Prompt Global Strike

Sounds all type kinds of nifty cool,but I think most folks in the AF would prefer more raptors, more lightnings, new tankers, and in a decade or so a viable replacement for the venerable B-52 BUFF. IE, multi-engine longe-range high-altitude heavy-payload bomber capable of dropping just about every weapon carried in the AtoG arsenal.

The Conventional tridents seems to be asking for trouble, when missiles pop out of the ocean and shoot straight up, most folks automatically assume its a Sublaunched ICBM, how are going to let them know that its not? I'd hate to have to fight WWIII over the launch of a conventional missile.

IMHO if we need a seaborn capability to launch these kinds of weapons, perhaps they should consider surface assets such as Ticonderoga class cruisers, DDX, CGX, Sea Shadow, or possibly even (Too good to be true, but I can still dream) the Iowa Class battleships. (I'm a freakin' airman and I still have a softspot for battleships.)

With landbased missiles you alleviate the mistaken identity problem to an extent. You keep the nukes way up north in thier bombproof silos, and station the conventional missiles way down south in above ground structures.

I don't know about the ramjet system thier proposing. It kind of reminds me of the Skybolt system they developed and ditched in the sixties. From what I understand the cruisemissiles have to be launched at high altitude from a carrier aircraft. The B-52 sounds like the best bet. But can the limited numbers of B-52s take the additional workload? The Buffs are already tasked out for nuclear cruise missiles and bombs, conventional cruisemissiles and bombs, ocean patrol packing Harpoon AShMs and seamines, precision long range strikes carrying just about every weapon that has a J in front of its name, and of course the airforce is requesting permission to retire up to half of its current fleet of less then 100 Buffs. All these planes are physically more then fourty years old, all of them have engines made with sixties technology, and all of them are pulling a heck of a lot of missions for OIF, OEF, and O everything else we can think of. Perhaps a complete remanufacture and upgrade program is adviseable? A B-52 I model would be nice to see.

But in spite of all these hopes and dreams, the basic facts continue. The F-22s, F-35s and KC-Someday planes are needed right now, and should be the top priority.

*Sorry about the length of the post, I got off on a brainstorm.

I still expect, in my life time, to see work on some type of stratospheric or outer atmosphere military base. Probably unmaned, maybe manned, that could target and launch any number and types of missles (or Reaganesque laser type weapons).

I'm stretching my imagination just a bit...

But many of our conventional weapons systems and inter atmospheric flight technologies are reaching the point of becoming obsolete.

It does make sense to develop the weapons systems first, test them out by launching with conventional means (ie: bombers, etc), before working on expensive launching platforms designed to remain in an orbit.

We actually have the technolgy to do this... just haven't had the need to developed all the details to make something like this work.

If the space soldiers get to the scene before airplanes, who will take out the anti-aircraft defenses? Coming in from space would make you a very bright infrared target right?

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