Back in late August I had to endure the experience of giving praise to Elon Musk, something I’m loathe to do given the fact that the man is a snot-bag adolescent begging for a go with a fully automatic bitch-slap machine. I’d even volunteer to stand there and keep plugging loonies into the damned thing to keep it going, like I do at the car wash, only with way more fun attached to the experience.
At that time I was giving Elon props for achieving something that absolutely blew me away: the vertical recovery of the Falcon 9 booster rocket used to propel a demo cargo into near-Earth orbit. Booster rockets previously would splash down in oceans to be recovered, but they weren’t reusable, and the Falcon 9 is. That fact alone cut the expense of firing things into space dramatically, making all manner of applications possible.
Including military applications.
I’m not talking about Star Wars here, although I’m sure that something along those lines is only a matter of time. Weaponization of technology has been around for as long as humans figured out that It was possible to kill one another with things other than their bare hands, so none of that should come as a surprise. In fact, much of the everyday technology we use in the most benign of daily applications likely had its start as a military application.
But today I’m not going to discuss war-craft or space-conducive fighting platforms. Today’s topic has to do with something a little less glamorous yet probably more effective and important to any military effort anywhere.
The idea of logistics and supply.
Currently, the United States Air Force (USAF) operates a fleet of cargo planes to transport troops and equipment around the world in a hurry. Nobody can get men and materiel from here to there faster and in greater volume capacity than the Americans. It is, for them, a vital strategic advantage that no other nation can even come close to matching.
The C-130 Hercules is sort of the entry level hauler, followed by the larger C-17 Globemaster, and then the super-big C-5 Galaxy. All three are used extensively to fast-track troops and heavy equipment from the mainland U.S. to whatever spot in the world those assets are needed. This same function can be utilized to rapidly deploy disaster relief in areas hard-hit by Mother Nature and her periodic outbursts of anger.
Back when I was a mere wisp of a lad, most of this heavy cargo stuff was done by ships, that is when the cargo had to get somewhere on the other side of those things called oceans. And this was the state of affairs for the bulk of history, or at least since the times when we figured out how to navigate the waters of our planet. In fact, it’s still that way today for most nations, who still rely on water transport for heavy cargoes. Yes, even nations like Canada have cargo planes, notably the Hercules, but we don’t have them in near the numbers the Americans can field, and nor really does anyone else. The Russians and the Chinese try to steal their way towards a similar capacity, but their stuff keeps catching on fire, so we needn’t worry.
Let’s say the Americans need to get boots on the ground with supporting armour with air and air-defence assets pronto. Say, for the sake of argument, some place in the Middle East. Their cargo fleet, even if only partially utilized, can deliver payloads to the staging areas in maybe 10-15 hours from the continental United States. That’s pretty impressive and nobody can come anywhere near to matching that. It’s not like the old days when you could poke America in the eye and then have the luxury of waiting a few months for them to come over and pound the bejesus out of you.
Now, mind you, those planes would need to be refuelled by tanker aircraft, so there’s that, but America has a pretty solid fleet of those as well. In fact, in the outbreak of war, China has openly determined that those refuelling planes would be top-priority targets owing to their crucial role in keeping the big boys in the air as well as the myriad number of combat aircraft America possesses. So that’s two items for concern right there. First, the tanker aircraft cost money to make and operate in their own right, adding to the mission cost. Second, if they were to be compromised or eliminated, the strategic advantage of the cargo aircraft would be degraded if not eliminated.
Plus, those cargo aircraft are great big fat targets, absolutely defenceless against most anything more lethal than a slingshot or a Lee-Enfield rifle, and don’t count out the Lee-Enfield.
Enter Space X and its Starship, a vehicle that can transport cargo into near-orbit. A vehicle that gets its original kick in the pants off the launch pad via the Falcon 9 rocket. If you look at a cross-section of the Starship fuselage without its fins and little control surfaces, and place it beside a similar cross-section of a C-17 Globemaster fuselage without its wings and control surfaces, it becomes quickly obvious that the two vehicles have almost an identical payload capacity.
Whereas the C-17 can get its cargo to the Middle East in maybe 12 hours with refuelling, the Space X Starship could theoretically deliver the same cargo to the same spot in around thirty minutes, without refuelling.
Yikes.
Now, obviously we’re not ready for this to happen next week or next month or next year, but honestly, I wasn’t ready for Space X to be able to vertically land their booster and re-use it as recently as August. And then suddenly, there it was, landing on a launch pad. Leading me to praise Elon Musk. And folks, if I have to give that man some love, it would have to be because the reason for that love would be overwhelming. And this is.
Yes, the platform would need a place to land to disembark cargo, and yes that would have to be in a controlled and secure location, so not right in the thick of a battle zone or contested airspace. But who says they can’t come up with some modernized pallet system where cargo is released while still in the air? They do that now with the current cargo aircraft. Who says they couldn’t with this?
Could they pre-position launch and landing hubs in strategic locations around the globe? A place where the thing can land, refuel, then bugger-off home? A round trip of what, two hours? Maybe giving the operators time for a quick coffee at the local Timmies or equivalent?
And the kicker is that, when you compare the cost of dollars to pounds cargo, the Space X thing is cheaper to operate. A lot cheaper. It’s estimated that the cost to operate Starship in this manner would be equivalent to the cost it currently is to keep a B-1B bomber in the air for a single hour. If true, that’s staggering.
So way to go Elon, you pompous bastard. I have to grudgingly give you a thumbs-up again, rather than the middle-finger salute I feel is more in keeping with your total lack of maturity.
But that’s just me drinking the wine of sour grapes. If this is the result, I can learn to like the taste.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 