4 ms·

Sounds like the carrier class from Starcraft

divbzero 5y ago
There is also the long storied history of the Helicarrier: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicarrier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicarrier
- emptysongglass 5y ago
  Why can't we have cool things like this? Fuel?
  - boringg 5y ago
    Right? Would be cool. That things feels like its the equivalent of the Yamato of the air eventually just being one giant target to expensive to operate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yamato https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yamato).
    - EL_Loco 5y ago
      One of my favorite cartoons growing up was the japanese series "Space Battleship Yamato", where in the future the Yamato was rebuilt as a spaceship. Good memories! (I wonder, though, if I would still enjoy it, were I to re-watch the series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Battleship_Yamato_(1977_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Battleship_Yamato_(1977_...
      - _carbyau_ 5y ago
        It was amazing how often that show ran across problems that could be solved with one big gun... Like many modern computer games: Mission brief: "You have a mission of the utmost..." Me: clicks skip "Go in, shoot stuff, got it."
  - klyrs 5y ago
    Only militaries could afford such a monstrosity. What operational advantage would it actually provide? "Looks cool" doesn't really cut it.
  - mcv 5y ago
    > Why can't we have cool things like this? Fuel? Gravity. This thing is going to be huge, weigh many, many thousands of tons. Having it fly on vertical thrust is probably going to take more fuel than it can realistically carry, and certainly more than you can realistically supply it with. If you're going to do something like this, I think you need to look at lighter-than-air airships. Or maybe something hybrid?
- maxwindiff 5y ago
  In every Marvel movie I watched the Helicarrier was shot down before it could do anything useful. I imagine a real life version would suffer the same fate.
kipchak 5y ago
There's also the arsenal bird's from Ace Combat which loiters with 80 of what's more or less the X-47B's strapped to it's bottom.
- mrguyorama 5y ago
  Those were such a pain in the ass. Everything about that game just hurt me. I should play it again.
tomatowurst 5y ago
What the US Space Force might be actually planning if they had unlimited budget, would be a permanent space station with unmanned drones and missiles in several sub-carrier types permanently hovering over a hostile country. You control the sea, air, land, and finally space. You would have complete dominance that would render ICBM's moot.
- Enginerrrd 5y ago
  There is a weird hole where nation-states would love something with the rapid, global deployment capabilities of a nuclear tipped ICBM, but without the nuclear payload for fear of a MAD type retaliation. "Prompt strike" I think is the term. The trouble is, you'd want to be able to deploy such a weapon, but also be very, very clear it's not a nuke, just like a single building sized bomb or something. Perhaps that's a use case for some type of space based directed energy weapon if you could somehow minimize the atmospheric losses to maintain effectiveness.
- sandpaper26 5y ago
  I know this wasn't your point, but because of how orbits and the Earth's rotation works, you can't "hover" above any country that isn't on the equator. At best you can do a highly elliptical orbit that gives you maximum hang time above the target area -- but would also put you maximally far away from the ground if you wanted to deploy anything out of the station. Any realistic scenario involving putting things at specific places on the ground from space in a timely manner involves either flying it from the equator, or using a constellation to ensure persistent coverage.
  - boringg 5y ago
    Thanks for the info. Hadn't ever thought about it - makes sense.
  - chongli 5y ago
    The constellation idea sounds even more effective than the "hover" idea of the GP. With a constellation you could achieve "coverage" over large parts of the earth and essentially attack any country at a moment's notice. I think military higher-ups have been aware of this potential since the days of the space race. It's a big reason why the weaponization of space has been a geopolitical taboo for many years.

There is also the long storied history of the Helicarrier: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicarrier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicarrier

emptysongglass 5y ago
Why can't we have cool things like this? Fuel?
- boringg 5y ago
  Right? Would be cool. That things feels like its the equivalent of the Yamato of the air eventually just being one giant target to expensive to operate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yamato https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yamato).
  - EL_Loco 5y ago
    One of my favorite cartoons growing up was the japanese series "Space Battleship Yamato", where in the future the Yamato was rebuilt as a spaceship. Good memories! (I wonder, though, if I would still enjoy it, were I to re-watch the series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Battleship_Yamato_(1977_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Battleship_Yamato_(1977_...
    - _carbyau_ 5y ago
      It was amazing how often that show ran across problems that could be solved with one big gun... Like many modern computer games: Mission brief: "You have a mission of the utmost..." Me: clicks skip "Go in, shoot stuff, got it."
- klyrs 5y ago
  Only militaries could afford such a monstrosity. What operational advantage would it actually provide? "Looks cool" doesn't really cut it.
- mcv 5y ago
  > Why can't we have cool things like this? Fuel? Gravity. This thing is going to be huge, weigh many, many thousands of tons. Having it fly on vertical thrust is probably going to take more fuel than it can realistically carry, and certainly more than you can realistically supply it with. If you're going to do something like this, I think you need to look at lighter-than-air airships. Or maybe something hybrid?
maxwindiff 5y ago
In every Marvel movie I watched the Helicarrier was shot down before it could do anything useful. I imagine a real life version would suffer the same fate.

kipchak 5y ago

There's also the arsenal bird's from Ace Combat which loiters with 80 of what's more or less the X-47B's strapped to it's bottom.

mrguyorama 5y ago
Those were such a pain in the ass. Everything about that game just hurt me. I should play it again.

tomatowurst 5y ago

What the US Space Force might be actually planning if they had unlimited budget, would be a permanent space station with unmanned drones and missiles in several sub-carrier types permanently hovering over a hostile country. You control the sea, air, land, and finally space. You would have complete dominance that would render ICBM's moot.

Enginerrrd 5y ago
There is a weird hole where nation-states would love something with the rapid, global deployment capabilities of a nuclear tipped ICBM, but without the nuclear payload for fear of a MAD type retaliation. "Prompt strike" I think is the term. The trouble is, you'd want to be able to deploy such a weapon, but also be very, very clear it's not a nuke, just like a single building sized bomb or something. Perhaps that's a use case for some type of space based directed energy weapon if you could somehow minimize the atmospheric losses to maintain effectiveness.
sandpaper26 5y ago
I know this wasn't your point, but because of how orbits and the Earth's rotation works, you can't "hover" above any country that isn't on the equator. At best you can do a highly elliptical orbit that gives you maximum hang time above the target area -- but would also put you maximally far away from the ground if you wanted to deploy anything out of the station. Any realistic scenario involving putting things at specific places on the ground from space in a timely manner involves either flying it from the equator, or using a constellation to ensure persistent coverage.
- boringg 5y ago
  Thanks for the info. Hadn't ever thought about it - makes sense.
- chongli 5y ago
  The constellation idea sounds even more effective than the "hover" idea of the GP. With a constellation you could achieve "coverage" over large parts of the earth and essentially attack any country at a moment's notice. I think military higher-ups have been aware of this potential since the days of the space race. It's a big reason why the weaponization of space has been a geopolitical taboo for many years.