capability, and high-speed separation physicsI cannot imagine chomper would do well opening at speed in the atmosphere
It was only a matter of time. While the US military has the ability to respond almost anywhere in on the globe in <24 hours, 1-2 hours has some obvious utility.