“Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars.”
So said Army General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces on the
Western Front during WWI.
This has not changed much and the U.S military is looking to overcome logistical challenges
through an ambitious program.
The U.S. military intends to spend nearly $48 million on a program that could provide
a way to ship heavy cargo around the world in less than an hour.
The idea is to use large commercial rockets, such as SpaceX’s Starship vehicle for this
purpose.
The effort is designed to transport load equivalent to the maximum load of a C-17 airlifter.
The service is looking to demonstrate the basic feasibility of this concept in a real
end-to-end test next year.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how U.S. military plans to move 100 tons of cargo
anywhere in the world in less than an hour?
Let's get into the details.
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The U.S Air Force 2022 Fiscal Year budget request, which was released on May 28, 2021,
as part of the larger proposed budget for the U.S. military as a whole for that fiscal
cycle, identified the Rocket Cargo program as one of the service's "Vanguard" efforts.
The service first revealed the concept of the Vanguard Program last year.
Any initiated tagged as Vanguard Program is expected to require advanced research and
development.
Rocket Cargo is the fourth Vanguard, with the others being the Skyborg initiative to
develop an AI-driven "computer brain" able to fly unmanned aircraft, the Golden Horde
networked swarming munitions project, and the Navigation Technology Satellite 3 (NTS-3)
effort.
The “Rocket Cargo” program is a joint effort by the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Air
Force.
The service's budget documents explain the main goal of the Rocket Cargo program:
"The Department of the Air Force seeks to leverage the current multi-billion dollar
commercial investment to develop the largest rockets ever, and with full reusability to
develop and test the capability to leverage a commercial rocket to deliver AF cargo anywhere
on the Earth in less than one hour, with a 100-ton capacity"
It was added further, "The Air Force is not investing in the commercial
rocket development, but rather investing in the Science & Technology needed to interface
the capability with DoD logistics needs, and extend the commercial capability to DoD-unique
missions."
Viewers may note that the concept was mentioned earlier.
In October 2020, U.S. Army General Stephen Lyons, head of U.S. Transportation Command
(TRANSCOM), talked about the potential to move "the equivalent of a C-17 payload anywhere
on the globe in less than an hour."
The U.S Air Force says that to "utilize modeling, simulation, and analysis to conduct operational
analysis of Rocket Cargo concepts, trajectories, and design considerations and verify military
utility, performance, and operational cost" is part of its plans for the program in 2021
Fiscal Year, which ends on September 30.
The service also intends to "gather operational data from on-going commercial large-scale,
instrumented, reusable launch events."
If this technology is deployed, it is likely that the U.S Air Force would maintain a fleet
of cargo rockets on standby in different airbases.
The rocket would most likely be an existing commercial design, modified for U.S Air Force
requirements.
In case of any emergency, U.S forces would request a quick Rocket Cargo resupply.
Over the drop zone, the cargo capsule would separate and slowly descend onto a makeshift
landing zone.
The potential contender is the SpaceX Starship, which is the most mature system among all
commercial superheavy space launch systems.
It also has the capacity for 100-ton cargo.
The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft
that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s
by McDonnell Douglas.
The C-17 carries forward the name of two previous piston-engined military cargo aircraft, the
Douglas C-74 Globemaster and the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II.
The C-17 commonly performs tactical and strategic airlift missions, transporting troops and
cargo throughout the world; additional roles include medical evacuation and airdrop duties
The size and weight of U.S. mechanized firepower and equipment have grown in recent decades.
C-17 Globemaster III has played a vital role to meet the logistical requirements.
The U.S has a fleet of around 220 of these.
The cargo aircraft has a maximum payload capacity of approximately 82 tons and a max speed of
Mach 0.875
While C-17 Globemaster III is way cheaper than any rocket system can be, it much slower.
So, it is likely that in the case of certain critical missions that are very time-sensitive,
the Rocket Cargo program will be utilized.
Greg Spanjers, program manager for the Rocket Cargo initiative and chief scientist for the
U.S Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation Directorate.
“This idea is been around since the dawn of spaceflight, it’s always been an interesting,
intriguing idea.”
But transporting military cargo by rocket “never really made sense in the past,”
Spanjers told reporters.
“What has frankly changed is a major emergence on the commercial side, with much higher capability
rockets at a much lower cost point that we’re used to seeing,” he said.
“Rapid logistics underpins our ability to project power,” said Gen. Arnold Bunch,
Jr., commander of Air Force Materiel Command.
“That is the fundamental motivation for initiating the Rocket Cargo program"
As evident the program has a lot of potentials, it remains to be seen how things pan out in
the coming days.