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> the military is starting to explore the idea of moving heavy military equipment The killer app for the military is missile defense. Currently the US has abou
by credit_guy 4y ago
> the military is starting to explore the idea of moving heavy military equipment
The killer app for the military is missile defense. Currently the US has about 4 dozen ground based midcourse interceptors. Each costs more than $100 million and carries one single exo-atmospheric kill vehicle capable of destroying one single incoming threat. The kill vehicle weights 64 kg.
A single starship could carry more than 1000 kill vehicles. A dozen or two starships on standby could carry enough kill vehicles to defend not only against all current intercontinental ballistic missiles, but against all that Russia, China and North Korea could conceivably build in a decade.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoatmospheric_Kill_Vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoatmospheric_Kill_Vehicle
- mrep 4y agoCryogenic liquid fueled rockets don't make good standby vehicles. There is a reason they use solid fueled rockets primarily.
- philistine 4y agoThere could be a case made that Spaceship will fly so often to allow novels method to eliminate most problem related to that.
- generj 4y agoThe advantage would be pre positioned orbital interceptors could effectively reach some percentage of missiles in the boost phase rather than later on when intercept is harder. Starship also allows for enough mass to orbit to make Star Wars legitimately viable.
- credit_guy 4y agoYes, it's preferable to have solid propellant missiles. But that does not mean it's impossible to use liquid, and even cryogenic liquid fueled rockets for deterrence missions. The first American ICBM, Atlas, used liquid oxygen, and was used for 7 years. Its contemporaneous soviet counterpart, the R-7 Semyorka, also used liquid oxygen and was in service for 9 years.