I think the author significantly underestimates the supply consumption of land forces in combat. You’ve got food, ammunition, spare parts, medicine, tents, shov

I think the author significantly underestimates the supply consumption of land forces in combat. You’ve got food, ammunition, spare parts, medicine, tents, shovels, uniforms, fuel, the list goes on. US military planners in 1943 estimated that infantry units in combat consume roughly 4.4 tons of supplies per person per month (13.1 tons for armored units). In modern combat that is probably an underestimate. That means to support a single infantry brigade combat team (4,413 people, last I checked) you would need a starship flight about every 6 hours! And that’s about the smallest unit you could deploy on its own. Yeah, it’s about as much as a C-5 galaxy. But air-based sustainment is also largely impractical at scale. Sustainment is still firmly in the realm of ships. Airplanes (and space ships) can deliver with very low latency, but nothing matches the bandwidth of ships and rail