Why isn't the US military pursuing this more aggressively? A starship style landing craft is essentially a C-5 galaxy that can potentially reach any location in under an hour. You could have actual space marines using the real marines and seabees and drop a forward operating base into any location with a flat spot or nearby water
>>542421180Cause its not that useful for how much is cost
>>542421385c-5s already cost a 100 million when it was produced. Thats actually twice the production cost of a starship.
(I'll tell you the real reason, anything that the chinks and Russians can't compete with is stymied by the American left. Nuclear power, space travel, Missle defense, AI. Same people oppose all of them becuase it shifts favor to the US)
>>542421180Space=X is doing the heavy lifting far cheaper than any government contract, they already lift hundreds of military 'communications' satellies. Starship is coming along .. greater numbers of launch facilities are being laid in Louisiana and Florida .. the one area that the US is trouncing China convincingly is space flight and Earth orbit dominance
>>542421635Usa military doctine has been glutted by access to near-unlimited funds. Many things it does isn't feasible in an actual military conflict with a capable state-level adversary. It's all just theater for crusty boomers who watch too much television.
>>542421180>Why isn't the US military pursuing this more aggressively?because its an empire in decline and militarily cheap exploding drones are the way forward.
>>542421635Whats the operational cost and maintenance cost
>>542423105It also offers the ability to move 100t of material anywhere in an hour
>>542423291Yea but its expensive. its a niche capability. i bet they are working on it already but it wont replace c-5s anytime soon. Also another problem is u would need a super reinforced landing zone for it
>>542423441But imagine being able to load a heavy lift with say patriot missiles and land it either in Japan or the middle east within an hour. You could keep most of your weapon stores through out the US and have one big pool and just ship it anywhere as needed. Most US equipment fits on a c-5 or c-17. You could keep all theaters supplied out of a common pool with just a logistic base set up to receive the resupply allowing more force project per $ at the cost of rocket fuel. Thew fuel cost compared to a prop plane is 10X but it is allowing you to use a pooled reserve for resupply of all military projection.
