RE: starship-design: FW: SSRT: Space Access Update no. 77 (fwd)

["L. Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net>]

On Monday, October 20, 1997 8:38 AM, AntonioCTRocha 
[SMTP:arocha@bsb.nutecnet.com.br] wrote:
>
>
> L. Parker wrote:
>
> > Kelly,
> >
> > Unfortunately, it is likely to backfire in his face instead. As the
> > update
> > intimated, it would be just too bad if everyone BUT the U.S. military
> > had
> > cheap, quick access to space. Let's see, some two bit backwater country
> > highjacks a British Airways orbital cargo flight after sneaking a small
> > (10
> > megatons or so) nuclear device aboard. After threatening Washington 
D.C.
> >
> > with total annihilation if we don't pay them 100 billion or so we have
> > to
> > "ask" for help from the British SAS since we declined to invest the
> > money
> > to build our own military surface to orbit strike capability. Gee, how
> > embarrassing...
> >
> > Lee Parker
>
>   Don't worry. There's still the Aurora. Or isn't there?
>
> A C Rocha

Aurora is neither quick turnaround nor cheap. Besides, I don't think it has 
any strike capability. The Black Horse concept for the USAF envisioned a 
modular component system that could carry everything from sensors to 
weapons, and with a turnaround time of only a few hours at almost any Air 
Force Base, it could be re-equipped for different missions within a very 
short time.

Possible Scenario:

Human intelligence resources report possibility of a third world country 
launching a nuclear weapon on an ICBM that was obtained surplus from China. 
Source provides approximate location of launch site, but no more. A Black 
Horse TAV flies out of Homestead equipped with a sensor package while a 
strike package is delivered to a Royal Australian Air Force Base near 
Sydney.

The TAV overflight pinpoints the location of the warhead and downlinks the 
data real time to a base in Germany where the missile itself is identified 
and pinpointed. The TAV lands in Australia, is refueled and the sensor 
package is replaced with an MIRV smart bomb that has already been 
programmed with the coordinates of each of the components. Within hours the 
MIRVs are released over the target with three RV's assigned to each target. 

A day or so later a standard reconnaissance satellite overflight confirms 
total annihilation of both targets.

Incidentally, the Black Horse TAV design is one of the entrants in the 
X-prize contest...

Lee Parker