Will SpaceX Build A Military Starship?

I explain if and how SpaceX will create a military Starship!

#SpaceX #starship #elonmusk #starbase

Editing: John Young, Alex Potvin, Stefanie Schlang
Photography: John Cargile, John Winkopp & Stefanie Schlang
3D Animation: Voop3D
Script & Research: Eryk Gawron, Oskar Wrobel, Felix Schlang
Host: Felix Schlang
Production: Stefanie & Felix Schlang
Graphics & Media Processing: Jonathan Heuer, Felix Schlang

Credit:

⭐SpaceX
⭐NASA
⭐VirtualSpace_3D on X: @Lolomatico3d
⭐The Ring Watchers on X: @RingWatchers

📄Links for this Episode:

[rustyshackleford]

Feels like something someone in 1950 would predict the military would look like in 2000 lmao

[rs]

Elon: “Yes, starship will be able to deliver your cargo anywhere in the world at thousands of miles and hour. It just needs somewhere to land”
Military: “Land?”

[Godfinder]

My concern about this is that this could be mistaken for a missile launch..

[DontPanicVU]

Many have already pointed out the challenges of delivering cargo by rocket to a relatively unprepared landing site. But the biggest and most dangerous issue is that for decades now, lobbing giant missiles towards a combat zone has been a indicator of a more... drastic... action. One that would prompt a also drastic response.

[thomasbell]

The only way this could work "in an hour" is if the thing is loaded and kept on alert status 24/7. That's awfully expensive.

[alonglee]

Why do Americans love Weaponising everything they see???
Farmer: I’m growing maize.
US Govt: How much rounds per cob?

[PanioloBee]

A Starship landing without a means of relaunching is just an expensive one way trip. I agree with a previous posting, use Starship to deploy cargo from space then land where it can be refueled and launched again. Space Force could use the X-37B to test various ways of delivering cargo from space.

[flappy]

we'll think about that once they've gotten the regular one to work first

[SebastianWellsTL]

This is an incredible concept, and I look forward to see how and when it takes shape!

[brucemace]

The military has dreamed of this from the 50’s Saw a special on Von Braun with a cartoon depicting this for the military

[LandR]

Sound like the Starship would be disposable? Or be able to achieve orbit without a booster, if you want to get it back.

[Chuck]

ehh, why bother? Just make a 100 ton starship ICBM. 😎

Enough patty-cake.

Do it once.

Do it right.

[niehlsbohr]

Sounds like a proposed application of Project
Orion!

I concede that starship will probably be a someday-soon vehicle to orbit, but one thing the 2nd stage is not good at is landing, nevermind landing on unprepared land.

[totally_lost]

With a 150, 000KG payload, that could be around 300-400 troups in one specialized transport ship, with a mid-flight refuel with concurrent tanker launches ... a couple dozen of these, plus some cargo only flights with ground vehicles and rocket launchers, could be dropped anywhere on the globe before defenses could be positioned and mounted ... no more trench warfare, just drop troops right at the major objectives - like right in the middle of combatant military installations, command and control centers, air fields, bunker sites, etc.

The initial Starship attack version softens the target area with 150, 000KG of precision guided ordinance as it drops out of orbit and transitions to subsonic, then immediately returns to orbit, on return to a reloading and refueling base. About the same as a B-52 bomber, but with more lethal weapons. Takes out surface to air defenses, radar, missile sites, communications, power, command and control centers. Can also take out homes of senior military leadership, on base barracks, and select civilian leadership to cripple the government and it's response capability.

The secondary attack version breaks out of orbit a minute later, deploys some 50-70 reaper drones in air right after it transitions to subsonic, then immediately returns to orbit, on return to a reloading and refueling base. These clean up native air defenses not targeted in initial first wave, plus assert air superiority to protect troop transports against any surface mounted attacks.

The troop insertion Starship's drop out of orbit a minute later, and land with full reaper air support, this is just a few minutes after first attack starts. With a rapid unloading program, all troops could repel off the ship in a few minutes with a dozen hatches (30 or so per hatch), clear the area, and the troop ship rockets back in the air, refueling a second time in orbit, and on it's way to pickup it's next load. Life support is simplified using extra LOX from the ship tanks to masks for troops, exhausting CO2 laden air. Have one small engine fired up for the entire flight to provide partial artificial gravity during the entire flight, combined with spin. Absolutely minimum KISS engineering solution to keep things light ... like light weight web slings for troops, with minimum bulkheads and partitions ... mostly just perforated gantry's and walkways. Focus on highest troop count, and minimum return takeoff weight ... maybe to the point of having troops take their webbing slings with them to minimize return fuel. Maybe the ship is just heading to an off shore refueling barge a few hundred miles away. Consider that the rocket engines are mounted like the lunar version, somewhere in the upper 1/3 of the craft to minimize damage to landing area ... allowing almost any paved or grassy landing area.


Done well this is every military target reduced to rubble, air support fully deployed, and 10, 000 Marines, Rangers, Seals, and regular Army on the ground 15 minutes from initial attack starting. Massive deployment of 50-200K troops in several hours. Each platoon hitting the ground with an objective list, rehearsed and fully trained on soft and hard targets before landing.

With launch facilities on bases world wide, combined with sea based aircraft carriers, this allows rapid movement of specialized troops, into the conflict zone without having to do a specific buildup at a staging area as required by traditional warfare.

Massive advantage is an understatement. The native forces haven't even fully woke up yet, and communications should be fully cut. Even if native forces have trained for this, they are at a huge disadvantage. The first two waves are aerial assault ships taking out known ground defense positions on the way in, followed by a second ship of attack drones to attain air superiority prior to the troop ships in the third wave ... all just a few minutes apart before the defenders are even awake or alert.

Do this at 2am in the morning, and you can have complete control the objective site by sunrise. A couple dozen of these ships could place as many as 10, 000 troops inside the target area in less than an hour, and 50, 000 inside several hours. This is the means to take down a fairly large country in a single day.

[kael-]

Imagine seeing world war where instead of planes you see hundreds of starship in the sky.

[robertzendejas]

Pentagon had a development request in the 00's called Project Sustain, I thought it had been abandoned shortly after the announcement.
Evidently not.

[FadedLightXx]

When they burn rocket fuel does it heat up the atmosphere? Also if it doesnt completely burn wouldnt that stuff contribute to the green house effect more so than our cars? Its even the massive ships and stuff they are so polluting if they still run on gas. Nuclear ones are fine.

[stainlesssteelfox]

The biggest problems are landing, off-loading and getting it back in one piece.

We all saw what happened at the first IFT. While it's only a few hundred tons of thrust on landing, the ground will effectively be unprepared without considerable contruction effort. FOD or even undermining the landing site is possible.

Damage to the surroundings will also hamper off-loading, not to mention refuelling for the return trip. Can it even make it without a boost from a Superheavy? Will subjecting the ground to another, even heavier rocket thrust on takeoff damage the engines?

I'm sorry, cool as the pictures are, I believe sub-orbital flights between anywhere other than prepared spaceports are a pipe dream unless they are a one way trip.

[NikovK]

In the 50's this was a proposed means of modernizing the paratrooper / glider troop concept to the rocket age. Putting 100 men in a rocket you can move companies of paratroopers anywhere, almost immune to interception, and deploying the troops without the old paratrooper problem of dispersion on insertion.

[grandfathergeek]

The military’s always been the first to fund research into the sciences so I can see it happening - surprised it hasn’t happened sooner.