US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
- Start date
I really hope the Air Force will conduct due diligence and detail how this system will differ from the existing Pegasus launch vehicle so that it will achieve its' price goals and whether the performance (weight/volume) limits will be adequate.
Pegasus can put about 1000lbs into low earth orbit. The original launch cost was targeted at $6M. After throwing in additional services customers required and boosting performance and reliability, the all up price is around $30M. That's around $30K/lb so it's no price breakthrough but then you don't need to pay for a much more expensive launcher with excess capacity.
As a payload normalized cost study, they could just start with Pegasus and examine what it would take to drive down prices to see where the problems lie. I am getting old enough to see these same launch proposals come and go and I never see any continuity in identifying what issues killed the previous efforts and where the new one will do things differently.
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asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
Yes but there's a obvious problem when it comes to this type of warfare, you loose the "critical mass" in the navy and all it takes is one break down or one ship being sunk or even badly damaged to change the entire dynamics of the war
RN has 6 highly advanced DDG, very good at what they do but only 6, say they have operational 4 at anyone time and one ends of breaking down you have lost 25% of the operational capability and a huge gap in your guard large enough for something to punch straight through to the carrier fleet
Cutting numbers and making then more advanced is fair enough that is until one or more goes down
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
This new system may use the same concept as Pegasus but it's Pegasus light,
Much smaller payload, only 100 pounds compared to 1000 pounds, a 24 hour set up time and a price goal of under 1 million per launch.
Because it would use a widely deployed tactical system (F15E) as the first stage as opposed to a larger dedicated launcher bird and seems to aim for employment using exiting support personal in the form of the F15E's existing support system.
combined with the 24 hour turnaround and light payload this could be aimed less as a long term satellite launch and more as a contingency response. if say a ASAT system was employed against a National security Satellite like GPS of Keyhole or even a communications satellite, Norad would calculate the opening and find a open orbit then one of these Air Launched Assist Space Access with a replacement nanosats would be loaded on a Strike Eagle and launched with in a few days of the attack plugging the hole.
Naval Today said:
To date, 12 Virginia class subs have been launched. Approximately two per year should be delivered for the foreseeable future...meaning this vessel will not be launched for another five years.
Jura The idiot
General
No animals were harmed in the making of this video. Well maybe two birds..........
Here's a report. it was a Tomahawk IV missile, the Tactical Tomahawk and most of us suspected that with its new capabilities, it would be able to do this...now they have proven it:
So they fired the missile, then as it flew, in real time they updated its targeting to hit a moving vessel at sea...which it then did.
GREAT stuff. In addition to showing that this is a GREAT anti-ship missile, it also demonstrates the network centric nature of its capabilities.
These are precisely the types of test you must perform to assure that the system is truly operational and capable of performing its role. Been saying that for years on these forums...and here's another example of real world experience demonstrating it.
Naval Today said:
So they fired the missile, then as it flew, in real time they updated its targeting to hit a moving vessel at sea...which it then did.
GREAT stuff. In addition to showing that this is a GREAT anti-ship missile, it also demonstrates the network centric nature of its capabilities.
These are precisely the types of test you must perform to assure that the system is truly operational and capable of performing its role. Been saying that for years on these forums...and here's another example of real world experience demonstrating it.