Imagine Air Force aircraft able to fly 25 times faster than the speed of sound.
Their engines are 20 times lighter than jet engines and they have 100 times fewer parts. The airframe is 10 times lighter and burns liquid natural gas, plentiful and almost 10 times less expensive than jet fuel.
The simpler structure, lower complexity, and low-cost propellant portend next-generation aircraft that are both inexpensive to produce and operate. Moreover, their speed and maneuver deliver unrefueled Global Reach that is more survivable than costly stealth jets.
Now here is the crux, these Global Reach aircraft are being developed today but not by the U.S. Air Force, instead they are being built by the private sector and China. A host of companies in the U.S. and around the globe are developing and, in the case of SpaceX and Blue Origin, routinely flying these Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) reusable rocket-powered vehicles.
For access to space, other companies include, Rocket Lab, Stoke Space, Relativity Space, and the Chinese Long March 9. For point-to-point transportation around Earth, companies include SpaceX, New Frontier Aerospace, and Beijing Lingkong Tianxing.
China’s plans to mature these hypersonic technologies is hardly a surprise. China is far ahead in developing and flying hypersonic weapons ,including the Dongfeng DF-17, 21, 26, 27, a Fractional Orbital Bombardment demonstration in 2021, the operational WZ-8 rocket-powered reconnaissance aircraft, and a host of related technologies.
This raises the question, has the U.S. Air Force lost its qi, perhaps even its ability to innovate? This is certainly true by the standards of the Air Force’s birth — in the post-World War II era of declining budgets rapid innovation was the norm.
In the 1950s/60s the Air Force built and flew many X-Planes — prototypes that ushered in the era of modern military and commercial jets. The Air Force also built and flew the first and second generations of ballistic missiles, then follow-on space launch vehicles, and a host of radically new satellites including Corona.
Many failures littered the path to success, including 12 consecutive Corona failures before the U.S. fielded the first reconnaissance satellite.
But sometime in the 1970s bureaucratic inertia kicked in and progress slowed to a crawl. Since then, we’ve built many generations of new aircraft that seem to be exponentially ever more expensive and only marginally better.
If we are to prevent future wars, the incoming Secretary of the Air Force, Troy Meink, a proven innovator, needs to rebuild the culture of innovation within the Air and Space Forces.
To facilitate, the Air Force should encourage and promote its innovators, reach out to the proven entrepreneur at NASA, Jared Isaacman, and step up to two critical shortcomings: hypersonic rocket-powered Global Reach aircraft, and a Golden Dome to defend our population, infrastructure, global allies, and space assets with overpowering lethality.
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was the first to demonstrate these technologies. Working with NASA, SDI built and flew the experimental DC-X in the 1990s, the first reusable VTOL rocket.
The DC-X flew within two years of the contract award proving the potential for “aircraft-like” operability, including small ground crews with minimal supporting labor, call-up times of less than four-hours, one-day turnaround with an eight-hour goal and low aircraft-like flight costs.
Many firsts were demonstrated, including a rotation and landing maneuver 26 years before its repetition by Starship.
SDI also demonstrated the core technologies for space-based “Brilliant Pebbles” missile defenses. Initially with many component technologies, then many hypersonic intercepts, and later with Clementine, a joint mission with NASA that repurposed the Pebbles sensor suite to map the surface of the moon. The mission was the first to find ice in the lunar regolith, exceeding all expectations and earning a permanent display at the Smithsonian.
Together, Brilliant Pebbles and its related ground and space demonstrations proved the viability of small, autonomous space systems for both space-based missile defense and exploration.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the Golden Dome and Global Reach aircraft need not be expensive; indeed, they will save money if replacing today’s modern aircraft and ground-based missile defenses.
The key will be a ruthlessly managed demonstration program reporting to the highest level and aggressively leveraging commercial sector technologies to drive costs down — including on-orbit refueling and maneuver, small commercial satellite technologies like Starlink and Kuiper, decades of proven high-speed air and space intercepts by both the U.S. and China, and low-cost reusable rockets for both the Golden Dome and Global Reach aircraft.
If the Air Force chooses to leverage commercial sector technologies, reinvigorate its historical alliance with NASA, accept that failures can facilitate the path to success, promote innovation, and pursue near term Global Reach and Golden Dome solutions, then it can recapture the innovation of its youth.
Conversely, failure to innovate may lead the Air Force and the nation to catastrophic consequences.
Ambassador Henry F. Cooper, President Reagan’s Negotiator for Defense and Space Systems with the Soviet Union and President George H.W. Bush’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) Director. Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Steve Kwast commanded the Air Education and Training Command and led the Air University “Fast Space” study. Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Jess Sponable, while at SDI led the development and flight test for the world’s first reusable VTOL rocket, the experimental DC-X. Read Ambassador Cooper’s Reports here.
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