Comment by SubjectToChange
2 days ago
The SLS being a government funded competitor to SpaceX has little hope
SLS was never about being the most practical and/or efficient launcher. It is a pork barrel project, but one with an important role. In particular, it is maintaining vital aerospace industrial capacity. If the US wants things like ICBMs then programs like SLS are a necessary evil.
If the US wants ICBMs they'll leverage existing designs. The SLS has nothing to do with them, not in the slightest, aside from the fact that they're all cylindrical in shape.
Not the designs, the people and supply chains that build them…
I can't imagine there's much overlap. The early SLS uses space shuttle solid rocket booster casings (because the people involved are only the dumbest people on the entire planet Earth) which don't have parts commonality with anything else. The later SLS, bleh who cares what they'll do, with any luck cancellation.
Maybe they are also orange?
Oh man, Elon is going to propose a Falcon-9 based ICBM isn't he? Might as well go full Bond villain at this point.
ICBMs have usually been solid fuelled as they can be stored ready to launch.
Typically when you have a situation warranting nukes you won't have time to fuel a falcon 9.
US-based ICBMs, yes. Russia and China have actively fielded liquid-fueled ICBMs.
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There's lots of bad ideas currently becoming government policy, and that's not even a unique flaw of the USA or Trump or Musk.
So, just because idea of using Falcon 9s as a delivery solution for a strategic nuclear deterrent may be as bad as ordering your chief designer to throw a big steel ball at the window of the new model of car you're currently in the middle of announcing even despite the guy's obvious reticence, doesn't mean it won't happen.
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No one is seriously going to propose a liquid fueled rocket for the nuclear deterrence mission. It simply doesn't work.
However, there are potential military applications for a vehicle like Falcon 9. For example, imagine being able to insert a Special Operations team almost anywhere in the world on a few hours notice. In a potential near-peer conflict there will also be a need to quickly launch replacement military satellites to make up attrition losses.